1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,000 Suspense. 2 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:36,000 This is your narrator, the man in black, again about to introduce tonight's Columbia program, 3 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:38,000 Suspense. 4 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:46,000 The story is The Pit in the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe, the adaptation by John Dickson Carr. 5 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:54,000 Our guest is the distinguished American actor, Mr. Henry Hull, who plays the part of a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. 6 00:00:54,000 --> 00:01:03,000 If you've been with us on these Tuesday nights, you will know that Suspense is compounded of mystery, suspicion, and dangerous adventure, 7 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,000 to hold you in a precarious situation and withhold the solution until the last possible moment. 8 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:24,000 And so it is with The Pit in the Pendulum and Mr. Hull's performance, we again hope to keep you in Suspense. 9 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:43,000 And now, The Pit in the Pendulum. 10 00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:57,000 I was sick, sick unto death with a long agony. And when it lengthly unbound me and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me. 11 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:04,000 The sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged in one dreamy, indeterminate hum. 12 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:15,000 Yet for a while I saw what was how terrible an exaggeration. I saw the soft and nearly imperceptible waving of the sable draperies on the walls of the room. 13 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:24,000 I saw the flames of the seven tall candles which burned on the table. I saw the lips of the black-puddded judges. 14 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:37,000 And these lips appeared to me white, white as paper, white as horror. I saw them writhe with a deadly locution. I saw them fashion the syllables of my name. 15 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:46,000 Jean Delbray, Captain Jean Delbray. 16 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:48,000 Good father, gentlemen. 17 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:50,000 We hear you, my son. 18 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:57,000 I, I am very weak and infirm. I've been confined for many months in a dungeon. I, I've been tormented by nightmares. 19 00:02:58,000 --> 00:02:59,000 Conscience one trusts. 20 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:01,000 Pray silence, Rar Antonio. 21 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:07,000 Even, even now I, I have no knowledge of where I am or to whom I may be speaking. 22 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:16,000 You are speaking to me, my son. I am Fr. Pedro de Espella, prior of the Dominicans of Segovia and grand inquisitor of all Spain. 23 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:20,000 Is this, is this the court of the Inquisition? 24 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:21,000 It is. 25 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:23,000 Then, then God help me. 26 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:26,000 He will help you, my son, if you trust him. 27 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:28,000 I, I am a French officer. 28 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:31,000 That is true. A soldier and creature of the arch being Napoleon Bonaparte. 29 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:36,000 But a French officer nonetheless. A prisoner of war. That's what right you try me in this court. 30 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:42,000 Let the clerk read the charges against this prisoner. Pray silence while the clerk reads the charges. 31 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:50,000 The charges against the prisoner are as follows. In primus, that he is, were, Jean Dalbray, a captain of artillery in the army of Bonaparte, so called Emperor of the French. 32 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:54,000 This means nothing, as the prisoner says it is no crime. Proceed. 33 00:03:55,000 --> 00:04:05,000 Item, that on the fourth day of September in the year of our Lord 1808, that says Jean Dalbray did wed his spouse and marry the most noble lady, the Dona Beatrice Valdez's niece of, and ward of the Alhambrian. 34 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:07,000 One moment. 35 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:14,000 Your excellency, folks. Antonio, was any cheat employed to trap this girl into marriage against her will? 36 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:18,000 No, we have no actual evidence of any cheat. 37 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:20,000 Was the girl of age? I believe so. 38 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:22,000 Then wherefore is the prisoner here? 39 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:34,000 This marriage was a deplorable thing, if you like. Bonaparte himself is almost at the gates of my great, his general, the Tsar, menaces our city of Toledo itself. 40 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:38,000 But lawful marriage, however regrettable, is no sin, no crime. 41 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:41,000 There are other matters in the indictment, I think. 42 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:45,000 Then continue. But give us nothing that is not material. 43 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:56,000 Item, that on the 12th of October 1808, that says Jean Dalbray, being in command of a five-gun battery of light artillery, did direct the fire of his guns against the Holy Church of St. Martha the Innocent. 44 00:04:57,000 --> 00:04:57,000 What? 45 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:01,000 And thereby of his wicked malice destroyed that church utterly. 46 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:05,000 Captain Dalbray, is this charge true? 47 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:06,000 It is, yes. 48 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:06,000 You admit it? 49 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:09,000 Good Father, hear what I have to say. The church blew up, I think. 50 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:11,000 Will you boast of your senior man? 51 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:17,000 It blew up because it was stored with kegs of gunpowder for your army. I had every right to file on it. 52 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:20,000 And that is all the defense you have to make. 53 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:23,000 I tell you, I had every right to file on it. By military law. 54 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:27,000 Is military law above God's law? 55 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:32,000 I, I don't know. I did my duty, that's all. 56 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:34,000 Long live the Emperor! 57 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:44,000 Captain Dalbray, mark what I say. No man, however great his heresy, is ever condemned to be burnt in the fire. 58 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:45,000 The fire? 59 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:55,000 If he first recant and acknowledge the error of his ways. But for you, Jean Dalbray, there can be no mercy, no pity, no atonement. 60 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,000 The only sentence of this court can be death. 61 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:01,000 Death. 62 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:09,000 The secular, a government after which we must release you, has devised two ways of punishment in cases such as yours. 63 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:12,000 You hear the tolling of the bells? 64 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:14,000 I hear them. 65 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,000 It is the procession of the condemned going to the auto-da-fait. 66 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:23,000 Soon the yellow light of the flames will stream through the windows and flicker on the floor and the ceiling. 67 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:28,000 Nunca he denora mortis in tuismande posomene. 68 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:35,000 Most of those condemned out of mercy will be strangled before they are burned. 69 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:45,000 It cannot be so with you, Jean Dalbray. You must die in one of two ways. Either with the direst of physical agony. 70 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:53,000 A slow fire of green wood, iced bandages about the head and the heart so that the fire does not approach too quickly. 71 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:59,000 Or else, Jean Dalbray, you must die in a certain other way. 72 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:04,000 I've done with this. Pass your sentence and let me go. 73 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:08,000 The law does not permit me to tell you now what this other way is. 74 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:14,000 The sentence of this court therefore... 75 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:22,000 I... I had swooned. Yet still I would not say that all of consciousness was lost. 76 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:29,000 In the deepest slumber, no. In delirium, no. In a swoon, no. In death, no. 77 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,000 Even in the grave, all is not lost. 78 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:45,000 There are shadows of memory which tell us indistinctly of tall figures that lifted me and bore me in silence, down, down, still, down. 79 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:51,000 Until their hideous dizziness oppressed me at the descent into the earth. 80 00:07:51,000 --> 00:08:04,000 Then, as consciousness swam back to my widths, darkness, the stone floor and darkness. 81 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:09,000 Oh, Beatrice. Beatrice, my wife, Beatrice! 82 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:12,000 Did you call me, Jean? 83 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:14,000 Beatrice, was that you who spoke? 84 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:16,000 Yes, Jean. 85 00:08:17,000 --> 00:08:18,000 You here in the dungeon of the Inquisition... 86 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:23,000 I am not really speaking to you, my poor Jean. I am only in your imagination. 87 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:25,000 Am I mad, Beatrice? 88 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:28,000 No, but your brain is fevered. You only think you hear. 89 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:32,000 No, no, no. I do. I do. I hear you clearly. As clearly as I once heard you. 90 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:35,000 In the little church near the Abro where we were married. 91 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:40,000 Yes, yes, yes. I destroyed that church, Beatrice. I had to. It was my commanding officer's order. 92 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:44,000 I know, Jean. Be comforted. There are those who care. 93 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:46,000 You won't leave me! 94 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:48,000 As strong as I am in your heart, I shall be here. 95 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:57,000 I was strong once. Now, I am weak. Once I was reckless. Now, I am afraid. 96 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:00,000 Where am I, Beatrice? What are you going to do to me? 97 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:05,000 I cannot tell. Remember, my voice comes only from your own brain. 98 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:07,000 Are you fettered? 99 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:10,000 Fettered? No. 100 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:12,000 They've not chained you to the wall? 101 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:19,000 No, no. They've taken away my uniform. They've given me sandals and a robe of what feels like coarse surge. 102 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,000 But I'm still free. Free. 103 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:24,000 Take courage, Jean. 104 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:30,000 Free. And in the grasp of the Inquisition, Beatrice. 105 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:32,000 Yes, Jean? 106 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:38,000 It's completely dark. There's hardly any air. I dread to get up. I dread to stretch out my hand. 107 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:41,000 Suppose... suppose they've buried me alive. 108 00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:46,000 Courage! Can you stand up? 109 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:48,000 I think so, yes. 110 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:55,000 Then walk. Walk as far as you can. Measure the limit of the cell. If this is not a tomb... 111 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,000 You're right, Beatrice. That always... I'll find... 112 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:00,000 Are you on your feet? 113 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:05,000 Yes. Now pray. Pray for a poor devil who always meant well. 114 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:10,000 One pace. Two paces. Three. Four. 115 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:14,000 You are very weak, Jean. Rest a moment. 116 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:17,000 Where are you now, Beatrice? In the flesh, I mean. 117 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:22,000 You know that, Jean. In the old house by the olive grove, scorned of my people. 118 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:24,000 Yes, I know it. 119 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:26,000 Each morning I climb to the hilltop and watch. 120 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:28,000 Go on, go on. 121 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:30,000 Sometimes I think I hear gunwaves rumble in the hills. 122 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:32,000 Yes. Yes. 123 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:35,000 The wind is blowing, moving colors, with the red dust rising about them. 124 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:37,000 Go on, go on. 125 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:39,000 First come the heavy cavalry in bloom-crested helmets. 126 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:41,000 Yes. 127 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:44,000 On their flanks, wheeling like hawks, light hussars in blue and scarlet. 128 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:48,000 And behind them, in a glitter of bayonets as vast as light points on the sea. 129 00:10:49,000 --> 00:10:50,000 Yes. 130 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:54,000 Rank upon ranks, the long gray coats and the tall, bare-skinned caps. 131 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:57,000 The old guard and the Grand Army. 132 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:02,000 It is only a vision, my dear one. They do not come. 133 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:06,000 Ah, will they? Will they ever come, Beatrice? 134 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:08,000 I cannot tell. 135 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:14,000 Then, then I must face what has been prepared for me. 136 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:19,000 Walk again, Jean. Try. Keep your hand in front of you. 137 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:23,000 This rope, this rope, it impedes me, and the floor is treacherous with slime. 138 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:25,000 But I'll try. 139 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:31,000 Ah, four pieces. Five, six, seven. 140 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:33,000 It can't be a tomb. 141 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:35,000 Eight, nine. 142 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:37,000 Look out! 143 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:40,000 Ah, I'm all right. I'm all right. 144 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:45,000 I fell, I fell to my knees. I, the rope, the rope tripped me. 145 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:54,000 My, my hand is in front of me. It's lower than my face, but I, I feel, I feel nothing. 146 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:56,000 Nothing, Jean? 147 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:01,000 It's a pit, a circular pit, and I fell on the very edge of it. 148 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:04,000 Oh, they would have made you walk into it. 149 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:08,000 Yes, oh, there, there's a loose fragment of rock just inside the edge. 150 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:14,000 But if I can dislodge it, it might elicit... 151 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:22,000 Water. 152 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:25,000 There's, there's something down there. 153 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:27,000 Rats, it may be. 154 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:30,000 Rats, yes, but something else, I, I heard it move. 155 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:33,000 So did I. What is in the pit, Jean? 156 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:35,000 I don't know. 157 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:40,000 Saved? Saved, Beatrice, saved from the Inquisition. 158 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:46,000 My, my torture has been merely postponed. 159 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:53,000 At last, a deep sleep fell upon me. Sleep like that of death. 160 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:56,000 How long it lasted, I, I know not. 161 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:02,000 But when I opened my eyes once again, I could see. 162 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:06,000 I could see, I could see, I could see. 163 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:10,000 I could see, I could see, I could see. 164 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:16,000 I know not. But when I opened my eyes once again, I could see. 165 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:19,000 Yes, see. 166 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:25,000 My prison was large and lofty. Its walls formed a massive iron place, bolted adjoined together. 167 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:28,000 A wild, sulfurous luster. I could not trace its origin. 168 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:31,000 Lit up the dungeon and the circular pit. 169 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:36,000 And the crudely dogged skeleton figures painted in evil colors on the iron walls. 170 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:40,000 Skeleton figures, demon figures, gargoyle figures. 171 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:45,000 The colors a little blurred from the effects of the damp. 172 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:50,000 It must approach you slowly and force itself into your mind. 173 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:53,000 It must stalk you like a tiger. 174 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:58,000 It must bring you face to face at last with the King of Terror. 175 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:07,000 When I, when I regained consciousness, I lay on my back in a full length on a low framework of wood. 176 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:14,000 Through this framework I was securely bound by a long, fastening, resembling surgical bandage. 177 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:19,000 Bound, but why? Why? Why? Why? 178 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:22,000 The bandage passed round and round my body. 179 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:27,000 Leaving at liberty only my head and my left arm. 180 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:34,000 With much exertion I could supply myself with food from an earthen dish on the floor beside me. 181 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:41,000 It was meat, highly seasoned. But there was no water. 182 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:47,000 Beatrice! Beatrice, where are you? 183 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:50,000 Here, John, as always. 184 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:51,000 As always. 185 00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:52,000 Your voice sounds stronger. 186 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:53,000 Does it, John? 187 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:59,000 And I, I can see you now. I can see you as clearly as I saw you months ago. 188 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:01,000 Oh, I wish it were true. 189 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:04,000 Your bonnet and the parasol you carried in summer and the high-waisted blue dress. 190 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:07,000 You are weaker, my dear, and more feverish. 191 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:09,000 Have I, have I been asleep? 192 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:10,000 Yes, John. 193 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:16,000 They must have been here while I slept. They bound me. Why? 194 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:18,000 Why? 195 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:20,000 Why? Why? 196 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:22,000 Stop those voices! Stop them! 197 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:28,000 Mine too, John. I am not here either, you know. Don't drive me away. 198 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:29,000 Beatrice, Beatrice, look, look, look. 199 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:30,000 Where? 200 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:32,000 At the ceiling of this room, 30, 40 feet up what you see. 201 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:35,000 I see painted on the ceiling a figure of Father Time. 202 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:36,000 Anything else? 203 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:38,000 But Father Time carries no sign. 204 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:39,000 No. 205 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:44,000 He carries instead what looks like a gigantic pendulum from an ancient clock. 206 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:47,000 About one thing I swear I'm in my right senses. I saw that pendulum move. 207 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:49,000 A painting cannot move. 208 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:56,000 Yet I swear the pendulum did move. It swung a little back and forth just like a real pendulum. 209 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:58,000 Try not to trouble your brain. 210 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:01,000 That pendulum is real. Beatrice, Beatrice, take care. 211 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:04,000 Take care of what? You're not looking at the pendulum now. 212 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:06,000 Take care of the rats, the rats, and the pit. 213 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:07,000 I see them. 214 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:13,000 They're swarming out in dozens. You can see their eyes glitter. One of them ran across the hem of your dress. 215 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:14,000 Did it, John? 216 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:15,000 What did they want? 217 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:17,000 They wanted to taste the scent of the meat in the dish beside it. 218 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:18,000 But they'll not get it. 219 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:19,000 Go away, you family! 220 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:22,000 Move your hand above the plate, John. Move! 221 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:24,000 Beatrice, Beatrice, where are you going? 222 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:27,000 I can hardly hear you. 223 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:28,000 You are sending me away, John. 224 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:30,000 I'm sending you away! 225 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:35,000 My poor loved one, you can't bear to see the rats rumming about my feet again. 226 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:39,000 Beatrice! Beatrice, Beatrice! 227 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:44,000 Yes, yes, it's true. 228 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:47,000 In a cell swarming with vermin. 229 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:51,000 There are others I'd rather see here. 230 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:53,000 I'd rather see... 231 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:59,000 Did you call me Captain Dalbray? 232 00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:02,000 Then in spirit I am here. 233 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:03,000 Who are you? 234 00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:05,000 Do you want to recognize me? 235 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:06,000 No, I do not. 236 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:12,000 I am that second Inquisitor, Tra Antonio, whom you thought unfair at your trial. 237 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,000 But we were not unfair. 238 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:17,000 We administer the law. That is all. 239 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:21,000 So I command you go. 240 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:25,000 Not until I have first told you what you already get. 241 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:26,000 Which is? 242 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:30,000 There are two forms of death for such as you. 243 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:39,000 One death with its direst physical torture, the other death with its direst mental torture. 244 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:44,000 And I... I have been condemned to the second... 245 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:48,000 Your guess is good. Listen. 246 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:49,000 Yes? 247 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:50,000 Do you hear anything? 248 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:53,000 Yes, yes, I do. I hear something. 249 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:56,000 Turn your eyes upwards. 250 00:17:56,000 --> 00:17:57,000 Yes? 251 00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:58,000 Look at the ceiling. 252 00:17:58,000 --> 00:17:59,000 The pendulum. 253 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:00,000 Aye, the pendulum. 254 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:01,000 It's descended. 255 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:04,000 Only a foot or so, as yet. 256 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:08,000 As you notice, it is not really a pendulum. 257 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:14,000 It's underside is a crescent, formed of sharp, of razor-sharp steel. 258 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:15,000 You mean... 259 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:18,000 The ponderous weight, Captain Dalbray. 260 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:21,000 Its movement is slow now. 261 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:24,000 But soon it will take on momentum. 262 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,000 It will swing wider and wider. 263 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,000 Thirty feet, perhaps. 264 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:35,000 Presently, as it swings, you will hear it hiss. 265 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:40,000 And with each broad movement, it will creep a trifle lower. 266 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:43,000 Steel is directly above me. 267 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:44,000 Yes. 268 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:50,000 But the region of your heart, lie still and look up at it. 269 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:53,000 How? How long before? 270 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:58,000 We have no immediate fears. It will not be too soon. 271 00:18:58,000 --> 00:18:59,000 But how soon? 272 00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:00,000 Who can tell? 273 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:04,000 In the name of pity, give me some answer. 274 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:09,000 Ours, perhaps days, is beginning to swing wider. 275 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:13,000 I... I can't take my eyes from it. 276 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:17,000 Its glitter fascinates you. Eh? 277 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,000 See how it shines in that wild light. 278 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:23,000 And this is your utmost refinement in cruelty. 279 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:28,000 The law, Captain Dalbray, is never cruel. 280 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:34,000 And now, still in spirit, I leave you to your meditations. 281 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:37,000 It will not be too soon. 282 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:55,000 Minutes, hours, days... 283 00:19:55,000 --> 00:20:00,000 Down, steadily down it crept. 284 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:01,000 Days passed. 285 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:05,000 It might have been many days before it swept so closely. 286 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:09,000 It has to fan me with its morbid breath. 287 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:16,000 Minutes, hours, days... 288 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:21,000 The odor of the sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils. 289 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:26,000 Right to the left. 290 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:32,000 Far and wide, the shriek of a damned spirit. 291 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:38,000 My heart with a stealthy pace of a tiger. 292 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:46,000 Down, certainly, relentlessly down. 293 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:48,000 I prayed. 294 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:52,000 I wearied heaven with my prayer for its more speedy descent. 295 00:20:52,000 --> 00:21:00,000 I grew frantically mad and struggled to force myself up against that swinging, glittering death. 296 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:12,000 Down, still unceasingly, still inevitably down, the sharp steel crushed past within three inches of my chest. 297 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:15,000 Beard! Beardess! 298 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:16,000 John? 299 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:18,000 Beardess! Spirit, where are you? 300 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:23,000 I heard you calling, John. I am here. 301 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:28,000 It is a strange thing, Beardess. I'm quite calm. 302 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:29,000 You are resigned, then. 303 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:35,000 No. That is the strange thing. Even now I am not resigned. 304 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:36,000 Is there a way out? 305 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:43,000 How can there be? Ten, twelve more vibrations and will fray the surge of my robe. 306 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:47,000 Only lightly, as a loser, in a delicate hand. 307 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:53,000 There will be many sweeps before it bites deep. No, I can't escape it. 308 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:57,000 You kept me away from you, John. You locked me out of your thoughts. 309 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:01,000 If I am here only in your thoughts, why should I fear the rats? 310 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:02,000 The rats! 311 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:06,000 You open your eyes and your eyes blaze. What is it? 312 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:09,000 The rats! Do they still swarm here? 313 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:13,000 Across the floor and over the meat platter. They have taken nearly all your food. 314 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:16,000 Yes, yes, yes. Of course they are rabidness and they have sharp teeth. 315 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:17,000 Well... 316 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:23,000 The meat is oily and spiced. If I take what remains of it, scatter you, vermin, and rub that meat on the bandages that hold me here. 317 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:24,000 Try it, John, try. 318 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:27,000 It may be too late. If I move my body a factor of an inch up... 319 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:29,000 Try it, I tell you, try. 320 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,000 But look, this creature, as soon as I do try... 321 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,000 But they are watching you. I can see their eyes. Look, they are creeping back. 322 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:40,000 Can I stand the rats crawling across me? Can the flesh bear it? 323 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:45,000 One of them has leaped on the wooden framework. Another follows. They are gnawing at the bandage. 324 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:48,000 Seven, eight more sweeps of the pendulum and... 325 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:49,000 The bandage, give way! 326 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:50,000 A little more... 327 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:52,000 Lie still, John, lie still. 328 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:58,000 Ten, twelve, a dozen rats now. Is death, I wonder, worse than this disgust? 329 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:03,000 A dozen sharp knives could do no better. The bandage is loosened to ribbons. 330 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:07,000 Now, if you move sideways, carefully, and drop to the floor... 331 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:12,000 The better I can move. My arms and my legs are numb. There is no power to... 332 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:16,000 The steel has braided your robe. A minute more will be too late. Try. 333 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:22,000 Then with all the spunk that is in me, and all the hate that I bear my enemies... 334 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:24,000 Freeze! 335 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:26,000 The second frame! 336 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:28,000 Freeze! 337 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:37,000 Easy, John. The pendulum stops. They are drawing it back up through the roof. 338 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:43,000 Each move I make, they watched. You never doubted? 339 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:46,000 Yet with all they could do to you, they have failed twice. 340 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:50,000 They will not fail. No more galling with a king of terrors. 341 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,000 What else can they do? 342 00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:56,000 I can't say. See how the rats gnaw in silence at that bandage. 343 00:23:56,000 --> 00:23:59,000 To what food, I wonder? 344 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:00,000 But you escaped the pit. 345 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:04,000 I escaped it once. Listen. 346 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,000 What do you hear? 347 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:10,000 A groaning, a grinding as of metal. 348 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,000 It was only the cogwheels of the pendulum. 349 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,000 I think not, Beatrice. Why not? 350 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:17,000 It seemed to come from behind those iron-plated walls. 351 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:21,000 It seemed to shake the dungeon as a mill wheel might shake it. 352 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,000 Stand up, my poor John. Get up off your knees. 353 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,000 I can't, Beatrice. I can't endure any more. 354 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:32,000 The paintings on the walls of this dungeon, the skeletons and imps and devils, they seem different. 355 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:35,000 They are different. The colors sharpen and grow bright. 356 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:39,000 The demons' eyes glare. The skeleton hands are stretched. 357 00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:43,000 Don't you catch even yet the odor of heated iron? 358 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:44,000 Heated iron? 359 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:49,000 Beatrice, my darling, I have been much humbled. 360 00:24:49,000 --> 00:24:53,000 But I won't. I won't have you see me in tears. 361 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,000 I'll order you to go. 362 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:56,000 John, in the name of heaven. 363 00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:57,000 Beatrice. 364 00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:58,000 You're sending me away. 365 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:02,000 Yes, yes, in the name of heaven. Go, go. 366 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:06,000 A suffocating heat pervaded the prison. 367 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:10,000 A deeper glow settled in the painted eyes that glared at me. 368 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,000 I could draw no breath of air into my lungs. 369 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:16,000 Against the loom of that fiery destruction, 370 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:19,000 the thought of the pit and its coolness 371 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,000 come like a soothing balm. 372 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:25,000 I staggered to the edge of the pit. I looked into it. 373 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:28,000 The enkindled walls and roof lighted it. 374 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:32,000 To its depths. Yet for one wild moment, even then, 375 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:37,000 I refused to believe the horror of what I saw beneath me. 376 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:40,000 Does the pit please you, Captain Dalbury? 377 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:41,000 Does the pit? 378 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:44,000 Mercy will guard anything but that. 379 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,000 And how shall you avoid it? 380 00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:48,000 Look. 381 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:52,000 This dungeon has changed its shape. 382 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:53,000 That is true. 383 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:56,000 The walls are covered with a layer of dust. 384 00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:00,000 That is true. The walls are closing in. 385 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:04,000 It was formerly a square, and now it is flattening. 386 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:09,000 You slowly toward the center to force me into the pit? 387 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:10,000 Of course. 388 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:13,000 Ah, well, it'll force you along with me. 389 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,000 Again, apparently, you must be told, Captain Dalbury, 390 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:20,000 that you are speaking only to your own sick fancy. 391 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:23,000 I am not here at all. Farewell. 392 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:29,000 Now, now closer and closer through the red burning walls, 393 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:33,000 forcing me into the pit with a swiftness that left me no time for thought. 394 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:38,000 I shrank back, but the closing walls pressed me relentlessly onward. 395 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:44,000 At length, for my steered and writhing body that was no longer an inch of foothold, 396 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:49,000 I, I'd seen one. I'd potted on the edge of the pit. 397 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:59,000 The fiery walls rushed back, an outstretched arm caught my own, 398 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:02,000 as I was about to fall, fleeting into the abyss. 399 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:05,000 It was that of General La Salle. 400 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:07,000 The French army had entered Toledo. 401 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:11,000 The Inquisition was in the hands of its enemies. 402 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:38,000 Speed, not time! 403 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:45,000 And so closes Poe's celebrated story, The Pit and the Pendulum, starring Henry Hull. 404 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:51,000 We invite you to another adventure of suspense next Tuesday at the same hour. 405 00:27:51,000 --> 00:28:02,000 Until then, this is The Man in Black, saying good night. 406 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:08,000 William Spear, the producer, John Dietz, the director, Bernard Herrmann, the composer-conductor, 407 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:14,000 and John Dixon Carr, the author, are collaborators on... 408 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:26,000 Dispense. 409 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:37,000 This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.