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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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00:05escape escape tonight to ancient egypt
00:14the columbia broadcasting system and its affiliated stations presents escape a new series of programs
00:21of which this the sixth is the ring of thought by sir arthur conan doyle produced and directed
00:28by william ann robeson wherever the english language is spoken sir arthur conan doyle is
00:38known for two things his immortal character sherlock holmes and his unshakable belief in
00:43life beyond the grave so great is the stature of sherlock holmes that conan doyle's earlier
00:48stories are all but forgotten stories like the ring of thought which so clearly anticipates the
00:54author's later fascination with spiritualism we invite you now to escape to ancient egypt and the
01:00ring of thought an adventure told in the words of john van siddharth smith british egyptologist
01:17i arrived in paris on the 314 express from dieppe and went immediately to my hotel in the rue de
01:23la
01:23fitte my actions so far had worked out according to my planned schedule i slept for exactly two hours
01:29got up and dressed donned a great coat walked down the avenue de l'opera and entered a side door
01:34of
01:34the louvre once inside and amid surroundings entirely familiar to me i made my way immediately to the
01:40chamber of egyptian relics or more specifically to the cabinet in that chamber which contained the el
01:46carb collection of papyri drawing out the particular role i wished i placed it on a nearby table sat down
01:54began to study it when i noticed one of the museum attendants who was polishing some brass work across
01:59the room his face struck me as being curiously egyptian on sudden impulse i decided to cross the room and
02:07speak
02:07to him approaching closer i was impressed at once by the appearance of his skin drawn tautly across
02:15temple and cheek it seemed as glazed and as shiny as varnished parchment and out of narrowed slits
02:21there glowed two green and vitreous eyes misty with a dry shininess eyes of a kind never seen in a
02:30human head
02:30before i beg your pardon i need one of the papyri from the memphis collection could you tell me where
02:39it is you'll find it in the last cabinet at the end of the room monsieur
02:45thank you uh you're egyptian aren't you no monsieur i i am a frenchman but uh oh i thought perhaps
02:54if
02:55monsieur 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
03:08but my former calmness in translating the intricate hieroglyphics was gone
03:11and out of the depths of my mind welled a feeling of terrible familiarity i concentrated more deeply
03:18on my studies pushing aside those thoughts conducive to mental turmoil and at last worn out by the
03:25inward struggle i fell asleep
03:39i awoke with a start not remembering where i was it was quite dark for a moment
03:45then gradually my eyes focused on the glints of moonlight reflected from the glass tops of
03:50specimen tables from the shiny varnish of the mummy cases and i realized with a feeling of sudden dread
03:56that i was alone in the egyptian room of the museum of the louvre locked in for the night
04:11and i saw at that moment approaching through the moonlit halls a dim yellow flame nearer and nearer it
04:18came until i could perceive above it as though floating in the air the eerie glistening face of the man
04:24i'd
04:24spoken to earlier i shrank into the dark shadow of my corner and he passed without seeing me stopping
04:31before the mummy cases a few yards away scarcely daring to breathe i watched him place the light on a
04:37table and begin feverishly to examine the tags on the specimens in a moment he gave a cry of delight
04:45and uh drawing one of the mummies from its resting place laid it on the table in the full
04:50glow of the lantern and set to work he was unwinding the wrappings from the head of the corpse
04:58a few turns revealed a tumbled cascade of black curls a few more the snow white brow then the
05:05delicate nostrils and at last the full warm passionate lips the face of the most beautiful
05:12woman the world has ever seen i could hardly believe my eyes the man was obviously in love with this
05:27mummy after a while he left the body turning his attention to one of the glass cases filled with an
05:33assortment of rings from a pocket of his garment he'd taken a small glass bottle containing some
05:39kind of liquid and he used this now to test the rings rejecting them one after another then at
05:46last this is it it's the one at last i found it the ring of thought in his excitement he
05:52dropped the
05:53bottle and i gasped in surprise at the sudden sound who's there i i beg your pardon
06:01so it is you no do not move uh i i didn't mean to spy on you i i fell
06:06asleep who are you monsieur i am
06:10john vancet out smith a student of egyptology no matter you will observe this knife yes had i discovered
06:18you five minutes ago monsieur i should have slain you without a word what as it is now i have
06:26found the
06:26ring but i warn you not to interfere with me in any way i really haven't the slightest intention of
06:33it
06:34after all i'm only here by accident perhaps i say you shouldn't have unwrapped that mummy you know
06:40it's starting to deteriorate already oh my beloved yes 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 and then he turned again no
07:00matter that will not make the least difference in a little while of what importance is the dead shell
07:09so long as her spirit waits for me at the other side of the veil what are you talking about
07:16what is
07:16it you're proposing to do tonight monsieur i have ended a quest and broken at last the ancient curse
07:28nothing now can prevent my joining her are you actually claiming that you you knew her she was
07:37atma daughter of the governor of abaris and both she and i lived in the reign of tutmosis
07:45three thousand five hundred years ago you're obviously mad perhaps but not in the way you think
07:56there may be design in this you're coming here it may be decreed that i should leave some account
08:06behind as a warning to other mortals as rash as myself
08:11very well very well then so be it
08:15i am as you surmised an egyptian my name was sasra and my father had been the chief
08:35priest of osiris in the great temple of abaris which stood in those days upon the bubastic branch of the
08:47nile i was brought up in the temple and was trained in all those mystic arts and sciences known to
08:58the
09:04of all the mysteries that i studied none intrigued me more than the question of life and death
09:13and even to this question in time i found an answer but for a man to live beyond his allotted
09:21span of
09:22years master sasra the gods have not so ordained
09:26then perhaps they will have to revise their ordinances now that i've discovered their secret
09:31it is not well to jest i tremble for though i've labored in your service for a year
09:35i knew not the goal of your endeavors
09:39may osiris forgive me ah what a pity you look upon it this way for i'd thought that in return
09:45for
09:45your assistance i should grant you too the gift of centuries of indestructible life i would not have
09:52it master sasra and i beg that you too forgo it forgo it i introduced the fluid into my veins
09:59one month
09:59ago oh no then you are lost indeed lost do you call this being lost let's see now my heart
10:11should be
10:12about here oh that knife no don't master you you've killed yourself not at all see it bleeds a little
10:23but in a while the wound will close up and that's all you it's it's immortality no i shall not
10:33live
10:33forever but for five thousand perhaps six thousand years i shall be immune from all dangers of violence
10:40poison disease starvation you you cannot die now with this fluid in my veins nothing nothing in this
10:48world can end my life sasra sasra are you there someone cross it's parmes the priest of thought
10:54in here my friend enter oh greetings sasra master of sciences and his worthy assistant if you will
11:02excuse me masters i go to make my peace with osiris what's wrong with your helper sasra the thought of
11:08a well-nigh eternal life has frightened him into gibbering superstition then you still believe in
11:13the discovery believe in it parmes my friend look by the heavens what a scar it pierces the heart
11:21was done only a moment ago with this knife hmm see i can put it back in the wound so
11:28you you suffered
11:30no ill effects none whatever and if i if i turned the knife in the wound that would do you
11:36no harm you may
11:37try it i feel nothing i walked last week in the snake pits by the river was struck innumerable times
11:47it caused no harm by the great anubis will you have it then out of all egypt i have chosen
11:54only
11:55you my friend to share the gift but the choice is yours i'd be a fool to refuse sasra i'll
12:01have it
12:02and now what must i do first we must open a vein in your wrist like this oh then we
12:10drip the elixir
12:12slowly into your bloodstream steady now i i don't feel anything there is no sensation
12:21it is done so simple there is nothing more that's all and now done it can never be changed it
12:30seems
12:30incredible supernatural it's no more than a chemical discovery but with it while all this about us
12:37passes away you and i parmes will live on for fifty centuries think of it my friend five thousand
12:44years of life five thousand years only the two of us listen that noise some procession must be
12:52passing in the street i have an idea what it may be come on over to the window
13:03she's being carried on the shoulders of slaves parmes she must be some woman of rank her name
13:08is atma she's the daughter of the new governor
13:13her curtains are drawn back perhaps we'll have a look at her
13:20oh parmes is she not beautiful she is the most desirable the only utterly desirable woman i've ever
13:29seen in my life yes i saw her yesterday at the temple then you're most fortunate my friend you've
13:37had 24 more hours to dream about her than i have had i must know her parmes i must make
13:42her love me
13:42i'll send gifts i'll call on her tomorrow oh it has to be then i couldn't wait any longer than
13:49tomorrow
14:01a visitor calls upon the beloved of the universe he is sasra priest of the temple of osiris
14:09well bid him approach enter sasra oh most beautiful of all egypt i cast myself at your feet that's a
14:18noble ambition but wouldn't it be much better to sit here beside me and watch the fish in the fountain
14:26much better you will all withdraw except you my girl play something for us at a distance
14:40well sasra for so i understand you're called am i to deem this an official visit by a master of
14:48the temple
14:49oh that my beloved that is no it is not official oh perhaps then you wish to see my father
14:58on personal
14:59business of your own oh no no i shall pay my respects to him at some other time then could
15:07it be
15:07i you've come to see yes yes and since you've said the visit's not official your reason must be a
15:16personal one oh it is well what is it atma i have known women who are famed for their beauty
15:26throughout
15:27the valley of the valley of the nile but not one not all of them are so lovely as you
15:32how thoughtful
15:34of you to come here and tell me atma i've no wish to intrude my desires my hopes beyond such
15:41extent as
15:42you may wish to hear but oh i'm finding this very difficult oh sasra i've been told that you're a
15:53master of science that you've unlocked the secrets of the universe learned all the mysteries of nature
15:59itself your informants have been most generous yes i'm inclined to think so what because you've
16:07discovered nothing at all about such a simple thing as a woman's heart what do you mean i come from
16:14thebes and the women of thebes and the women of thebes are warm-blooded passionate and we know what we
16:24want i saw you first three days ago why do you think i told my bearers to carry me down
16:31that street
16:32beneath your window
16:41and so miracle of all miracles atma loved me worshiping the very ground her feet had trod upon
16:49i lived through those glorious weeks and 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 look sasra see how the stars shine from the
17:10water
17:10yes atma more lovely even than their glow in the heavens are they very old the stars very old beloved
17:20as old as time and 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 sasra tonight everything is beautiful we shall not talk of death not of death but of life they're
17:41only counterparts of one another oh if we could only live together go all together and die in the same
17:48instant but how much better to live and love five thousand years will you not do it does so long
17:56a
17:56time seem too great for the love you feel for me beloved no the time would pass in an instant
18:04and the last then be no easier born than now then why draw back will you not take the elixir
18:10now tonight
18:11i'm afraid sasra we'll anger the gods we will outlive the god they will have their revenge whatever
18:16occurred we'd be together yes i've thought of that were it not so i'd not even consider doing it
18:24then you'll do it atma you'll do it i need more time only a little more to assure myself how
18:29much
18:29tonight sasra give me tonight every hour you live without the elixir is another hazard
18:39all right then tonight and may isis herself guard over you until the fluid courses in your veins
18:56and so on that accursed night i went to my chambers and slept and while i slept the moon of
19:02isis shone
19:03over the delta of the nile shown but to light as foul a scene as was ever done on earth
19:09some hours had passed away master sasra awaken master awaken at once you know who is it oh what a
19:18terrible thing has transpired this night you you're one of atma's slaves why do you come here oh master
19:26master what has happened what's the matter speak it is she the light of the world tell me what has
19:32happened to her master master brigands came in the night she she is dead you lie you lie the slave
19:42speaks the truth parmes my friend what foul jokes behind these words of his it's not a joke atma is
19:48dead you slave depart from us yes master by your gracious leave i depart such a thing cannot be
19:57oh of course the two of you planned it together sought to frighten me out of my wits it's very
20:04amusing
20:04really but i was terrified for a moment atma no longer lives she was stabbed to death only a short
20:11while
20:11ago no oh no no she can't be dead she is dead sorcerer and for all eternity i must go
20:19to her
20:20something surely something can be done i killed her what is it what has happened
20:30i killed her oh i struck her through the heart with this very knife you you parmes
20:37why because she loved you why and because i loved her you my friend she would not look at me
20:46and for
20:47that you would lose her to both of us forever to both of us sasra i think not by the
20:52living osiris
20:53give me that knife that's it strike again here's the heart here strike again and again sasra wait
21:02what foolishness i cannot kill you you're wrong sasra you have killed me those were grievous blows
21:11but the fluid that cursed elixir of life it runs in your veins as well as mine true but in
21:20mine
21:21is also the antidote you lie there is no antidote yes day and night these many weeks i've worked
21:30and i found it you couldn't have you
21:34and is there more of it yes a very little but you'll never find it where is it tell me
21:41where it
21:41is in the ring sasra in the ring of thought and you'll never find i will i will i must
21:50go on live
21:52live live live your 50 centuries and every hour of them think it was your hand that struck me down
22:03with the same knife that took her from you
22:09think while i go to join her
22:15oh no you're not dead you're not no no no
22:23for months i searched the papers test tubes and the chemical flasks in the chambers of the dead priest
22:38of thoth searched and found nothing i sifted the sands where he'd walked questioned his slaves and
22:46servants and learned nothing every moment of my life my terrible and unwanted life
22:55was devoted to an unceasing hunt for the ring of thought and all to no avail
23:02and in time a horde of barbarians overran the city of abaris and the sands of the desert buried forever
23:12the last of my hopes
23:21and so began the deadly march of the centuries how can you know how terrible a thing time is
23:31you who've experienced only the narrow course between the cradle and the grave
23:39i've floated down the whole stream of history
23:44i have traveled in all lands and i have dwelt with all nations every tongue is the same to me
23:54i need not tell you how slowly the centuries drifted by
24:03centuries without end
24:05years without number
24:10and so i came to be one day a few weeks past
24:17first in san francisco
24:20where i came across a certain item in a newspaper
24:26among recent discoveries in lower egypt is an unopened mummy case containing according to the
24:31inscription on the outside the body of the daughter of the governor of abaris in the days of tutmosis
24:36in the same burial crypt dropped into a crevice between the stones was found a large platinum
24:42ring of singular design both specimens have been sent for examination to the louvre in paris
24:52so i presume you came here to paris obtained this position of attendant in the louvre with the idea
24:58only yesterday monsieur smith
25:01as you may imagine
25:03i had little difficulty in convincing the director of my knowledge of egyptian relics
25:09the ring then
25:09the 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
25:19the secret is obvious
25:22see the stone is hollow and drops of liquid move within it
25:29have you considered the possibility that this antidote may not perform the function which has been claimed
25:35for it it will monsieur and there'll be no need of a knife to strike me down
25:42my death was due in a time long past
25:47and only this damnable fluid that runs through my veins supports the weight of my years
25:56i delay no longer i go to join her where she waits for me in death no don't
26:06oh
26:08too late
26:11i've broken the gem
26:14i've taken the antidote
26:20i 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
26:37discolored lips shriveled away from the yellow teeth
26:40the vitreous eyes withered into nubs of formless
26:43plasm and the full weight of his 3500 years descended on him in an instant
26:52i 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
27:05and i wondered as i walked if sorcerer knew now what i knew
27:10that the antidote in the ring of forth can bring death to the body
27:14but not to the soul
27:16and i wondered in what cloak of flesh his spirit now dwelt
27:21just as i
27:21parmese priest of thought had for the last 40 years of my 3500
27:28dwelt in the body of john vancittart smith
27:49but 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 all babies look pretty much alike when they're first born
28:03i don't know it his eyes or
28:08it's silly of course but he looks like an egyptian
28:28produced and directed by william n robeson the ring of forth by sir arthur conan doyle was adapted for
28:33radio by les crutchfield with jack webb as sorcerer thomas freebairn smith as van
28:40banks as atma the special musical score was conceived and conducted by sy fewer
28:51escape is presented by the columbia broadcasting system and its affiliated stations each week at this time
28:57next week we invite you to escape to a raft in the south pacific with john russell in his unforgettable
29:03story of human frailty
29:04the fourth man and so good night until next week at this time when again it will be time to
29:10escape
29:11this is cbs the columbia broadcasting system
29:15you
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