September 9, 2025 • 44 mins
CBS Radio Mystery Theater - Till Death Do Us Join
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/good-old-radio-vintage-old-time-radio-shows--2778176/support.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/good-old-radio-vintage-old-time-radio-shows--2778176/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Come in Welcome. I'm e. G.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Marshall.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Not many people, I suppose, remember the name of the writer,
Joseph Sheridan Lafanou. Yet among fans of the Gothic tale,
he is considered by many as the equal of the
great masters, such as Paul Stevenson and de Mopisson. Judge
for yourself as you listen to perhaps his greatest short story, Grizzly,
(00:50):
ghoulish and inexpressibly haunting.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
The candle is out. Now done for me. Don't leave
her alone in the dark dark I can't budget. They
will break it down. She's not in the bed, hold
(01:16):
the lampire. She's not in the room the window.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Could she have fallen or jumped?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
The shutters are closed, the last still thrown there. Can
you see anything'sharken?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
No hair, bookman.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
The street is empty, the canal as smooth as glass.
She's gone. Rose is gone, as if she'd never returned.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Our mystery drama Till Death Do Us Join was written
especially for the Mystery Theater by Ian Martin and stars
Don Scardi, you Know and ROBERTA.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Maxwell.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
It is sponsored in part by Buick Motor division and
Anheuser Busch Incorporated brewers of Budweiser. I'll be back shortly
with Act one of all the painting he must have
(02:25):
done in his solitary lifetime. There exists today, in remarkable condition,
only one canvas of Godfrey Schalkin's pupil of Gerard Bookman,
who in turn was a pupil of the great Rembrandt.
The picture represents a chamber in some antique religious building.
Its foreground is occupied by a young woman of startling beauty,
(02:49):
her face illuminated by a strange smile, half.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Lovely, half evil.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
In the background is the shadowy form of a man
dressed in the old old Flemish fashion, propped up in
a coffin as though in a bed. A fascinating picture
and a chilly one.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No one who views it can repress a shudder.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Why on the back of the canvas is a legend
written in cramped long hand by the painter, which may
serve to explain why they think me boorish, rude, and
laugh at my slovenly ways and filthy habits, but they
(03:32):
buy my pictures for I am an artist beyond peer.
My whole life I have devoted to trying to forget
what I once was. The only life I have had
is canvas and pigments and a search for escape in
the only fashion I can accomplish it. But once I
(03:55):
was young as other men, with a bright future in
my chosen profession, full of laughter and joy and madly
in love. Oh, there were barriers to overcome, impossible heights
to scale. But with the hope and optimism of youth,
I knew I could win out. How could I know
(04:15):
that a force beyond any human strength would strangle my spirit,
twist and deform my soul, and doom me to a
lifetime of despair.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Road sh we are alone.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Beloved, All the other students are gone, and her bookman
he left the studio for home less than five minutes ago.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
I know, I only wanted to be sure I had
made no mistake.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
How do you know?
Speaker 4 (04:46):
I had Jacob the Groom drive me into Amsterdam today
as a shock for some silks. On the way back,
I had him stop.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
At his favorite beerstove to.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Have a beer and groom the horses whilst I took
a stroll along the canal.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
I was hoping to catch you alone at the studio and.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
My prayers were answered when I saw my uncle climb
into his carriage and drive off.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
My dearest one, If only I could declare my love
for you openly.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Oh, you will be famous very soon, and we are
still young.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
We have time.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
Every moment spend away from you as an eternity.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
It is just as bad for me. But for the
moment we must live with it.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Come.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Let me see what you have been working on, my genius.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
No, no, it is in no shape. I cannot make
it come right, and it is still only a sketch.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
But godfrey, you are wrong.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
The conception is beautiful, and even the free hand outline
tells all the world.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
You are a master, or to become one tells.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
All the world.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Well, perhaps you are right, for you are all my world.
If whatever I do satisfies you, it would be reward enough.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Oh no, we must do better than that, so that
we can have each other.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Finish this one as you have started, and I will
see that Uncle Gerard gets the canvas to the right places.
Once someone buys you, you will become a vogue.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
I know it. I feel it in my in my bones,
in your heart, in my heart.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
What I feel is my love for a man named
Godfrey Sharkan.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Will I ever be rich enough to make you my wife?
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Hold me, Godfrey, hold me very tight, Rose Rose. I
want to believe, help me too.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
In every way I can.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
But what happened?
Speaker 5 (06:45):
I don't know. A sudden chill as if.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
The time I must go, I would do nothing to
set mane a bookman against us.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Why can't I just go to him?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
No, No, I beg you. I know my uncle.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
He would only send you away, and then you would
have lost everything, me his.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Teaching, your future.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Hush, my darling, trust in God and let us hope.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
I love you, I shall always love you. God give
you grace.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
What grace has a God who keeps two lovers apart?
Heaven forgive me.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
I meant it not, but the words had been said
and could not be taken back. I turned to my sketch,
one of the temptations of Saint Anthony by the Devil.
I set to work, and was so busily engaged that
an hour or so must have passed.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
The light was gone.
Speaker 6 (07:43):
As I sat back, I heard a sort of sniff
behind me.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
A few feet behind me stood the figure of.
Speaker 6 (07:51):
An elderly man in a cloak and a broad brimmed
conical hat. The room was so dark by now that
the shadow from his head obscured his features in.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
But I was impressed.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
Ah did the perfect stonelike stillness of the figure. I'm
sorry I didn't hear you come in.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
This is the studio of Gerard Bookman.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
It is Will you sit mineir?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
No, I wish to talk to him.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
He has returned to his home some hours past, if
you would wish to seek him there, Oh, will you.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
See him before tomorrow evening?
Speaker 6 (08:34):
Oh, yes, sir, I am one of his pupils, and
he will be here by late morning to commence his classes.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Are you to be trusted with a message? I hope
so fail to deliver it at your peril, tell Gerard
Bookman that Minair van Thehausen of Rotterdam wishes to speak
to him here tomorrow evening at exactly seventh. In this
(09:02):
room are matters of wait.
Speaker 6 (09:10):
He turned abruptly, and with a quick but utterly silent step,
quit the room. Some strange premonition drew me to the window,
through which I could see the exit door to the
street bordering the canal.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I waited in vain for him to appear.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
The darkness was now gathering in earnest. Leaving the studio
and locking the door, I half expected to find him
lurking in the halls below, but he had vanished as
mysteriously and completely as he had first appeared. Nor was
the mysterious stranger further identified when I reported him to
mine air bookman the following.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Noon, un thousand undahusen no means name, means nothing to
me from rosend'muse, he said, yes, I ah, I shall
wait for the upon and in the meanwhile to work.
I have looked at your sketches on the Temptation of
(10:07):
Saint Anthony, Lie Garris girl. The colorations are acceptable, well
done and conceived, but the expressions it's as if Saint
Anthony were the devil, and the devil the saints.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
What is your conception? Why your honor? I cannot answer.
I do not know.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Well.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
The other pupils are arriving, and let's see if your
conception can improve during class studies.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
So, my poor Sharkin, the others are all gone.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And I had little time for you today.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Ah, I went to canvas.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I don't know, Master. I found it hard to concentrate.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
So did I.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Let's forget pigment, then brushes a while and join me
in a glass of brandy. It's been a long, hard day,
and I have.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Some strange premonition.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
This visitor you tell me to expect, bears some ill
tidings at all events. Let's fortify ourselves against ill cants.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Your health, your health.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
At seven, you said, he said.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Bond the housand never heard of the man? What can
he want of me?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
A portrait, a poor.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Relation to be apprenticed, a collection.
Speaker 6 (11:40):
To be evaluated. Well, you should soon learn. The stadthouse
is sounding the hour I should leave.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Now stay with me, Godfrey.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
You are young and strong, and for some reason I
have a foreboding about this mysterious appointment. Well, the clock
has ceased. I shall not wait too long, for.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
He seems to be here, sir, and go.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Let him in.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
By your leave, Young sir, you are Gerard Bookman.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I am.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I have the honor to address Minny A. Vanderhausen of
Rotterdam the same. I understand your worship wish to meet.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
With me, and I am here. As you see by
your appointment, it is well? Is that a man of
trust is my prized pupil? Of course?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yes, well then let him take the spox of letter
and get the nearest jeweler.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Or goldsmith to value his contents.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Why that, I will explain to you alone. But I
wish him to return with a certificate of the value
of the contents. That is a strange request. Men, here,
may I ask the reason?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
When we are alone and I.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Think Jan Spryton in the next street will still be open, Godfrey,
will you gratify the gentleman's wish?
Speaker 6 (13:19):
Your wish, sir, I will take as little time as
I can. I had in my hands a small leather
case about nine inches square, surprisingly heavy for its size.
I was less curious about its contents than the conversation
I was about to miss. If I could even have
dreamed of its subject and the consequences, but how could I.
(13:41):
Instead of clairvoyance, I reacted normally to my master's orders
and sought the information I had been asked to get.
Who is it, Godfrey Shalkon, pupil of Master's your ard bookman.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Were it not for you, my Master's good officers, and
the designs he presents me with, neither Garden nor the
Devil would persuade me to open up at this late hour.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
Well, what is it, Johnson, My master bid me bring
the contents of this leather case to you for evaluation.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
That scuffed and crumbling jewel box what nonsense? Oh my,
it's antiquity. It's curious and challenging. Come in, Come in
by all means.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Who will makes enemies of my old bones? What is
the urgency that prompts this haste?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I know not, myn air spidan.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Well then let me see. Give me the case, good lord,
what is it? Moment my loop and my scale, so
I can examine and wag gold ingots if they's they're true.
(15:05):
This is a king's ransome young man. If Godfrey Schalcon
had only known or guessed, he might have been tempted
to seize the fortune in gold ingots and bury it
in Amsterdam's deepest canal. For the contents of that scuffed,
(15:26):
scraped case, soiled with age, were to turn his life
about and transform him from a young, carefree man to
the bitter, hating wretch who painted with the flare.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Of the gods. I'll be back shortly with that too.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
And while Godfrey Schalkin was learning from the goldsmith the
incredible value of the contents of the leather case. A
conversation was taking place between the mysterious stranger and his master,
A conversation concerned with the girl he loved, Rose Welder
(16:10):
Crust Bookman's niece, A conversation that established those golden ingots
not as a king's ransom, but a queen's heir.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Bookman.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I will be free with you. I cannot buy limitations.
I dare not discuss terry with you long. Surely I
can offer you a drink, No, some refreshment, food, no,
will at least let me raise the lights.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Oh ti, that's true. Your out a garment? Oh, I
can feed the fire, more logs to warm.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
I have no need of your offers, your desire of them.
I come to make you an offer.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Will you come to the fire and sit?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I prefer to stand where I am. The shado suit me. Well,
I don't understand. Time ago, I saw you in the
Church of Saint Lawrence in Rotterdam, with you as a
young girl of exceptional beauty, whom I later ascertained was
your niece. I desire to marry her without meeting her,
(17:22):
conversing with her, just from one glimpse. That was enough
to convince me she was the woman I desire to
share my future with. But Rose, I can satisfy you
that I am wealthier than any husband. You can have
a dream for her. I expect that you, her buckman,
(17:42):
will forward my suit with your authority, and I must
add that if you are to approve my proposal, it
must be here and now, where I can brook no delays.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
You're extremely arbortrary. Me here constrained to be, I often
of apology. I did not ask for one.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
You might reasonably have my circumstances as such that I
have none to offer. You must be aware that my
niece has a will of her own and may not
acquiesce in what we may design for her advantage. The
young man I sent out with a packet will return shortly.
(18:25):
That will prove the evidence of my wealth and security
for your niece's life. I promise you it will be
ten times the fortune she could expect, all of it
in the interest that a cruise shall be hers as
long as she lives.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Can I be more liberal?
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, if what you tell me is true, of course,
not as to my respectability. You must take that for granted,
at least for the presser. I buy my name and
reputation with what you're about to discover about me my wealth.
You must give me a moment to think.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I remind you again, my time is limited.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I will not pledge myself unnecessarily.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
But you will if it is necessary.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And I consider it so.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
A testy old gentleman returned to have his own way. Eh,
Why those are the very words that you were thinking.
I know you also thought to yourself, all things considered,
I'm not justified in declining the offer if the gold
involved is satisfactory.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Am I correct? You read my mind correctly.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Please forgive the intrusion and my abruptness. But we are
both men of sense as well as sensibility. Your niece
is penniless. I should make her as rich or richer.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Than a queen.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
When your young man returns with evaluation. If you don't
wish the proposal withdrawn, you must.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Immediately sign this engagement and.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
Master, I have brought my near Spidan's valuation of the
contents of the case.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Give them to many A Vanderhausen, Hello, Hello, give them
to many a bookman.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yes, sir, here they are master called ingots.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
The value I.
Speaker 6 (20:39):
Can't believe it, neither could Yon Spiden or myself. I
fled back through the streets, searching every shadow. I have
never seen so much wealth ten thousand guilders a token.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Only my wealth is limitless. Will you sign the contract now?
A moment as tired and the light as dim, this
youth must witness the contract.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Let him read it to you. Will you gotry? Yes? Master?
Speaker 6 (21:13):
This document represents an irrevocable agreement by Gerard Bookman, as
guardian at law, to give Wilkin Vanderhausen the hand of
his niece Rosevelderhoust go On boy go on of his
niece Roseveldercoust, in marriage within one week of the date
of this document. In exchange for this covenant, the said
(21:36):
Wilkin Vanderhausen agrees to provide as a marriage settlement a
package of gold ingots.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Now you'll think it's necessary to read the rest, It's
only the jargon of advocates the near Bookman. I have
not tried in any way to stint in my offer. Now,
are you, for your niece's sake as well as for
your own content that I would dearly like perhaps another
(22:03):
day to consider, not one hour? Very well, I am content.
I can scarcely deny my niece of good fortune?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Hey, Godfrey, how.
Speaker 6 (22:17):
Can I presume to offer an opinion except that Rose?
I mean you're fraud velderkaus Should she not be consulted?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
A young girl is not the best judge of her future.
Rose is my responsibility.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Lovely as she is?
Speaker 1 (22:35):
When could she have such a chance again? In the
Evander Hausen ad content it is a bargain inside at once,
I implore you, for I am weary, very well.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Now the witness.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
I can't. I won't us this, Godfrey.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I've taken you into my studio, supported you, taught you,
reared you. How can you refuse me one simple request?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
In return?
Speaker 3 (23:10):
I can't?
Speaker 1 (23:11):
For surely Rose, it's only one answer many a bookman,
That young man is taken with your nieces. I am
very well. Now would you choose between us? Must we
find another witness? How do I take my document and vanish.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
From your life?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Godfrey?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
How can you think of Rose?
Speaker 3 (23:31):
You a painter and artist?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
You have your own dedication in a field which may
leave you penniless for the rest of your life. If
you do truly love Rose, how can you deny her
this opportunity?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I love her more than life itself? I want only
her happiness.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Then sign.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Mass there is Rose herself.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Rose is not yet ready to know her own mind.
I am a her guardian. It's my duty to secure
a future. If you love my niece, you'll realize it's
in her own best interests.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Because I love her. Then I signed.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
It is well, I will take the contract. You keep
the gold.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I shall visit you at your house tomorrow night at
nine o'clock. My good many a bookman to meet formerly
with the object of the contracts.
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Again stiffly, but with the same rapid movement, the shadowed
figure was gone so swiftly I had no time to
open the door for him. Again, the same unnamed fear
drove me to the window to watch for his exit
down below, And again his movement must have been so
rapid that I failed to see him leave and enter
the street.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Godfrey, Yes, master, I'm sorry. I didn't know that you
formed an attachment to my niece. I have no right to,
and I'm glad you're sensible of that. A painter, it's
an uneasy life of sacrifice and most of.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
The time poverty. So I shall hold my peace till
the appointment a week from now, and.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
You will join us at dinner, must I It will
be better for all of us to face and accept
the future.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
It's striking nine. Rose, is all arranged as you see. Uncle,
You're a perfect hostess.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
The fire shines like burnished gold in the table is
set immaculately God Fraim glass of wine.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
No, thank you, Master, bookman.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
You seem nervous. I am. I hope you are not
going to lose control of your feelings.
Speaker 6 (26:18):
It isn't that, Master, Then what I can't quite explain it?
A strange foreboding hmm, you feel it too?
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Does Rose know what the occasion is? No, and it
is not too late.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I have signed the contract. My word alone is its bond.
But the paper is the final arbiter. Then there is
no escape, escape from what a marriage settlement beyond my
wildest dreams for my brother's daughter. I commend you to
control your foolish dreams. I've done what must be done.
(27:05):
Our guest is here, Rose, Yes, Uncle, come stand by
me to greet our visitor.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Yes, Uncle.
Speaker 6 (27:17):
This time the room was brightly lighted. This time the
mineer had to shed his outer garments. This time we
could see his features for the first time. His undersuit
was a rich sable garment, his stockings of dark purple,
his feet enclosed in shoes adorned with roses of the
same color. His hands were enclosed in gauntlets, his hair
(27:39):
long enough.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
To rest on a platted rough.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
So far all was well, but the face was a
bluish leaden hue such as metallic medicine sometimes produce the
eyes muddy white and startlingly prominent, with the glaze of insanity,
and the lips deep purple, almost black, twisted in essensual, malignant,
(28:05):
almost satanic fashion, such as my unwilling fingers had wanted
to trace on the face of my Saint Anthony. The
effect was so startling that for a long moment no
one could speak. It was as though some devilish humor
had dressed a corpse from the grave and invigorated it
far enough to walk and talk and enter.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
A room with a living.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
One must admit, of course, that Chacon could scarcely see
his rival, or, to be more truthful, the man who
had stolen his beloved from him. In the best light,
the painter's eye tends to exaggerate, or at least translate
the human figure into his own design, and jealousy is
a poor measure for judgment. When we return shortly with
(28:53):
Act three, we will be able to make our own
assessment of this strange and devious story. And the stranger
spoke little during the half hour or so he stayed,
(29:15):
nor could his host manage many more words. Such, indeed,
was the nervous terror that Vandrusen inspired. That was an
effort not to fly in panic from the room. Something
indescribably odd was about him, his movements as if directed
by a spirit unused to managing the machinery of the body.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
And two things were remarked by all, the fact.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
That his eyelids never closed, and that his chest was motionless,
unstirred by the process of respiration. It was with a
feeling of infinite relief for all when the door finally
closed behind him.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
God, are you all right, Rose?
Speaker 4 (30:02):
No, I feel as chilled as someone with fever, My dear,
don't exaggerate, I don't.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
He's a frightful man. I wouldn't see him ever again
for all the wealth in the world.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Don't be a foolish girl.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
A man may be as ugly as the devil, but
if his heart is good and his actions matchit.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
He's worth more than some.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Handsome puppy with neither brains nor prospect.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
I don't want to talk about him anymore, but we must.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
The man is wealthy, liberal, and with all good hearted
he has sued for you as his bride. His bride,
it is my duty to see you well, bestowed. I
promised your father on his death bed that I would
make sure of that uncle.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Not that man enough, but to night him.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
There are no decisions to make beyond the fact that
it is time to retire.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Godfrey. I feel see you in the morning.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Yes, Master, good night you, Frau voldecaste.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
No need to be so formal, Rose, and good night Godfrey.
Don't look so troubled. Nothing has changed.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I walk home will be lighted by that knowledge. Good Night, Master, Bookman,
good night, my boy. And remember you are an apprentice painter.
That is your first and most important loyalty. I am
acutely aware of where I stand here, Bookman.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Good night.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
Why were you so severe with him?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Uncle? Because we live in a world of reality.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
What do you mean.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
You realize that Mineer Vanderhausen, who visited us tonight, has
guaranteed you ten thousand guilders of your own, as an
earnest of his love and admiration for you, I have
the mere ten thousand guilders. It's his way of saying
how much he loves you. Love, for all its charms
(32:05):
is not the most important thing in the world. You
will marry him in a Vanderhausen according to the contract.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
The mood of hope that my beloved had kindled in
me barely lasted till my return home to the bare
and cheerless garret I lived in. Even if in my
sleepless bed tossed night I might have held to some
grain of hope, the next day would have dispelled them forever.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Had I been at the bookman house, a never plainsman's wagon,
what can it be? Now?
Speaker 5 (32:37):
I can't wait to see? Oh uncle, did you ever
see such riches?
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Never?
Speaker 5 (32:43):
What is this scarlet domino? How could he not be
just the right length?
Speaker 4 (32:47):
Feel the richness of the velvet and trimmed in white
ermine even to the hood.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Love to paint you in that the hood framing your facy.
You're all beauty.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
One would not be in such a cloak. If only
Manea vanderhaus.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Leave his appearance alone, You will soon accustom yourself to it.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
Slippers and every color, A casket of jewels fit for
an empress.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
This white, pure silk for my wedding gown, and the
lace for my veil and train. Oh, Uncle, was any
man ever so generous.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Only the beginning, Rose, whatever doubts I might have had,
I think I've chosen your future.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
Well, and I too, dear Uncle, I will put Godfrey
from my mind. In fact, he is already fading. Look
at this necklace, this emerald pin.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
Thanks to you, dear uncle, I may be the luckiest
girl in the world.
Speaker 6 (33:53):
And so one week later I had to swallow my
pride and watch my repulsive rival carry off my beloved
Rose in solemn pomp in a carriage in four out
of my.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Life to rout her down. But I was mistaken. Rose Velderkost,
now Rose Vanderhausen was not out of my life yet.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
And I brought you home, my boy, to sup with me,
because I'm worried and I've no one.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Else to turn to.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
You may always count on me, master in all.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Things I know, in particular this one, contrary to all
promises freely exchanged. It's four months since I have heard
of my niece, not one word. I'm too old to travel.
Will you then be my emissary and take this letter
(34:51):
to the Bonky to inquire.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
After my niece.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
If you desire me to I do.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
You shall stay the night right and take the coach
for Rotterdam on the morning. I will issue you such
funds as you need, and I pray you return post
haste with what word.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Of comfort you can bring me. I will waste no time,
I promise you.
Speaker 6 (35:21):
I left not a house in the boon quay, untried Maaster,
but no one had ever heard of my near Vanderhausen.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Who, then, where is my niece?
Speaker 6 (35:28):
I cannot tell one thing I did. When I returned
to Amsterdam. I went to the establishment from which the
coach in four was hired to take Rose in her
bridegroom to Rotterdam. It's clever of you, and yes, the
driver reported that late in the evening, before they entered
the city, a small party of men dressed in the
old fashioned with peaked beards and pointed mustaches, standing in
(35:50):
the center of the road stop. The coach highway robbers,
apparently not my near Vanderhausen, seemed to have expected them,
and he handed Rose down from the carriage and into
an ornate, hand carved but ancient litter, which the men
lifted and bore off into the night.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
The driver making no attempt to stop them.
Speaker 6 (36:10):
No, since there was thread of force, always as if
it had been arranged. Except except what, Except that Rose
was weeping bitterly.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Dear Lord, what have I done?
Speaker 3 (36:28):
What can I do to reach or I help her?
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Jacob has already retired.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
See who that is? Boy?
Speaker 7 (36:35):
At once?
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Mastered, Rose, Dearest Rose, what is it?
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Wine?
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Wine quickly, or I am ross Master.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
She is distraught, Rose, my dearest, here here drinking no food?
Speaker 5 (36:50):
Please God at once, or I perish.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I'll cut some meat, give it all to me.
Speaker 5 (36:55):
Send for a priest with all haste, or in spite
of all I am not saying. Until he comes. Send
for him speedley, or I am lost forever.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
The dead and the living can never be won.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
God has forbid it.
Speaker 6 (37:12):
Up the stairs quickly, Father, She is in terrible straight
forget me.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
No, No, he's here, Godfrey.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Try your sword.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Where right where there in.
Speaker 8 (37:25):
The ado with you and the priest stand aside. Father,
hold the lamp high. Let me see in the shadows.
You do not leave my dead soul ready to bring
you the priest.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
You don't be afraid, followed outside myself and God, prayer
and af you stepped from your beds Oh, God.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Help me whom I have no right to ask.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
The candle is out.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
It is too late.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
He has come from me. I won't leave her alone
in there. Out the door. I can't bunch it. He'll
break it down. She's not in the bed. Hold the lampire.
She's not in the room.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
The window you're jumped or fallen.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
They're shut fast. The latch is still thrown right there.
Can you see anything? The street is empty, the canal
as smooth as glass. She's gone. Rose is gone, as
if she'd never returned.
Speaker 6 (38:29):
The days that followed her shady and insubstantial in my mind,
half crazed with grief and that hair bookman's remorseful request.
I returned to Rotterdam, to the chapel of Saint Anthony,
where Vanderhausen had first seen Rose. It was after evening
(38:52):
vespers and I was travel worn and so weary. When
the worshippers left, I remained alone in the church, and
I must have fallen asleep. I was awakened by a
soft touch on my shoulder, and awakened to see Rose.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Rose.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
I want you to forget me God free, and know
that I am from the tent and free from sin at.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Last, Come with me.
Speaker 6 (39:32):
She led me by the hand, a lamp in her hand,
down a flight of steps into the vaults below. The
music faded, and there was only the sound of our
footsteps echoing on the stone.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Where are you taking me away? I have found read?
Speaker 6 (40:05):
The room was a bedroom, richly furnished, its main feature
a great four poster bed, the curtains drawn.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
She crossed to them, smiling and said, you see we.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
Are uniting the laws.
Speaker 5 (40:23):
My husband and ass.
Speaker 6 (40:27):
Sitting bolt upright on the bed, held in its position
by the pillows, was my near Vandrhausen.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
The costume.
Speaker 6 (40:34):
I recognized the face, what was left of it was
still livid as I had first seen it, but by
now the bones showed through the decayed flesh. The hands
were little more than the claws of a skeleton.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Exhausted.
Speaker 6 (40:51):
As I was overcome by emotion, the room suddenly swayed
and I lost consciousness.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
I was found the following morning by the sexton.
Speaker 6 (41:10):
The room in which I lay was the same except
that all the furnishings were gone save one. In the
place of the foreboaster bed was nothing but a large
and ornate coffin.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
I rubbed the dust.
Speaker 6 (41:28):
From the nameplate, which read my near Winkle Vanderhausen sixteen o.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Six to sixteen sixty nine.
Speaker 6 (41:43):
The man had been dead long before rose Velderkowst or
myself were born. Her uncle, and I allowed her to
marry herself to a corpse.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
A sad and terrifying story, not calculated to make sleep
any easier tonight, and yet a fascinating and absorbing one,
as all of us are drawn irresistibly to the macabre. Besides,
of course, it wasn't true, or was it to Godfrey
(42:29):
Schalkin's dying day.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
It was for him, So who is to say that
it couldn't have happened? Not I, As I said in
the beginning, you make your own judgment. I'll be back shortly.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
And Schalcon became a kind of living corpse who lived
only through his paintings. But in spite of his success,
he was recklose enough to insist on mixing his own pigments,
(43:07):
which alas were not stable enough to stand the ware
of time. So only the one canvas I mentioned remains.
They say because he used his own blood to dilute
the pigments.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
I don't know. There's no proof. It's just a part
of the legend.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Our cast included Don Scardino, ROBERTA. Maxwell, Guy Sorell, and
Arnold Moss. The entire production was under the direction of
Hyman Brown.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
And now a preview of our next tale, Horbless.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
How you can get around when you've got no body,
isn't it?
Speaker 3 (43:47):
Seeing little white dog, curly tailor, silly little thing And
see that big blue station wagon. It's going to hit him. No,
I've got him, Cynthia, I've saved him.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
You'll probably get run over anyhow one of these days.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
No he won't, No, he won't. I'm going to keep
my eye on him. What about all the others?
Speaker 7 (44:12):
Them too, and cats and people and everybody? Oh, Cynthia,
Why did it take me so long to find out
what I was born to do?
Speaker 3 (44:22):
I could have spent my whole life doing this, Cynthia.
Speaker 7 (44:27):
My afterlife is going to be one hundred times more
exciting than my life ever was.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Radio Mystery Theater was sponsored in part by Anheuser Busch Incorporated.
Brewers of Budweiser and Buick Motor Division. This is EG
Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery Theater for
another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, pleasants dreams,
The CBS Radio Mystery Theater presents.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Come in Welcome. I'm e. G.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Marshall.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Not many people, I suppose, remember the name of the writer,
Joseph Sheridan Lafanou. Yet among fans of the Gothic tale,
he is considered by many as the equal of the
great masters, such as Paul Stevenson and de Mopisson. Judge
for yourself as you listen to perhaps his greatest short story, Grizzly,
(00:50):
ghoulish and inexpressibly haunting.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
The candle is out. Now done for me. Don't leave
her alone in the dark dark I can't budget. They
will break it down. She's not in the bed, hold
(01:16):
the lampire. She's not in the room the window.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Could she have fallen or jumped?
Speaker 3 (01:22):
The shutters are closed, the last still thrown there. Can
you see anything'sharken?
Speaker 2 (01:30):
No hair, bookman.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
The street is empty, the canal as smooth as glass.
She's gone. Rose is gone, as if she'd never returned.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Our mystery drama Till Death Do Us Join was written
especially for the Mystery Theater by Ian Martin and stars
Don Scardi, you Know and ROBERTA.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Maxwell.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
It is sponsored in part by Buick Motor division and
Anheuser Busch Incorporated brewers of Budweiser. I'll be back shortly
with Act one of all the painting he must have
(02:25):
done in his solitary lifetime. There exists today, in remarkable condition,
only one canvas of Godfrey Schalkin's pupil of Gerard Bookman,
who in turn was a pupil of the great Rembrandt.
The picture represents a chamber in some antique religious building.
Its foreground is occupied by a young woman of startling beauty,
(02:49):
her face illuminated by a strange smile, half.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Lovely, half evil.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
In the background is the shadowy form of a man
dressed in the old old Flemish fashion, propped up in
a coffin as though in a bed. A fascinating picture
and a chilly one.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
No one who views it can repress a shudder.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Why on the back of the canvas is a legend
written in cramped long hand by the painter, which may
serve to explain why they think me boorish, rude, and
laugh at my slovenly ways and filthy habits, but they
(03:32):
buy my pictures for I am an artist beyond peer.
My whole life I have devoted to trying to forget
what I once was. The only life I have had
is canvas and pigments and a search for escape in
the only fashion I can accomplish it. But once I
(03:55):
was young as other men, with a bright future in
my chosen profession, full of laughter and joy and madly
in love. Oh, there were barriers to overcome, impossible heights
to scale. But with the hope and optimism of youth,
I knew I could win out. How could I know
(04:15):
that a force beyond any human strength would strangle my spirit,
twist and deform my soul, and doom me to a
lifetime of despair.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Road sh we are alone.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Beloved, All the other students are gone, and her bookman
he left the studio for home less than five minutes ago.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
I know, I only wanted to be sure I had
made no mistake.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
How do you know?
Speaker 4 (04:46):
I had Jacob the Groom drive me into Amsterdam today
as a shock for some silks. On the way back,
I had him stop.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
At his favorite beerstove to.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
Have a beer and groom the horses whilst I took
a stroll along the canal.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
I was hoping to catch you alone at the studio and.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
My prayers were answered when I saw my uncle climb
into his carriage and drive off.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
My dearest one, If only I could declare my love
for you openly.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Oh, you will be famous very soon, and we are
still young.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
We have time.
Speaker 6 (05:19):
Every moment spend away from you as an eternity.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
It is just as bad for me. But for the
moment we must live with it.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Come.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
Let me see what you have been working on, my genius.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
No, no, it is in no shape. I cannot make
it come right, and it is still only a sketch.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
But godfrey, you are wrong.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
The conception is beautiful, and even the free hand outline
tells all the world.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
You are a master, or to become one tells.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
All the world.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Well, perhaps you are right, for you are all my world.
If whatever I do satisfies you, it would be reward enough.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Oh no, we must do better than that, so that
we can have each other.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Finish this one as you have started, and I will
see that Uncle Gerard gets the canvas to the right places.
Once someone buys you, you will become a vogue.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
I know it. I feel it in my in my bones,
in your heart, in my heart.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
What I feel is my love for a man named
Godfrey Sharkan.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Will I ever be rich enough to make you my wife?
Speaker 5 (06:30):
Hold me, Godfrey, hold me very tight, Rose Rose. I
want to believe, help me too.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
In every way I can.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
Oh.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
But what happened?
Speaker 5 (06:45):
I don't know. A sudden chill as if.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
The time I must go, I would do nothing to
set mane a bookman against us.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
Why can't I just go to him?
Speaker 5 (06:57):
No, No, I beg you. I know my uncle.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
He would only send you away, and then you would
have lost everything, me his.
Speaker 5 (07:05):
Teaching, your future.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Hush, my darling, trust in God and let us hope.
Speaker 5 (07:14):
I love you, I shall always love you. God give
you grace.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
What grace has a God who keeps two lovers apart?
Heaven forgive me.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
I meant it not, but the words had been said
and could not be taken back. I turned to my sketch,
one of the temptations of Saint Anthony by the Devil.
I set to work, and was so busily engaged that
an hour or so must have passed.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
The light was gone.
Speaker 6 (07:43):
As I sat back, I heard a sort of sniff
behind me.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
A few feet behind me stood the figure of.
Speaker 6 (07:51):
An elderly man in a cloak and a broad brimmed
conical hat. The room was so dark by now that
the shadow from his head obscured his features in.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
But I was impressed.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
Ah did the perfect stonelike stillness of the figure. I'm
sorry I didn't hear you come in.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
This is the studio of Gerard Bookman.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
It is Will you sit mineir?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
No, I wish to talk to him.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
He has returned to his home some hours past, if
you would wish to seek him there, Oh, will you.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
See him before tomorrow evening?
Speaker 6 (08:34):
Oh, yes, sir, I am one of his pupils, and
he will be here by late morning to commence his classes.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Are you to be trusted with a message? I hope
so fail to deliver it at your peril, tell Gerard
Bookman that Minair van Thehausen of Rotterdam wishes to speak
to him here tomorrow evening at exactly seventh. In this
(09:02):
room are matters of wait.
Speaker 6 (09:10):
He turned abruptly, and with a quick but utterly silent step,
quit the room. Some strange premonition drew me to the window,
through which I could see the exit door to the
street bordering the canal.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I waited in vain for him to appear.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
The darkness was now gathering in earnest. Leaving the studio
and locking the door, I half expected to find him
lurking in the halls below, but he had vanished as
mysteriously and completely as he had first appeared. Nor was
the mysterious stranger further identified when I reported him to
mine air bookman the following.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Noon, un thousand undahusen no means name, means nothing to
me from rosend'muse, he said, yes, I ah, I shall
wait for the upon and in the meanwhile to work.
I have looked at your sketches on the Temptation of
(10:07):
Saint Anthony, Lie Garris girl. The colorations are acceptable, well
done and conceived, but the expressions it's as if Saint
Anthony were the devil, and the devil the saints.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
What is your conception? Why your honor? I cannot answer.
I do not know.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Well.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
The other pupils are arriving, and let's see if your
conception can improve during class studies.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
So, my poor Sharkin, the others are all gone.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
And I had little time for you today.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Ah, I went to canvas.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I don't know, Master. I found it hard to concentrate.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
So did I.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Let's forget pigment, then brushes a while and join me
in a glass of brandy. It's been a long, hard day,
and I have.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Some strange premonition.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
This visitor you tell me to expect, bears some ill
tidings at all events. Let's fortify ourselves against ill cants.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Your health, your health.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
At seven, you said, he said.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Bond the housand never heard of the man? What can
he want of me?
Speaker 2 (11:35):
A portrait, a poor.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Relation to be apprenticed, a collection.
Speaker 6 (11:40):
To be evaluated. Well, you should soon learn. The stadthouse
is sounding the hour I should leave.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Now stay with me, Godfrey.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
You are young and strong, and for some reason I
have a foreboding about this mysterious appointment. Well, the clock
has ceased. I shall not wait too long, for.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
He seems to be here, sir, and go.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Let him in.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
By your leave, Young sir, you are Gerard Bookman.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I am.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I have the honor to address Minny A. Vanderhausen of
Rotterdam the same. I understand your worship wish to meet.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
With me, and I am here. As you see by
your appointment, it is well? Is that a man of
trust is my prized pupil? Of course?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yes, well then let him take the spox of letter
and get the nearest jeweler.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Or goldsmith to value his contents.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Why that, I will explain to you alone. But I
wish him to return with a certificate of the value
of the contents. That is a strange request. Men, here,
may I ask the reason?
Speaker 2 (13:07):
When we are alone and I.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Think Jan Spryton in the next street will still be open, Godfrey,
will you gratify the gentleman's wish?
Speaker 6 (13:19):
Your wish, sir, I will take as little time as
I can. I had in my hands a small leather
case about nine inches square, surprisingly heavy for its size.
I was less curious about its contents than the conversation
I was about to miss. If I could even have
dreamed of its subject and the consequences, but how could I.
(13:41):
Instead of clairvoyance, I reacted normally to my master's orders
and sought the information I had been asked to get.
Who is it, Godfrey Shalkon, pupil of Master's your ard bookman.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Were it not for you, my Master's good officers, and
the designs he presents me with, neither Garden nor the
Devil would persuade me to open up at this late hour.
Speaker 6 (14:08):
Well, what is it, Johnson, My master bid me bring
the contents of this leather case to you for evaluation.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
That scuffed and crumbling jewel box what nonsense? Oh my,
it's antiquity. It's curious and challenging. Come in, Come in
by all means.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Who will makes enemies of my old bones? What is
the urgency that prompts this haste?
Speaker 3 (14:41):
I know not, myn air spidan.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Well then let me see. Give me the case, good lord,
what is it? Moment my loop and my scale, so
I can examine and wag gold ingots if they's they're true.
(15:05):
This is a king's ransome young man. If Godfrey Schalcon
had only known or guessed, he might have been tempted
to seize the fortune in gold ingots and bury it
in Amsterdam's deepest canal. For the contents of that scuffed,
(15:26):
scraped case, soiled with age, were to turn his life
about and transform him from a young, carefree man to
the bitter, hating wretch who painted with the flare.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Of the gods. I'll be back shortly with that too.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
And while Godfrey Schalkin was learning from the goldsmith the
incredible value of the contents of the leather case. A
conversation was taking place between the mysterious stranger and his master,
A conversation concerned with the girl he loved, Rose Welder
(16:10):
Crust Bookman's niece, A conversation that established those golden ingots
not as a king's ransom, but a queen's heir.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Bookman.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I will be free with you. I cannot buy limitations.
I dare not discuss terry with you long. Surely I
can offer you a drink, No, some refreshment, food, no,
will at least let me raise the lights.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Oh ti, that's true. Your out a garment? Oh, I
can feed the fire, more logs to warm.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
I have no need of your offers, your desire of them.
I come to make you an offer.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Will you come to the fire and sit?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
I prefer to stand where I am. The shado suit me. Well,
I don't understand. Time ago, I saw you in the
Church of Saint Lawrence in Rotterdam, with you as a
young girl of exceptional beauty, whom I later ascertained was
your niece. I desire to marry her without meeting her,
(17:22):
conversing with her, just from one glimpse. That was enough
to convince me she was the woman I desire to
share my future with. But Rose, I can satisfy you
that I am wealthier than any husband. You can have
a dream for her. I expect that you, her buckman,
(17:42):
will forward my suit with your authority, and I must
add that if you are to approve my proposal, it
must be here and now, where I can brook no delays.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
You're extremely arbortrary. Me here constrained to be, I often
of apology. I did not ask for one.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
You might reasonably have my circumstances as such that I
have none to offer. You must be aware that my
niece has a will of her own and may not
acquiesce in what we may design for her advantage. The
young man I sent out with a packet will return shortly.
(18:25):
That will prove the evidence of my wealth and security
for your niece's life. I promise you it will be
ten times the fortune she could expect, all of it
in the interest that a cruise shall be hers as
long as she lives.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Can I be more liberal?
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, if what you tell me is true, of course,
not as to my respectability. You must take that for granted,
at least for the presser. I buy my name and
reputation with what you're about to discover about me my wealth.
You must give me a moment to think.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I remind you again, my time is limited.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I will not pledge myself unnecessarily.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
But you will if it is necessary.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And I consider it so.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
A testy old gentleman returned to have his own way. Eh,
Why those are the very words that you were thinking.
I know you also thought to yourself, all things considered,
I'm not justified in declining the offer if the gold
involved is satisfactory.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Am I correct? You read my mind correctly.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Please forgive the intrusion and my abruptness. But we are
both men of sense as well as sensibility. Your niece
is penniless. I should make her as rich or richer.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Than a queen.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
When your young man returns with evaluation. If you don't
wish the proposal withdrawn, you must.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Immediately sign this engagement and.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
Master, I have brought my near Spidan's valuation of the
contents of the case.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Give them to many A Vanderhausen, Hello, Hello, give them
to many a bookman.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Yes, sir, here they are master called ingots.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
The value I.
Speaker 6 (20:39):
Can't believe it, neither could Yon Spiden or myself. I
fled back through the streets, searching every shadow. I have
never seen so much wealth ten thousand guilders a token.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
Only my wealth is limitless. Will you sign the contract now?
A moment as tired and the light as dim, this
youth must witness the contract.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Let him read it to you. Will you gotry? Yes? Master?
Speaker 6 (21:13):
This document represents an irrevocable agreement by Gerard Bookman, as
guardian at law, to give Wilkin Vanderhausen the hand of
his niece Rosevelderhoust go On boy go on of his
niece Roseveldercoust, in marriage within one week of the date
of this document. In exchange for this covenant, the said
(21:36):
Wilkin Vanderhausen agrees to provide as a marriage settlement a
package of gold ingots.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Now you'll think it's necessary to read the rest, It's
only the jargon of advocates the near Bookman. I have
not tried in any way to stint in my offer. Now,
are you, for your niece's sake as well as for
your own content that I would dearly like perhaps another
(22:03):
day to consider, not one hour? Very well, I am content.
I can scarcely deny my niece of good fortune?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Hey, Godfrey, how.
Speaker 6 (22:17):
Can I presume to offer an opinion except that Rose?
I mean you're fraud velderkaus Should she not be consulted?
Speaker 1 (22:26):
A young girl is not the best judge of her future.
Rose is my responsibility.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Lovely as she is?
Speaker 1 (22:35):
When could she have such a chance again? In the
Evander Hausen ad content it is a bargain inside at once,
I implore you, for I am weary, very well.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Now the witness.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
I can't. I won't us this, Godfrey.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I've taken you into my studio, supported you, taught you,
reared you. How can you refuse me one simple request?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
In return?
Speaker 3 (23:10):
I can't?
Speaker 1 (23:11):
For surely Rose, it's only one answer many a bookman,
That young man is taken with your nieces. I am
very well. Now would you choose between us? Must we
find another witness? How do I take my document and vanish.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
From your life?
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Godfrey?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
How can you think of Rose?
Speaker 3 (23:31):
You a painter and artist?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
You have your own dedication in a field which may
leave you penniless for the rest of your life. If
you do truly love Rose, how can you deny her
this opportunity?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
I love her more than life itself? I want only
her happiness.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Then sign.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Mass there is Rose herself.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Rose is not yet ready to know her own mind.
I am a her guardian. It's my duty to secure
a future. If you love my niece, you'll realize it's
in her own best interests.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
Because I love her. Then I signed.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
It is well, I will take the contract. You keep
the gold.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
I shall visit you at your house tomorrow night at
nine o'clock. My good many a bookman to meet formerly
with the object of the contracts.
Speaker 6 (24:40):
Again stiffly, but with the same rapid movement, the shadowed
figure was gone so swiftly I had no time to
open the door for him. Again, the same unnamed fear
drove me to the window to watch for his exit
down below, And again his movement must have been so
rapid that I failed to see him leave and enter
the street.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Godfrey, Yes, master, I'm sorry. I didn't know that you
formed an attachment to my niece. I have no right to,
and I'm glad you're sensible of that. A painter, it's
an uneasy life of sacrifice and most of.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
The time poverty. So I shall hold my peace till
the appointment a week from now, and.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
You will join us at dinner, must I It will
be better for all of us to face and accept
the future.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
It's striking nine. Rose, is all arranged as you see. Uncle,
You're a perfect hostess.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
The fire shines like burnished gold in the table is
set immaculately God Fraim glass of wine.
Speaker 3 (26:08):
No, thank you, Master, bookman.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
You seem nervous. I am. I hope you are not
going to lose control of your feelings.
Speaker 6 (26:18):
It isn't that, Master, Then what I can't quite explain it?
A strange foreboding hmm, you feel it too?
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Does Rose know what the occasion is? No, and it
is not too late.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
I have signed the contract. My word alone is its bond.
But the paper is the final arbiter. Then there is
no escape, escape from what a marriage settlement beyond my
wildest dreams for my brother's daughter. I commend you to
control your foolish dreams. I've done what must be done.
(27:05):
Our guest is here, Rose, Yes, Uncle, come stand by
me to greet our visitor.
Speaker 5 (27:12):
Yes, Uncle.
Speaker 6 (27:17):
This time the room was brightly lighted. This time the
mineer had to shed his outer garments. This time we
could see his features for the first time. His undersuit
was a rich sable garment, his stockings of dark purple,
his feet enclosed in shoes adorned with roses of the
same color. His hands were enclosed in gauntlets, his hair
(27:39):
long enough.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
To rest on a platted rough.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
So far all was well, but the face was a
bluish leaden hue such as metallic medicine sometimes produce the
eyes muddy white and startlingly prominent, with the glaze of insanity,
and the lips deep purple, almost black, twisted in essensual, malignant,
(28:05):
almost satanic fashion, such as my unwilling fingers had wanted
to trace on the face of my Saint Anthony. The
effect was so startling that for a long moment no
one could speak. It was as though some devilish humor
had dressed a corpse from the grave and invigorated it
far enough to walk and talk and enter.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
A room with a living.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
One must admit, of course, that Chacon could scarcely see
his rival, or, to be more truthful, the man who
had stolen his beloved from him. In the best light,
the painter's eye tends to exaggerate, or at least translate
the human figure into his own design, and jealousy is
a poor measure for judgment. When we return shortly with
(28:53):
Act three, we will be able to make our own
assessment of this strange and devious story. And the stranger
spoke little during the half hour or so he stayed,
(29:15):
nor could his host manage many more words. Such, indeed,
was the nervous terror that Vandrusen inspired. That was an
effort not to fly in panic from the room. Something
indescribably odd was about him, his movements as if directed
by a spirit unused to managing the machinery of the body.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
And two things were remarked by all, the fact.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
That his eyelids never closed, and that his chest was motionless,
unstirred by the process of respiration. It was with a
feeling of infinite relief for all when the door finally
closed behind him.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
God, are you all right, Rose?
Speaker 4 (30:02):
No, I feel as chilled as someone with fever, My dear,
don't exaggerate, I don't.
Speaker 5 (30:09):
He's a frightful man. I wouldn't see him ever again
for all the wealth in the world.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Don't be a foolish girl.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
A man may be as ugly as the devil, but
if his heart is good and his actions matchit.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
He's worth more than some.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Handsome puppy with neither brains nor prospect.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
I don't want to talk about him anymore, but we must.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
The man is wealthy, liberal, and with all good hearted
he has sued for you as his bride. His bride,
it is my duty to see you well, bestowed. I
promised your father on his death bed that I would
make sure of that uncle.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Not that man enough, but to night him.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
There are no decisions to make beyond the fact that
it is time to retire.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Godfrey. I feel see you in the morning.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Yes, Master, good night you, Frau voldecaste.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
No need to be so formal, Rose, and good night Godfrey.
Don't look so troubled. Nothing has changed.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I walk home will be lighted by that knowledge. Good Night, Master, Bookman,
good night, my boy. And remember you are an apprentice painter.
That is your first and most important loyalty. I am
acutely aware of where I stand here, Bookman.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Good night.
Speaker 5 (31:36):
Why were you so severe with him?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Uncle? Because we live in a world of reality.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
What do you mean.
Speaker 1 (31:44):
You realize that Mineer Vanderhausen, who visited us tonight, has
guaranteed you ten thousand guilders of your own, as an
earnest of his love and admiration for you, I have
the mere ten thousand guilders. It's his way of saying
how much he loves you. Love, for all its charms
(32:05):
is not the most important thing in the world. You
will marry him in a Vanderhausen according to the contract.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
The mood of hope that my beloved had kindled in
me barely lasted till my return home to the bare
and cheerless garret I lived in. Even if in my
sleepless bed tossed night I might have held to some
grain of hope, the next day would have dispelled them forever.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Had I been at the bookman house, a never plainsman's wagon,
what can it be? Now?
Speaker 5 (32:37):
I can't wait to see? Oh uncle, did you ever
see such riches?
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Never?
Speaker 5 (32:43):
What is this scarlet domino? How could he not be
just the right length?
Speaker 4 (32:47):
Feel the richness of the velvet and trimmed in white
ermine even to the hood.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Love to paint you in that the hood framing your facy.
You're all beauty.
Speaker 5 (33:00):
One would not be in such a cloak. If only
Manea vanderhaus.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Leave his appearance alone, You will soon accustom yourself to it.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
Slippers and every color, A casket of jewels fit for
an empress.
Speaker 5 (33:15):
This white, pure silk for my wedding gown, and the
lace for my veil and train. Oh, Uncle, was any
man ever so generous.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Only the beginning, Rose, whatever doubts I might have had,
I think I've chosen your future.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
Well, and I too, dear Uncle, I will put Godfrey
from my mind. In fact, he is already fading. Look
at this necklace, this emerald pin.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
Thanks to you, dear uncle, I may be the luckiest
girl in the world.
Speaker 6 (33:53):
And so one week later I had to swallow my
pride and watch my repulsive rival carry off my beloved
Rose in solemn pomp in a carriage in four out
of my.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
Life to rout her down. But I was mistaken. Rose Velderkost,
now Rose Vanderhausen was not out of my life yet.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
And I brought you home, my boy, to sup with me,
because I'm worried and I've no one.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Else to turn to.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
You may always count on me, master in all.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Things I know, in particular this one, contrary to all
promises freely exchanged. It's four months since I have heard
of my niece, not one word. I'm too old to travel.
Will you then be my emissary and take this letter
(34:51):
to the Bonky to inquire.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
After my niece.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
If you desire me to I do.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
You shall stay the night right and take the coach
for Rotterdam on the morning. I will issue you such
funds as you need, and I pray you return post
haste with what word.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Of comfort you can bring me. I will waste no time,
I promise you.
Speaker 6 (35:21):
I left not a house in the boon quay, untried Maaster,
but no one had ever heard of my near Vanderhausen.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Who, then, where is my niece?
Speaker 6 (35:28):
I cannot tell one thing I did. When I returned
to Amsterdam. I went to the establishment from which the
coach in four was hired to take Rose in her
bridegroom to Rotterdam. It's clever of you, and yes, the
driver reported that late in the evening, before they entered
the city, a small party of men dressed in the
old fashioned with peaked beards and pointed mustaches, standing in
(35:50):
the center of the road stop. The coach highway robbers,
apparently not my near Vanderhausen, seemed to have expected them,
and he handed Rose down from the carriage and into
an ornate, hand carved but ancient litter, which the men
lifted and bore off into the night.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
The driver making no attempt to stop them.
Speaker 6 (36:10):
No, since there was thread of force, always as if
it had been arranged. Except except what, Except that Rose
was weeping bitterly.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Dear Lord, what have I done?
Speaker 3 (36:28):
What can I do to reach or I help her?
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Jacob has already retired.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
See who that is? Boy?
Speaker 7 (36:35):
At once?
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Mastered, Rose, Dearest Rose, what is it?
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Wine?
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Wine quickly, or I am ross Master.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
She is distraught, Rose, my dearest, here here drinking no food?
Speaker 5 (36:50):
Please God at once, or I perish.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I'll cut some meat, give it all to me.
Speaker 5 (36:55):
Send for a priest with all haste, or in spite
of all I am not saying. Until he comes. Send
for him speedley, or I am lost forever.
Speaker 4 (37:04):
The dead and the living can never be won.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
God has forbid it.
Speaker 6 (37:12):
Up the stairs quickly, Father, She is in terrible straight
forget me.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
No, No, he's here, Godfrey.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Try your sword.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
Where right where there in.
Speaker 8 (37:25):
The ado with you and the priest stand aside. Father,
hold the lamp high. Let me see in the shadows.
You do not leave my dead soul ready to bring
you the priest.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
You don't be afraid, followed outside myself and God, prayer
and af you stepped from your beds Oh, God.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Help me whom I have no right to ask.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
The candle is out.
Speaker 4 (37:47):
It is too late.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
He has come from me. I won't leave her alone
in there. Out the door. I can't bunch it. He'll
break it down. She's not in the bed. Hold the lampire.
She's not in the room.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
The window you're jumped or fallen.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
They're shut fast. The latch is still thrown right there.
Can you see anything? The street is empty, the canal
as smooth as glass. She's gone. Rose is gone, as
if she'd never returned.
Speaker 6 (38:29):
The days that followed her shady and insubstantial in my mind,
half crazed with grief and that hair bookman's remorseful request.
I returned to Rotterdam, to the chapel of Saint Anthony,
where Vanderhausen had first seen Rose. It was after evening
(38:52):
vespers and I was travel worn and so weary. When
the worshippers left, I remained alone in the church, and
I must have fallen asleep. I was awakened by a
soft touch on my shoulder, and awakened to see Rose.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
Rose.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
I want you to forget me God free, and know
that I am from the tent and free from sin at.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Last, Come with me.
Speaker 6 (39:32):
She led me by the hand, a lamp in her hand,
down a flight of steps into the vaults below. The
music faded, and there was only the sound of our
footsteps echoing on the stone.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Where are you taking me away? I have found read?
Speaker 6 (40:05):
The room was a bedroom, richly furnished, its main feature
a great four poster bed, the curtains drawn.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
She crossed to them, smiling and said, you see we.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
Are uniting the laws.
Speaker 5 (40:23):
My husband and ass.
Speaker 6 (40:27):
Sitting bolt upright on the bed, held in its position
by the pillows, was my near Vandrhausen.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
The costume.
Speaker 6 (40:34):
I recognized the face, what was left of it was
still livid as I had first seen it, but by
now the bones showed through the decayed flesh. The hands
were little more than the claws of a skeleton.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Exhausted.
Speaker 6 (40:51):
As I was overcome by emotion, the room suddenly swayed
and I lost consciousness.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
I was found the following morning by the sexton.
Speaker 6 (41:10):
The room in which I lay was the same except
that all the furnishings were gone save one. In the
place of the foreboaster bed was nothing but a large
and ornate coffin.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
I rubbed the dust.
Speaker 6 (41:28):
From the nameplate, which read my near Winkle Vanderhausen sixteen o.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Six to sixteen sixty nine.
Speaker 6 (41:43):
The man had been dead long before rose Velderkowst or
myself were born. Her uncle, and I allowed her to
marry herself to a corpse.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
A sad and terrifying story, not calculated to make sleep
any easier tonight, and yet a fascinating and absorbing one,
as all of us are drawn irresistibly to the macabre. Besides,
of course, it wasn't true, or was it to Godfrey
(42:29):
Schalkin's dying day.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
It was for him, So who is to say that
it couldn't have happened? Not I, As I said in
the beginning, you make your own judgment. I'll be back shortly.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
And Schalcon became a kind of living corpse who lived
only through his paintings. But in spite of his success,
he was recklose enough to insist on mixing his own pigments,
(43:07):
which alas were not stable enough to stand the ware
of time. So only the one canvas I mentioned remains.
They say because he used his own blood to dilute
the pigments.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
I don't know. There's no proof. It's just a part
of the legend.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Our cast included Don Scardino, ROBERTA. Maxwell, Guy Sorell, and
Arnold Moss. The entire production was under the direction of
Hyman Brown.
Speaker 2 (43:39):
And now a preview of our next tale, Horbless.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
How you can get around when you've got no body,
isn't it?
Speaker 3 (43:47):
Seeing little white dog, curly tailor, silly little thing And
see that big blue station wagon. It's going to hit him. No,
I've got him, Cynthia, I've saved him.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
You'll probably get run over anyhow one of these days.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
No he won't, No, he won't. I'm going to keep
my eye on him. What about all the others?
Speaker 7 (44:12):
Them too, and cats and people and everybody? Oh, Cynthia,
Why did it take me so long to find out
what I was born to do?
Speaker 3 (44:22):
I could have spent my whole life doing this, Cynthia.
Speaker 7 (44:27):
My afterlife is going to be one hundred times more
exciting than my life ever was.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Radio Mystery Theater was sponsored in part by Anheuser Busch Incorporated.
Brewers of Budweiser and Buick Motor Division. This is EG
Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery Theater for
another adventure in the macabre. Until next time, pleasants dreams,
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.