WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:01.000 Suspense. 00:30.000 --> 00:36.000 This is your narrator, the man in black, again about to introduce tonight's Columbia program, 00:37.000 --> 00:38.000 Suspense. 00:39.000 --> 00:46.000 The story is The Pit in the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe, the adaptation by John Dickson Carr. 00:47.000 --> 00:54.000 Our guest is the distinguished American actor, Mr. Henry Hull, who plays the part of a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. 00:54.000 --> 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, 01:04.000 --> 01:09.000 to hold you in a precarious situation and withhold the solution until the last possible moment. 01:09.000 --> 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. 01:24.000 --> 01:43.000 And now, The Pit in the Pendulum. 01:43.000 --> 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. 01:58.000 --> 02:04.000 The sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged in one dreamy, indeterminate hum. 02:04.000 --> 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. 02:16.000 --> 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. 02:24.000 --> 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. 02:38.000 --> 02:46.000 Jean Delbray, Captain Jean Delbray. 02:47.000 --> 02:48.000 Good father, gentlemen. 02:49.000 --> 02:50.000 We hear you, my son. 02:50.000 --> 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. 02:58.000 --> 02:59.000 Conscience one trusts. 03:00.000 --> 03:01.000 Pray silence, Rar Antonio. 03:02.000 --> 03:07.000 Even, even now I, I have no knowledge of where I am or to whom I may be speaking. 03:08.000 --> 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. 03:16.000 --> 03:20.000 Is this, is this the court of the Inquisition? 03:21.000 --> 03:21.000 It is. 03:22.000 --> 03:23.000 Then, then God help me. 03:24.000 --> 03:26.000 He will help you, my son, if you trust him. 03:27.000 --> 03:28.000 I, I am a French officer. 03:29.000 --> 03:31.000 That is true. A soldier and creature of the arch being Napoleon Bonaparte. 03:32.000 --> 03:36.000 But a French officer nonetheless. A prisoner of war. That's what right you try me in this court. 03:37.000 --> 03:42.000 Let the clerk read the charges against this prisoner. Pray silence while the clerk reads the charges. 03:42.000 --> 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. 03:51.000 --> 03:54.000 This means nothing, as the prisoner says it is no crime. Proceed. 03:55.000 --> 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. 04:06.000 --> 04:07.000 One moment. 04:07.000 --> 04:14.000 Your excellency, folks. Antonio, was any cheat employed to trap this girl into marriage against her will? 04:15.000 --> 04:18.000 No, we have no actual evidence of any cheat. 04:19.000 --> 04:20.000 Was the girl of age? I believe so. 04:21.000 --> 04:22.000 Then wherefore is the prisoner here? 04:24.000 --> 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. 04:34.000 --> 04:38.000 But lawful marriage, however regrettable, is no sin, no crime. 04:39.000 --> 04:41.000 There are other matters in the indictment, I think. 04:42.000 --> 04:45.000 Then continue. But give us nothing that is not material. 04:46.000 --> 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. 04:57.000 --> 04:57.000 What? 04:58.000 --> 05:01.000 And thereby of his wicked malice destroyed that church utterly. 05:01.000 --> 05:05.000 Captain Dalbray, is this charge true? 05:06.000 --> 05:06.000 It is, yes. 05:06.000 --> 05:06.000 You admit it? 05:07.000 --> 05:09.000 Good Father, hear what I have to say. The church blew up, I think. 05:10.000 --> 05:11.000 Will you boast of your senior man? 05:12.000 --> 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. 05:18.000 --> 05:20.000 And that is all the defense you have to make. 05:21.000 --> 05:23.000 I tell you, I had every right to file on it. By military law. 05:24.000 --> 05:27.000 Is military law above God's law? 05:27.000 --> 05:32.000 I, I don't know. I did my duty, that's all. 05:33.000 --> 05:34.000 Long live the Emperor! 05:35.000 --> 05:44.000 Captain Dalbray, mark what I say. No man, however great his heresy, is ever condemned to be burnt in the fire. 05:45.000 --> 05:45.000 The fire? 05:46.000 --> 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. 05:55.000 --> 05:59.000 The only sentence of this court can be death. 06:00.000 --> 06:01.000 Death. 06:02.000 --> 06:09.000 The secular, a government after which we must release you, has devised two ways of punishment in cases such as yours. 06:10.000 --> 06:12.000 You hear the tolling of the bells? 06:13.000 --> 06:14.000 I hear them. 06:15.000 --> 06:18.000 It is the procession of the condemned going to the auto-da-fait. 06:19.000 --> 06:23.000 Soon the yellow light of the flames will stream through the windows and flicker on the floor and the ceiling. 06:23.000 --> 06:28.000 Nunca he denora mortis in tuismande posomene. 06:29.000 --> 06:35.000 Most of those condemned out of mercy will be strangled before they are burned. 06:36.000 --> 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. 06:45.000 --> 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. 06:54.000 --> 06:59.000 Or else, Jean Dalbray, you must die in a certain other way. 07:00.000 --> 07:04.000 I've done with this. Pass your sentence and let me go. 07:05.000 --> 07:08.000 The law does not permit me to tell you now what this other way is. 07:08.000 --> 07:14.000 The sentence of this court therefore... 07:15.000 --> 07:22.000 I... I had swooned. Yet still I would not say that all of consciousness was lost. 07:23.000 --> 07:29.000 In the deepest slumber, no. In delirium, no. In a swoon, no. In death, no. 07:30.000 --> 07:33.000 Even in the grave, all is not lost. 07:33.000 --> 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. 07:46.000 --> 07:51.000 Until their hideous dizziness oppressed me at the descent into the earth. 07:51.000 --> 08:04.000 Then, as consciousness swam back to my widths, darkness, the stone floor and darkness. 08:05.000 --> 08:09.000 Oh, Beatrice. Beatrice, my wife, Beatrice! 08:10.000 --> 08:12.000 Did you call me, Jean? 08:13.000 --> 08:14.000 Beatrice, was that you who spoke? 08:15.000 --> 08:16.000 Yes, Jean. 08:17.000 --> 08:18.000 You here in the dungeon of the Inquisition... 08:18.000 --> 08:23.000 I am not really speaking to you, my poor Jean. I am only in your imagination. 08:24.000 --> 08:25.000 Am I mad, Beatrice? 08:26.000 --> 08:28.000 No, but your brain is fevered. You only think you hear. 08:29.000 --> 08:32.000 No, no, no. I do. I do. I hear you clearly. As clearly as I once heard you. 08:33.000 --> 08:35.000 In the little church near the Abro where we were married. 08:36.000 --> 08:40.000 Yes, yes, yes. I destroyed that church, Beatrice. I had to. It was my commanding officer's order. 08:41.000 --> 08:44.000 I know, Jean. Be comforted. There are those who care. 08:45.000 --> 08:46.000 You won't leave me! 08:46.000 --> 08:48.000 As strong as I am in your heart, I shall be here. 08:49.000 --> 08:57.000 I was strong once. Now, I am weak. Once I was reckless. Now, I am afraid. 08:58.000 --> 09:00.000 Where am I, Beatrice? What are you going to do to me? 09:01.000 --> 09:05.000 I cannot tell. Remember, my voice comes only from your own brain. 09:06.000 --> 09:07.000 Are you fettered? 09:08.000 --> 09:10.000 Fettered? No. 09:11.000 --> 09:12.000 They've not chained you to the wall? 09:12.000 --> 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. 09:20.000 --> 09:22.000 But I'm still free. Free. 09:23.000 --> 09:24.000 Take courage, Jean. 09:25.000 --> 09:30.000 Free. And in the grasp of the Inquisition, Beatrice. 09:31.000 --> 09:32.000 Yes, Jean? 09:33.000 --> 09:38.000 It's completely dark. There's hardly any air. I dread to get up. I dread to stretch out my hand. 09:38.000 --> 09:41.000 Suppose... suppose they've buried me alive. 09:42.000 --> 09:46.000 Courage! Can you stand up? 09:47.000 --> 09:48.000 I think so, yes. 09:49.000 --> 09:55.000 Then walk. Walk as far as you can. Measure the limit of the cell. If this is not a tomb... 09:56.000 --> 09:58.000 You're right, Beatrice. That always... I'll find... 09:59.000 --> 10:00.000 Are you on your feet? 10:01.000 --> 10:05.000 Yes. Now pray. Pray for a poor devil who always meant well. 10:05.000 --> 10:10.000 One pace. Two paces. Three. Four. 10:11.000 --> 10:14.000 You are very weak, Jean. Rest a moment. 10:15.000 --> 10:17.000 Where are you now, Beatrice? In the flesh, I mean. 10:18.000 --> 10:22.000 You know that, Jean. In the old house by the olive grove, scorned of my people. 10:23.000 --> 10:24.000 Yes, I know it. 10:25.000 --> 10:26.000 Each morning I climb to the hilltop and watch. 10:27.000 --> 10:28.000 Go on, go on. 10:29.000 --> 10:30.000 Sometimes I think I hear gunwaves rumble in the hills. 10:31.000 --> 10:32.000 Yes. Yes. 10:32.000 --> 10:35.000 The wind is blowing, moving colors, with the red dust rising about them. 10:36.000 --> 10:37.000 Go on, go on. 10:38.000 --> 10:39.000 First come the heavy cavalry in bloom-crested helmets. 10:40.000 --> 10:41.000 Yes. 10:42.000 --> 10:44.000 On their flanks, wheeling like hawks, light hussars in blue and scarlet. 10:45.000 --> 10:48.000 And behind them, in a glitter of bayonets as vast as light points on the sea. 10:49.000 --> 10:50.000 Yes. 10:51.000 --> 10:54.000 Rank upon ranks, the long gray coats and the tall, bare-skinned caps. 10:55.000 --> 10:57.000 The old guard and the Grand Army. 10:57.000 --> 11:02.000 It is only a vision, my dear one. They do not come. 11:03.000 --> 11:06.000 Ah, will they? Will they ever come, Beatrice? 11:07.000 --> 11:08.000 I cannot tell. 11:09.000 --> 11:14.000 Then, then I must face what has been prepared for me. 11:15.000 --> 11:19.000 Walk again, Jean. Try. Keep your hand in front of you. 11:20.000 --> 11:23.000 This rope, this rope, it impedes me, and the floor is treacherous with slime. 11:24.000 --> 11:25.000 But I'll try. 11:25.000 --> 11:31.000 Ah, four pieces. Five, six, seven. 11:32.000 --> 11:33.000 It can't be a tomb. 11:34.000 --> 11:35.000 Eight, nine. 11:36.000 --> 11:37.000 Look out! 11:38.000 --> 11:40.000 Ah, I'm all right. I'm all right. 11:41.000 --> 11:45.000 I fell, I fell to my knees. I, the rope, the rope tripped me. 11:45.000 --> 11:54.000 My, my hand is in front of me. It's lower than my face, but I, I feel, I feel nothing. 11:55.000 --> 11:56.000 Nothing, Jean? 11:57.000 --> 12:01.000 It's a pit, a circular pit, and I fell on the very edge of it. 12:02.000 --> 12:04.000 Oh, they would have made you walk into it. 12:05.000 --> 12:08.000 Yes, oh, there, there's a loose fragment of rock just inside the edge. 12:08.000 --> 12:14.000 But if I can dislodge it, it might elicit... 12:21.000 --> 12:22.000 Water. 12:23.000 --> 12:25.000 There's, there's something down there. 12:26.000 --> 12:27.000 Rats, it may be. 12:28.000 --> 12:30.000 Rats, yes, but something else, I, I heard it move. 12:31.000 --> 12:33.000 So did I. What is in the pit, Jean? 12:34.000 --> 12:35.000 I don't know. 12:35.000 --> 12:40.000 Saved? Saved, Beatrice, saved from the Inquisition. 12:41.000 --> 12:46.000 My, my torture has been merely postponed. 12:46.000 --> 12:53.000 At last, a deep sleep fell upon me. Sleep like that of death. 12:54.000 --> 12:56.000 How long it lasted, I, I know not. 12:57.000 --> 13:02.000 But when I opened my eyes once again, I could see. 13:03.000 --> 13:06.000 I could see, I could see, I could see. 13:07.000 --> 13:10.000 I could see, I could see, I could see. 13:10.000 --> 13:16.000 I know not. But when I opened my eyes once again, I could see. 13:17.000 --> 13:19.000 Yes, see. 13:20.000 --> 13:25.000 My prison was large and lofty. Its walls formed a massive iron place, bolted adjoined together. 13:26.000 --> 13:28.000 A wild, sulfurous luster. I could not trace its origin. 13:29.000 --> 13:31.000 Lit up the dungeon and the circular pit. 13:32.000 --> 13:36.000 And the crudely dogged skeleton figures painted in evil colors on the iron walls. 13:36.000 --> 13:40.000 Skeleton figures, demon figures, gargoyle figures. 13:41.000 --> 13:45.000 The colors a little blurred from the effects of the damp. 13:46.000 --> 13:50.000 It must approach you slowly and force itself into your mind. 13:51.000 --> 13:53.000 It must stalk you like a tiger. 13:54.000 --> 13:58.000 It must bring you face to face at last with the King of Terror. 13:58.000 --> 14:07.000 When I, when I regained consciousness, I lay on my back in a full length on a low framework of wood. 14:08.000 --> 14:14.000 Through this framework I was securely bound by a long, fastening, resembling surgical bandage. 14:15.000 --> 14:19.000 Bound, but why? Why? Why? Why? 14:20.000 --> 14:22.000 The bandage passed round and round my body. 14:22.000 --> 14:27.000 Leaving at liberty only my head and my left arm. 14:28.000 --> 14:34.000 With much exertion I could supply myself with food from an earthen dish on the floor beside me. 14:35.000 --> 14:41.000 It was meat, highly seasoned. But there was no water. 14:44.000 --> 14:47.000 Beatrice! Beatrice, where are you? 14:48.000 --> 14:50.000 Here, John, as always. 14:50.000 --> 14:51.000 As always. 14:51.000 --> 14:52.000 Your voice sounds stronger. 14:52.000 --> 14:53.000 Does it, John? 14:53.000 --> 14:59.000 And I, I can see you now. I can see you as clearly as I saw you months ago. 14:59.000 --> 15:01.000 Oh, I wish it were true. 15:01.000 --> 15:04.000 Your bonnet and the parasol you carried in summer and the high-waisted blue dress. 15:04.000 --> 15:07.000 You are weaker, my dear, and more feverish. 15:07.000 --> 15:09.000 Have I, have I been asleep? 15:09.000 --> 15:10.000 Yes, John. 15:11.000 --> 15:16.000 They must have been here while I slept. They bound me. Why? 15:17.000 --> 15:18.000 Why? 15:18.000 --> 15:20.000 Why? Why? 15:20.000 --> 15:22.000 Stop those voices! Stop them! 15:22.000 --> 15:28.000 Mine too, John. I am not here either, you know. Don't drive me away. 15:28.000 --> 15:29.000 Beatrice, Beatrice, look, look, look. 15:29.000 --> 15:30.000 Where? 15:30.000 --> 15:32.000 At the ceiling of this room, 30, 40 feet up what you see. 15:32.000 --> 15:35.000 I see painted on the ceiling a figure of Father Time. 15:35.000 --> 15:36.000 Anything else? 15:36.000 --> 15:38.000 But Father Time carries no sign. 15:38.000 --> 15:39.000 No. 15:39.000 --> 15:44.000 He carries instead what looks like a gigantic pendulum from an ancient clock. 15:44.000 --> 15:47.000 About one thing I swear I'm in my right senses. I saw that pendulum move. 15:47.000 --> 15:49.000 A painting cannot move. 15:49.000 --> 15:56.000 Yet I swear the pendulum did move. It swung a little back and forth just like a real pendulum. 15:56.000 --> 15:58.000 Try not to trouble your brain. 15:58.000 --> 16:01.000 That pendulum is real. Beatrice, Beatrice, take care. 16:01.000 --> 16:04.000 Take care of what? You're not looking at the pendulum now. 16:04.000 --> 16:06.000 Take care of the rats, the rats, and the pit. 16:06.000 --> 16:07.000 I see them. 16:07.000 --> 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. 16:13.000 --> 16:14.000 Did it, John? 16:14.000 --> 16:15.000 What did they want? 16:15.000 --> 16:17.000 They wanted to taste the scent of the meat in the dish beside it. 16:17.000 --> 16:18.000 But they'll not get it. 16:18.000 --> 16:19.000 Go away, you family! 16:19.000 --> 16:22.000 Move your hand above the plate, John. Move! 16:22.000 --> 16:24.000 Beatrice, Beatrice, where are you going? 16:24.000 --> 16:27.000 I can hardly hear you. 16:27.000 --> 16:28.000 You are sending me away, John. 16:28.000 --> 16:30.000 I'm sending you away! 16:30.000 --> 16:35.000 My poor loved one, you can't bear to see the rats rumming about my feet again. 16:35.000 --> 16:39.000 Beatrice! Beatrice, Beatrice! 16:39.000 --> 16:44.000 Yes, yes, it's true. 16:44.000 --> 16:47.000 In a cell swarming with vermin. 16:47.000 --> 16:51.000 There are others I'd rather see here. 16:51.000 --> 16:53.000 I'd rather see... 16:56.000 --> 16:59.000 Did you call me Captain Dalbray? 16:59.000 --> 17:02.000 Then in spirit I am here. 17:02.000 --> 17:03.000 Who are you? 17:03.000 --> 17:05.000 Do you want to recognize me? 17:05.000 --> 17:06.000 No, I do not. 17:06.000 --> 17:12.000 I am that second Inquisitor, Tra Antonio, whom you thought unfair at your trial. 17:12.000 --> 17:14.000 But we were not unfair. 17:14.000 --> 17:17.000 We administer the law. That is all. 17:17.000 --> 17:21.000 So I command you go. 17:21.000 --> 17:25.000 Not until I have first told you what you already get. 17:25.000 --> 17:26.000 Which is? 17:26.000 --> 17:30.000 There are two forms of death for such as you. 17:30.000 --> 17:39.000 One death with its direst physical torture, the other death with its direst mental torture. 17:39.000 --> 17:44.000 And I... I have been condemned to the second... 17:44.000 --> 17:48.000 Your guess is good. Listen. 17:48.000 --> 17:49.000 Yes? 17:49.000 --> 17:50.000 Do you hear anything? 17:50.000 --> 17:53.000 Yes, yes, I do. I hear something. 17:53.000 --> 17:56.000 Turn your eyes upwards. 17:56.000 --> 17:57.000 Yes? 17:57.000 --> 17:58.000 Look at the ceiling. 17:58.000 --> 17:59.000 The pendulum. 17:59.000 --> 18:00.000 Aye, the pendulum. 18:00.000 --> 18:01.000 It's descended. 18:01.000 --> 18:04.000 Only a foot or so, as yet. 18:04.000 --> 18:08.000 As you notice, it is not really a pendulum. 18:08.000 --> 18:14.000 It's underside is a crescent, formed of sharp, of razor-sharp steel. 18:14.000 --> 18:15.000 You mean... 18:15.000 --> 18:18.000 The ponderous weight, Captain Dalbray. 18:18.000 --> 18:21.000 Its movement is slow now. 18:21.000 --> 18:24.000 But soon it will take on momentum. 18:24.000 --> 18:27.000 It will swing wider and wider. 18:27.000 --> 18:29.000 Thirty feet, perhaps. 18:29.000 --> 18:35.000 Presently, as it swings, you will hear it hiss. 18:35.000 --> 18:40.000 And with each broad movement, it will creep a trifle lower. 18:40.000 --> 18:43.000 Steel is directly above me. 18:43.000 --> 18:44.000 Yes. 18:44.000 --> 18:50.000 But the region of your heart, lie still and look up at it. 18:50.000 --> 18:53.000 How? How long before? 18:53.000 --> 18:58.000 We have no immediate fears. It will not be too soon. 18:58.000 --> 18:59.000 But how soon? 18:59.000 --> 19:00.000 Who can tell? 19:00.000 --> 19:04.000 In the name of pity, give me some answer. 19:04.000 --> 19:09.000 Ours, perhaps days, is beginning to swing wider. 19:09.000 --> 19:13.000 I... I can't take my eyes from it. 19:13.000 --> 19:17.000 Its glitter fascinates you. Eh? 19:17.000 --> 19:19.000 See how it shines in that wild light. 19:19.000 --> 19:23.000 And this is your utmost refinement in cruelty. 19:23.000 --> 19:28.000 The law, Captain Dalbray, is never cruel. 19:28.000 --> 19:34.000 And now, still in spirit, I leave you to your meditations. 19:34.000 --> 19:37.000 It will not be too soon. 19:37.000 --> 19:55.000 Minutes, hours, days... 19:55.000 --> 20:00.000 Down, steadily down it crept. 20:00.000 --> 20:01.000 Days passed. 20:01.000 --> 20:05.000 It might have been many days before it swept so closely. 20:05.000 --> 20:09.000 It has to fan me with its morbid breath. 20:09.000 --> 20:16.000 Minutes, hours, days... 20:16.000 --> 20:21.000 The odor of the sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils. 20:21.000 --> 20:26.000 Right to the left. 20:26.000 --> 20:32.000 Far and wide, the shriek of a damned spirit. 20:32.000 --> 20:38.000 My heart with a stealthy pace of a tiger. 20:38.000 --> 20:46.000 Down, certainly, relentlessly down. 20:46.000 --> 20:48.000 I prayed. 20:48.000 --> 20:52.000 I wearied heaven with my prayer for its more speedy descent. 20:52.000 --> 21:00.000 I grew frantically mad and struggled to force myself up against that swinging, glittering death. 21:00.000 --> 21:12.000 Down, still unceasingly, still inevitably down, the sharp steel crushed past within three inches of my chest. 21:12.000 --> 21:15.000 Beard! Beardess! 21:15.000 --> 21:16.000 John? 21:16.000 --> 21:18.000 Beardess! Spirit, where are you? 21:18.000 --> 21:23.000 I heard you calling, John. I am here. 21:23.000 --> 21:28.000 It is a strange thing, Beardess. I'm quite calm. 21:28.000 --> 21:29.000 You are resigned, then. 21:29.000 --> 21:35.000 No. That is the strange thing. Even now I am not resigned. 21:35.000 --> 21:36.000 Is there a way out? 21:36.000 --> 21:43.000 How can there be? Ten, twelve more vibrations and will fray the surge of my robe. 21:43.000 --> 21:47.000 Only lightly, as a loser, in a delicate hand. 21:47.000 --> 21:53.000 There will be many sweeps before it bites deep. No, I can't escape it. 21:53.000 --> 21:57.000 You kept me away from you, John. You locked me out of your thoughts. 21:57.000 --> 22:01.000 If I am here only in your thoughts, why should I fear the rats? 22:01.000 --> 22:02.000 The rats! 22:02.000 --> 22:06.000 You open your eyes and your eyes blaze. What is it? 22:06.000 --> 22:09.000 The rats! Do they still swarm here? 22:09.000 --> 22:13.000 Across the floor and over the meat platter. They have taken nearly all your food. 22:13.000 --> 22:16.000 Yes, yes, yes. Of course they are rabidness and they have sharp teeth. 22:16.000 --> 22:17.000 Well... 22:17.000 --> 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. 22:23.000 --> 22:24.000 Try it, John, try. 22:24.000 --> 22:27.000 It may be too late. If I move my body a factor of an inch up... 22:27.000 --> 22:29.000 Try it, I tell you, try. 22:29.000 --> 22:32.000 But look, this creature, as soon as I do try... 22:32.000 --> 22:36.000 But they are watching you. I can see their eyes. Look, they are creeping back. 22:36.000 --> 22:40.000 Can I stand the rats crawling across me? Can the flesh bear it? 22:40.000 --> 22:45.000 One of them has leaped on the wooden framework. Another follows. They are gnawing at the bandage. 22:45.000 --> 22:48.000 Seven, eight more sweeps of the pendulum and... 22:48.000 --> 22:49.000 The bandage, give way! 22:49.000 --> 22:50.000 A little more... 22:50.000 --> 22:52.000 Lie still, John, lie still. 22:52.000 --> 22:58.000 Ten, twelve, a dozen rats now. Is death, I wonder, worse than this disgust? 22:58.000 --> 23:03.000 A dozen sharp knives could do no better. The bandage is loosened to ribbons. 23:03.000 --> 23:07.000 Now, if you move sideways, carefully, and drop to the floor... 23:07.000 --> 23:12.000 The better I can move. My arms and my legs are numb. There is no power to... 23:12.000 --> 23:16.000 The steel has braided your robe. A minute more will be too late. Try. 23:16.000 --> 23:22.000 Then with all the spunk that is in me, and all the hate that I bear my enemies... 23:22.000 --> 23:24.000 Freeze! 23:24.000 --> 23:26.000 The second frame! 23:26.000 --> 23:28.000 Freeze! 23:30.000 --> 23:37.000 Easy, John. The pendulum stops. They are drawing it back up through the roof. 23:37.000 --> 23:43.000 Each move I make, they watched. You never doubted? 23:43.000 --> 23:46.000 Yet with all they could do to you, they have failed twice. 23:46.000 --> 23:50.000 They will not fail. No more galling with a king of terrors. 23:50.000 --> 23:52.000 What else can they do? 23:52.000 --> 23:56.000 I can't say. See how the rats gnaw in silence at that bandage. 23:56.000 --> 23:59.000 To what food, I wonder? 23:59.000 --> 24:00.000 But you escaped the pit. 24:00.000 --> 24:04.000 I escaped it once. Listen. 24:04.000 --> 24:06.000 What do you hear? 24:06.000 --> 24:10.000 A groaning, a grinding as of metal. 24:10.000 --> 24:12.000 It was only the cogwheels of the pendulum. 24:12.000 --> 24:14.000 I think not, Beatrice. Why not? 24:14.000 --> 24:17.000 It seemed to come from behind those iron-plated walls. 24:17.000 --> 24:21.000 It seemed to shake the dungeon as a mill wheel might shake it. 24:21.000 --> 24:23.000 Stand up, my poor John. Get up off your knees. 24:23.000 --> 24:26.000 I can't, Beatrice. I can't endure any more. 24:26.000 --> 24:32.000 The paintings on the walls of this dungeon, the skeletons and imps and devils, they seem different. 24:32.000 --> 24:35.000 They are different. The colors sharpen and grow bright. 24:35.000 --> 24:39.000 The demons' eyes glare. The skeleton hands are stretched. 24:39.000 --> 24:43.000 Don't you catch even yet the odor of heated iron? 24:43.000 --> 24:44.000 Heated iron? 24:44.000 --> 24:49.000 Beatrice, my darling, I have been much humbled. 24:49.000 --> 24:53.000 But I won't. I won't have you see me in tears. 24:53.000 --> 24:55.000 I'll order you to go. 24:55.000 --> 24:56.000 John, in the name of heaven. 24:56.000 --> 24:57.000 Beatrice. 24:57.000 --> 24:58.000 You're sending me away. 24:58.000 --> 25:02.000 Yes, yes, in the name of heaven. Go, go. 25:02.000 --> 25:06.000 A suffocating heat pervaded the prison. 25:06.000 --> 25:10.000 A deeper glow settled in the painted eyes that glared at me. 25:10.000 --> 25:13.000 I could draw no breath of air into my lungs. 25:13.000 --> 25:16.000 Against the loom of that fiery destruction, 25:16.000 --> 25:19.000 the thought of the pit and its coolness 25:19.000 --> 25:22.000 come like a soothing balm. 25:22.000 --> 25:25.000 I staggered to the edge of the pit. I looked into it. 25:25.000 --> 25:28.000 The enkindled walls and roof lighted it. 25:28.000 --> 25:32.000 To its depths. Yet for one wild moment, even then, 25:32.000 --> 25:37.000 I refused to believe the horror of what I saw beneath me. 25:37.000 --> 25:40.000 Does the pit please you, Captain Dalbury? 25:40.000 --> 25:41.000 Does the pit? 25:41.000 --> 25:44.000 Mercy will guard anything but that. 25:44.000 --> 25:46.000 And how shall you avoid it? 25:46.000 --> 25:48.000 Look. 25:48.000 --> 25:52.000 This dungeon has changed its shape. 25:52.000 --> 25:53.000 That is true. 25:53.000 --> 25:56.000 The walls are covered with a layer of dust. 25:56.000 --> 26:00.000 That is true. The walls are closing in. 26:00.000 --> 26:04.000 It was formerly a square, and now it is flattening. 26:04.000 --> 26:09.000 You slowly toward the center to force me into the pit? 26:09.000 --> 26:10.000 Of course. 26:10.000 --> 26:13.000 Ah, well, it'll force you along with me. 26:13.000 --> 26:16.000 Again, apparently, you must be told, Captain Dalbury, 26:16.000 --> 26:20.000 that you are speaking only to your own sick fancy. 26:20.000 --> 26:23.000 I am not here at all. Farewell. 26:23.000 --> 26:29.000 Now, now closer and closer through the red burning walls, 26:29.000 --> 26:33.000 forcing me into the pit with a swiftness that left me no time for thought. 26:33.000 --> 26:38.000 I shrank back, but the closing walls pressed me relentlessly onward. 26:38.000 --> 26:44.000 At length, for my steered and writhing body that was no longer an inch of foothold, 26:44.000 --> 26:49.000 I, I'd seen one. I'd potted on the edge of the pit. 26:49.000 --> 26:59.000 The fiery walls rushed back, an outstretched arm caught my own, 26:59.000 --> 27:02.000 as I was about to fall, fleeting into the abyss. 27:02.000 --> 27:05.000 It was that of General La Salle. 27:05.000 --> 27:07.000 The French army had entered Toledo. 27:07.000 --> 27:11.000 The Inquisition was in the hands of its enemies. 27:11.000 --> 27:38.000 Speed, not time! 27:38.000 --> 27:45.000 And so closes Poe's celebrated story, The Pit and the Pendulum, starring Henry Hull. 27:45.000 --> 27:51.000 We invite you to another adventure of suspense next Tuesday at the same hour. 27:51.000 --> 28:02.000 Until then, this is The Man in Black, saying good night. 28:02.000 --> 28:08.000 William Spear, the producer, John Dietz, the director, Bernard Herrmann, the composer-conductor, 28:08.000 --> 28:14.000 and John Dixon Carr, the author, are collaborators on... 28:14.000 --> 28:26.000 Dispense. 28:26.000 --> 28:37.000 This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.