- 2 weeks ago
Escape is an American radio drama. It was radio's leading anthology series of high-adventure radio dramas, airing on CBS from July 7, 1947 to September 25, 1954.
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00:00Escape. Escape tonight to ancient Egypt.
00:15The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations presents Escape, a new series of programs of which this, the sixth, is The Ring of Thought by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, produced and directed by William N. Robeson.
00:30The Ring of Thought by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
01:00The Ring of Thought. An adventure told in the words of John Van Zittart Smith, British Egyptologist.
01:05The Ring of Thought by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
01:12I arrived in Paris on the 314 Express from Dieppe and went immediately to my hotel in the Rue de Lafitte.
01:24My actions so far had worked out according to my planned schedule.
01:27I slept for exactly two hours, got up and dressed, donned a great coat, walked down the Avenue de l'Opera, and entered a side door of the Louvre.
01:35Once inside, and amid surroundings entirely familiar to me, I made my way immediately to the Chamber of Egyptian Relics, or more specifically, to the cabinet in that chamber which contained the El Carb collection of papyri.
01:47Drawing out the particular roll I wished, I placed it on a nearby table, sat down, began to study it, when I noticed one of the museum attendants who was polishing some brass work across the room.
02:00His face struck me as being curiously Egyptian.
02:04On sudden impulse, I decided to cross the room and speak to him.
02:09Approaching closer, I was impressed at once by the appearance of his skin.
02:14Drawn tautly across temple and cheek, it seemed as glazed and as shiny as varnished parchment.
02:19And out of narrowed slits, there glowed two green and vitreous eyes, misty with a dry shininess.
02:27Eyes of a kind never seen in a human head before.
02:33I beg your pardon.
02:35I need one of the papyri from the Memphis collection.
02:38Could you tell me where it is?
02:40You'll find it in the last cabinet at the end of the room, monsieur.
02:45Hmm, thank you.
02:46Uh, you're Egyptian, aren't you?
02:49No, monsieur.
02:50I, I am a Frenchman.
02:52But, uh, oh, I thought perhaps that...
02:54If monsieur will excuse me now, I have other work to do.
03:03I went back to the table and took up the papyrus I had been studying before.
03:07But my former calmness in translating the intricate hieroglyphics was gone.
03:12And out of the depths of my mind welled a feeling of terrible familiarity.
03:16I concentrated more deeply on my studies, pushing aside those thoughts conducive to mental turmoil and, at last, worn out by the inward struggle, I fell asleep.
03:28I awoke with a start, not remembering where I was.
03:43It was quite dark for a moment.
03:45Then, gradually, my eyes focused on the glints of moonlight reflected from the glass tops of specimen tables, from the shiny varnish of the mummy cases.
03:53And I realized with a feeling of sudden dread that I was alone in the Egyptian room of the museum of the Louvre, locked in for the night.
04:02And I saw, at that moment, approaching through the moonlit halls, a dim yellow flame.
04:17Nearer and nearer it came, until I could perceive above it, as though floating in the air, the eerie, glistening face of the man I had spoken to earlier.
04:25I shrank into the dark shadow of my corner, and he passed without seeing me, stopping before the mummy cases a few yards away.
04:34Scarcely daring to breathe, I watched him place the light on a table and begin feverishly to examine the tags on the specimens.
04:42In a moment he gave up a cry of delight, and, drawing one of the mummies from its resting place, laid it on the table in the full glow of the lantern and set to work.
04:53He was unwinding the wrappings from the head of the corpse.
04:58A few turns revealed a tumbled cascade of black curls.
05:02A few more, the snow-white brow.
05:05Then the delicate nostrils.
05:07And at last, the full, warm, passionate lips.
05:10The face of the most beautiful woman the world has ever seen.
05:14Ah, ma pauvre petite.
05:16So long it has been.
05:18So very long.
05:20You must forgive me, beloved.
05:23I could hardly believe my eyes.
05:25The man was obviously in love with this mummy.
05:29After a while, he left the body, turning his attention to one of the glass cases filled with an assortment of rings.
05:35From a pocket of his garment, he'd taken a small glass bottle containing some kind of liquid,
05:41and he used this now to test the rings, rejecting them one after another.
05:44Then at last...
05:46This is it.
05:47It's the one.
05:49At last I found it.
05:50The ring of thought.
05:51In his excitement, he dropped the bottle.
05:53And I gasped in surprise at the sudden sound.
05:56Who's there?
05:57I beg your pardon.
05:58So it is you.
06:02No, do not move.
06:04I didn't mean to spy on you.
06:05I fell asleep.
06:07Who are you, monsieur?
06:09I am John Vansittout Smith, a student of Egyptology.
06:13No matter.
06:15You will observe this knife.
06:17Yes.
06:17Had I discovered you five minutes ago, monsieur, I should have slain you without a word.
06:22What?
06:23As it is now, I have found the ring.
06:27But I warn you not to interfere with me in any way.
06:31I really haven't the slightest intention of it.
06:34After all, I'm only here by accident.
06:36Perhaps.
06:38I say, you shouldn't have unwrapped that mummy, you know.
06:40It's starting to deteriorate already.
06:42Oh, my beloved.
06:44Yes, before our eyes, the lovely face was crumbling.
06:49The hair falling away, the skin shriveling and cracking, the lips fading.
06:53The man hovered over the decaying body a moment, murmuring sorrowfully.
06:58And then he turned again.
07:00No matter.
07:01That will not make the least difference in a little while.
07:06Of what importance is the dead shell,
07:09so long as her spirit waits for me at the other side of the veil?
07:14What are you talking about?
07:16What is it you're proposing to do?
07:19Tonight, monsieur, I have ended a quest and broken at last the ancient curse.
07:28Nothing now can prevent my joining her.
07:31Are you actually claiming that you knew her?
07:36She was Atma, daughter of the governor of Abaris.
07:42And both she and I lived in the reign of Thutmose's 3,500 years ago.
07:48You're obviously mad.
07:51Perhaps.
07:53But not in the way you think.
07:56There may be design in this.
08:00You're coming here.
08:02It may be decreed that I should leave some account behind as a warning to other mortals as rash as myself.
08:10Very well, then.
08:14So be it.
08:15I am, as you surmised, an Egyptian.
08:28My name was Sasra, and my father had been the chief priest of Osiris in the great temple of Abaris,
08:41which stood in those days upon the bubastic branch of the Nile.
08:47I was brought up in the temple and was trained in all those mystic arts and sciences known to the priesthood.
08:59Of all the mysteries that I studied, none intrigued me more than the question of life and death.
09:14And even to this question, in time, I found an answer.
09:19But for a man to live beyond his allotted span of years, Master Sasra, the gods have not so ordained it.
09:25Then perhaps they will have to revise their ordinances, now that I have discovered their secret.
09:31It is not well to jest.
09:32I tremble, for though I have labored in your service for a year, I knew not the goal of your endeavors.
09:39May Osiris forgive me.
09:41Ah, what a pity you look upon it this way.
09:44For I had thought that in return for your assistance, I should grant you, too, the gift of centuries of indestructible life.
09:51I would not have it, Master Sasra.
09:53And I beg that you, too, forgo it.
09:55Forgo it.
09:56I introduced the fluid into my veins one month ago.
10:00Oh, no.
10:02Then you are lost indeed.
10:04Lost?
10:05Do you call this being lost?
10:09Let's see now.
10:10My heart should be about here.
10:14Oh, that knife.
10:15No, don't.
10:17Master, you...
10:18You've killed yourself.
10:20Not at all.
10:21See?
10:22It bleeds a little.
10:23But in a while, the wound will close up.
10:26And that's all.
10:28You...
10:28It's...
10:29It's immortality.
10:31No.
10:32I shall not live forever.
10:33But for 5,000, perhaps 6,000 years, I shall be immune from all dangers of violence, poison, disease, starvation.
10:42You...
10:43You cannot die?
10:45Now, with this fluid in my veins, nothing, nothing in this world can end my life.
10:50Sasra?
10:51Sasra, are you there?
10:52Someone cross.
10:53It's Parmas, the priest of Thoth.
10:55In here, my friend.
10:56Enter.
10:56Oh.
10:57Greetings, Sasra, master of sciences, and his worthy assistant.
11:01If you will excuse me, masters, I go to make my peace with Osiris.
11:05What's wrong with your helper, Sasra?
11:07The thought of a well-nigh eternal life has frightened him into gibbering superstition.
11:11Then you still believe in the discovery?
11:14Believe in it?
11:15Parmas, my friend.
11:17Look.
11:18By the heavens, what a scar.
11:20It pierces the heart.
11:21It was done only a moment ago with this knife.
11:23Hmm?
11:24See?
11:25I can put it back in the wound.
11:28So?
11:29You...
11:29You suffered no ill effects?
11:31None whatever.
11:33And if I...
11:33If I turned the knife in the wound, that would do you no harm?
11:37You may try it.
11:42I feel nothing.
11:44I walked last week in the snake pits by the river, was struck innumerable times.
11:48It caused no harm.
11:49By the great Anubis.
11:51Will you have it, then?
11:52Out of all Egypt, I have chosen only you, my friend, to share the gift.
11:57But the choice is yours.
11:59I'd be a fool to refuse, Sasra.
12:01I'll have it.
12:02And now, what must I do?
12:04First, we must open a vein in your wrist.
12:07Like this.
12:08Oh.
12:09Then, we drip the elixir slowly into your bloodstream.
12:15Steady now.
12:15I...
12:16I don't feel anything.
12:18There is no sensation.
12:19It is done.
12:23So simple.
12:24There is nothing more.
12:26That's all.
12:27And now done, it can never be changed.
12:29It seems incredible.
12:31Supernatural.
12:32It's no more than a chemical discovery.
12:34But with it, while all this about us passes away,
12:38you and I, Parmes, will live on for 50 centuries.
12:42Think of it, my friend.
12:435,000 years of life.
12:455,000 years.
12:48Only the two of us.
12:50Listen, that noise.
12:51Some procession must be passing in the street.
12:53I have an idea what it may be.
12:55Come on over to the window.
12:56Come on over to the beloved of heaven.
12:58Clear the road.
13:00Stand back and make way for the loveliest pearl of thieves.
13:03She's being carried on the shoulders of slaves, Parmes.
13:06She must be some woman of rank.
13:07Her name is Atma.
13:09She's the daughter of the new governor.
13:13Her curtains are drawn back.
13:15Perhaps we'll have a look at her.
13:19Oh, Parmes.
13:21Is she not beautiful?
13:24She is the most desirable.
13:27The only utterly desirable woman I've ever seen in my life.
13:31Yes.
13:31I saw her yesterday at the temple.
13:34Then you're most fortunate, my friend.
13:36You've had 24 more hours to dream about her than I have had.
13:40I must know her, Parmes.
13:41I must make her love me.
13:42I'll send gifts.
13:43I'll call on her tomorrow.
13:45Oh, it has to be then.
13:47I couldn't wait any longer than tomorrow.
13:51A visitor calls upon the beloved of the universe.
14:05He is Sosro, priest of the temple of Osiris.
14:09Well, bid him approach.
14:12Enter, Sosro.
14:13Oh, most beautiful of all Egypt.
14:15I cast myself at your feet.
14:17That's a noble ambition.
14:18But wouldn't it be much better to sit here beside me and watch the fish in the fountain?
14:26Much better.
14:28You will all withdraw.
14:30Except you, my girl.
14:32Play something for us.
14:34At a distance.
14:40Well, Sosro.
14:42For so I understand your called.
14:43Am I to deem this an official visit by a master of the temple?
14:49Oh, Atom, I might be loved.
14:51That is, no.
14:53It is not official.
14:55Oh?
14:56Perhaps then you wish to see my father on personal business of your own.
15:00Oh, no.
15:01No.
15:03I shall pay my respects to him at some other time.
15:06Then could it be I you've come to see?
15:09Yes.
15:10Yes.
15:11And since you've said the visit's not official, your reason must be a personal one.
15:17Oh, it is.
15:19Well, what is it?
15:22Atma, I have known women who are famed for their beauty throughout the valley of the Nile.
15:28But not one, not all of them, are so lovely as you.
15:33How thoughtful of you to come here and tell me.
15:36Atma, I've no wish to intrude my desires, my hopes.
15:41Beyond such extent as you may wish to hear.
15:44But, oh, I'm finding this very difficult.
15:50Oh, Sassera.
15:52I've been told that you're a master of science.
15:55That you've unlocked the secrets of the universe.
15:58Learned all the mysteries of nature itself.
16:00Your informants have been most generous.
16:02Yes.
16:03I'm inclined to think so.
16:05What?
16:06Because you've discovered nothing at all about such a simple thing as a woman's heart.
16:12What do you mean?
16:13I come from Thebes.
16:16And the women of Thebes are warm-blooded, passionate, and we know what we want.
16:25Atma.
16:26I saw you first, three days ago.
16:29Why do you think I told my bearers to carry me down that street beneath your window?
16:33And so, miracle of all miracles, Atma loved me.
16:46Worshipping the very ground her feet had trod upon, I lived through those glorious weeks.
16:51And with it all, our love grew apace.
16:56But one thing bore heavily upon my mind, and I came to speak of it more often to my beloved
17:02as we sat and talked by the fountain in her garden.
17:06Look, Sassera.
17:08See how the stars shine from the water?
17:11Yes, Atma.
17:12More lovely even than their glow in the heavens.
17:16Are they very old, the stars?
17:19Very old, beloved.
17:20As old as time.
17:22And they'll go on gleaming there, long years after you and I are gone and forgotten.
17:29Atma, my dearest, we've talked of this before, and I know it distresses you to think of it.
17:35No, Sassera.
17:36Tonight everything is beautiful.
17:37We shall not talk of death.
17:38Not of death, but of life.
17:41They're only counterparts of one another.
17:43Oh, if we could only live together, grow old together, and die in the same instant.
17:49But how much better to live and love 5,000 years?
17:53Will you not do it?
17:55Does so long a time seem too great for the love you feel for me?
17:59Beloved, no.
18:01The time would pass in an instant, and the loss then be no easier born than now.
18:07Then why draw back?
18:09Will you not take the elixir now, tonight?
18:11I'm afraid, Sassera.
18:12We'll anger the gods.
18:13We will outlive the gods.
18:14They will have their revenge.
18:16Whatever occurred, we'd be together.
18:18Yes, I've thought of that.
18:21Were it not so, I'd not even consider doing it.
18:24Then you'll do it.
18:25Atma, you'll do it.
18:26I need more time, only a little more to assure myself.
18:29How much?
18:29Tonight, Sassera.
18:32Give me tonight.
18:34Every hour you live without the elixir is another hazard.
18:37All right, then.
18:41Tonight.
18:43And may Isis herself guard over you until the fluid courses in your veins.
18:46And so, on that accursed night, I went to my chambers and slept.
19:01And while I slept, the moon of Isis shone over the delta of the Nile,
19:05shone but to light as foul a scene as was ever done on Earth.
19:09Some hours had passed away.
19:11Master Sassera.
19:12Master Sassera.
19:13Awaken.
19:13Master.
19:14Awaken at once.
19:15You know.
19:17Who is it?
19:18Oh, what a terrible thing has transpired this night.
19:21You.
19:22You're one of Atma's slaves.
19:24Why do you come here?
19:25Oh, master.
19:26Master.
19:27What has happened?
19:28What's the matter?
19:29Speak.
19:29It is she, the light of the world.
19:32Tell me what has happened to her.
19:33Master.
19:34Master.
19:35Brigands came in the night.
19:37She.
19:38She is dead.
19:39You lie.
19:40You lie.
19:40No, Sassera, the slave speaks the truth.
19:43Parmes, my friend.
19:44What foul jokes behind these words of his.
19:46It's not a joke.
19:47Atma is dead.
19:49You, slave, depart from us.
19:51Yes, master.
19:52By your gracious leave, I depart.
19:54Such a thing cannot be.
19:57Oh, of course.
20:00The two of you planned it together, sought to frighten me out of my wits.
20:04It's very amusing, really.
20:05But I was terrified for a moment.
20:08Atma no longer lives.
20:10She was stabbed to death only a short while ago.
20:12No.
20:13Oh, no, no.
20:14She can't be dead.
20:15She is dead, Sassera.
20:17And for all eternity.
20:19I must go to her.
20:20Something.
20:21Surely something can be done.
20:24I killed her.
20:26What is it?
20:27What has happened?
20:30I killed her.
20:31Oh.
20:31I struck her through the heart with this very knife.
20:34You.
20:35You, Parmes.
20:37Why?
20:38Because she loved you.
20:40Why?
20:41And because I loved her.
20:43You.
20:44My friend.
20:45She would not look at me.
20:46And for that, you would lose her to both of us forever?
20:49To both of us, Sassera?
20:50I think not.
20:52By the living Osiris.
20:53Give me that knife.
20:54That's it.
20:55Strike.
20:55Again.
20:57Here's the heart.
20:58Here.
20:58Strike.
20:59Again and again, Sassera.
21:00Wait.
21:02What foolishness.
21:03I cannot kill you.
21:04You're wrong, Sassera.
21:06You have killed me.
21:09Those were grievous blows.
21:12But the fluid, that cursed elixir of life, it runs in your veins as well as mine.
21:18True.
21:19But in mine is also the antidote.
21:24You lie.
21:25There is no antidote.
21:26Yes.
21:27Day and night.
21:28These many weeks, I've worked.
21:31And I found it.
21:31You couldn't have.
21:32Is there more of it?
21:35Yes.
21:36A very little.
21:38But you'll never find it.
21:39Where is it?
21:40Tell me where it is.
21:43In the ring, Sassera.
21:45In the ring of Thoth.
21:47And you'll never find it.
21:49I will.
21:49I will.
21:50I must.
21:51Go on.
21:52Live.
21:53Live your 50 centuries.
21:55And every hour of them.
21:57Think.
21:59It was your hand that struck me down with the same knife that took her from you.
22:08Think while I go to join her.
22:16Oh, no.
22:17You're not dead.
22:19You're not.
22:20No.
22:22No.
22:22No.
22:23No.
22:23No.
22:24No.
22:24No.
22:24No.
22:24No.
22:25No.
22:26No.
22:26No.
22:26No.
22:26No.
22:26No.
22:27No.
22:27No.
22:27No.
22:27No.
22:28No.
22:29No.
22:30No.
22:31No.
22:32No.
22:32For months I searched the papers, test tubes, and the chemical flasks in the chambers
22:37of the dead priest of Thoth.
22:40Searched and found nothing.
22:42I sifted the sands where he'd walked, questioned his slaves and servants, and learned nothing.
22:50Every moment of my life, my terrible and unwanted life, was devoted to an unceasing hunt.
22:57For the ring of thought for the ring of thought, and all to no avail, and in time, a horde
23:04of barbarians overran the city of Abaris, and the sands of the desert buried forever the
23:12last of my hopes.
23:13And so began the deadly march of the centuries.
23:25How can you know how terrible a thing time is?
23:31You, you, who have experienced only the narrow course between the cradle and the grave.
23:38I have floated down the whole stream of history.
23:45I have traveled in all lands, and I have dwelt with all nations.
23:51Every tongue is the same to me.
23:54I need not tell you how slowly the centuries drifted by.
24:01centuries without end, years without number.
24:09And so, I came to be one day, a few weeks past, in San Francisco, where I came across a certain
24:23item in a newspaper.
24:25Among recent discoveries in Lower Egypt is an unopened mummy case containing, according
24:31to the inscription on the outside, the body of the daughter of the governor of Abaris in
24:35the days of Thutmosis.
24:37In the same burial crypt, dropped into a crevice between the stones, was found a large platinum
24:42ring of singular design.
24:45Both specimens have been sent for examination to the Louvre in Paris.
24:48So, I presume you came here to Paris, obtained this position of attendant in the Louvre, with
24:58the idea of...
24:58Only yesterday, Monsieur Smith.
25:01As you may imagine, I had little difficulty in convincing the director of my knowledge of
25:08Egyptian relics.
25:09The ring, then?
25:10The one I saw you remove from the case is the ring of Thoth?
25:14Without question.
25:16You've discovered how the ring must be used?
25:18The secret is obvious.
25:21See?
25:23The stone is hollow, and drops of liquid move within it.
25:30Have you considered the possibility that this antidote may not perform the function which
25:34has been claimed for it?
25:36It will, Monsieur.
25:38And there'll be no need of a knife to strike me down.
25:42My death was due in a time long past.
25:46And only this damnable fluid that runs through my veins supports the weight of my years.
25:56I delay no longer.
25:58I go to join her where she waits for me, in death.
26:03No!
26:04Don't!
26:04Too late.
26:11I've broken the gem.
26:14I've taken the antidote.
26:16I stood and watched him with a terrible fascination, but without pity and without compassion.
26:26He turned away from me and reeled toward the mummy he'd left on the table across the room.
26:30But even as he turned, the parchment skin of his face cracked and shredded, discolored lips shriveled away from the yellow teeth,
26:40the vitreous eyes withered into nubs of formless plasm, and the full weight of his 3,500 years descended on him in an instant.
26:49I left that room of death and walked over the marble floors toward the exit,
26:58my footsteps echoing through the empty halls, even as they had echoed for so long in the corridors of time.
27:04And I wondered as I walked, if Sosra knew now what I knew,
27:10that the antidote in the ring of Thoth can bring death to the body, but not to the soul.
27:16And I wondered in what cloak of flesh his spirit now dwelt,
27:21just as I, Parmese, priest of Thoth, had for the last 40 years of my 3,500,
27:28dwelt in the body of John Vansittart Smith.
27:34But, Doctor, he's so little and so red.
27:53Well, now, he's only two days old.
27:55But he doesn't look a bit like either his father or me.
27:58Give him time, my dear.
28:00All babies look pretty much alike when they're first born.
28:03Well, I don't know. His eyes are...
28:06It's silly, of course, but he looks like an Egyptian.
28:12The End
28:16Produced and directed by William N. Robeson,
28:30The Ring of Thoth by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was adapted for radio by Les Crutchfield,
28:35with Jack Webb as Sosra, Thomas Freebairn Smith as Vansittart Smith,
28:39and Joan Banks as Atma.
28:41The special musical score was conceived and conducted by Cy Fewer.
28:52Escape is presented by the Columbia Broadcasting System
28:54and its affiliated stations each week at this time.
28:57Next week, we invite you to escape to a raft in the South Pacific
29:01with John Russell in his unforgettable story of human frailty,
29:04The Fourth Man.
29:05And so goodnight until next week at this time,
29:08when again it will be time to escape.
29:12This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.
29:15This is a
29:17Deifica Uwe, the
29:20Bookproject
29:23In the South Pacific
29:24The New
29:29The New
29:29The New
29:32½
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29:33Thearch
29:34The New
29:34The New
29:35Seize
29:35The New
29:36The New
29:37The New
29:38East
29:39The New
29:40The New
29:41The New
29:42The New
29:42The New
29:43The New
29:29
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27:48
2:39
0:36
0:35
0:31
0:30
4:17
31:55
41:42