Now, Roma Wines, R-O-M-A, made in California for enjoyment throughout the world.
Roma Wines present, Suspense.
Tonight, Roma Wines bring you Mr. James Stewart as star of Consequence, a suspense play produced,
edited and directed for Roma Wines by William Spear.
Suspense, radio's outstanding theater of thrills, is presented for your enjoyment by Roma Wines.
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Those excellent California wines that can add so much pleasantness to the way you live,
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Yes, right now a glass full would be very pleasant, as Roma Wines bring you James Stewart,
a remarkable tale of Suspense.
Maybe the costume was the decisive factor, or maybe it would have happened anyway.
In any event, the occasion was the 10th reunion, and the class of 29, as such occasions demand,
were all dressed identically in cowboy suits.
And there was Ted Wolf, whom I hadn't seen in 10 years, although in college he'd been by far my closest friend.
And so, of course, I brought him home to dinner.
And Gwen managed to be quite charming, even though it was the maids' night out.
She didn't even kick about the oven.
And that's how it started out, just like that.
Just like any pleasant, casual little evening.
Oh, Gwen, that was a wonderful meal. Last one I'll get like that for a while.
Thank you, sir.
Have you really got to go tonight, Ted? Can't you take another day or so?
Ah, not very well. Got my plane reservations and everything.
Anyway, I told them I'd be back this week, and tonight's just about the deadline if I'm going to make it.
Well, what time's your plane?
3 a.m.
Say, that reminds me, I can't go aboard in this thing.
Well, you probably will. I think you're both kind of stuck on yourselves in those cowboy outfits.
Worse than a couple of kids.
Sure, I'm going to wear mine to the hospital tomorrow.
No kidding, O.P. People will think I'm nuts.
All right, spoil sport. I'll call the hotel later. They'll bring your bags over.
You can change here. Although, I should think a cowboy suit would be a sensation in Ecuador.
Are you really going to Ecuador, Ted? At first, I thought it must be a joke.
No, well, you heard me talk about the work Ted's doing down there.
No, but Ecuador.
They've got to have medical care out on those plantations some way. And I like it.
I don't see how you stand it.
Living like a hermit, cut off from civilization and not making...
Well, I mean they can't possibly pay you...
No, no, no, no, Gwen.
Oh, what time is it?
Oh, goodness, I've got to run.
Oh, are you leaving us, Gwen?
Yes, I promised Mother I'd come out to the country tonight.
Anyway, I know you two would much rather talk over old times by yourselves.
I'm sorry. Well, in case I don't see you again, thanks for everything. It's been swell.
Well, you're coming back sometime, aren't you?
Maybe five years, maybe ten, maybe never.
Oh, silly. You come back next year and plan to stay for a while.
I am sorry I have to go, but you two have a nice evening.
Are there eggs in the icebox, Phil?
Did he always have to have fried eggs at night when he was in college, Ted?
That's Phil all right.
Well, goodbye, darling.
Now, don't even get up to come to the door. Now, I'll phone you tomorrow night.
Goodbye, Gwen.
Have a good trip, Ted.
Goodbye.
Ah, you're a lucky man, Phil.
Am I?
I suppose you know that the main reason I came to this shindig at all was to see you.
Why me? It's been a long time since you and I had the same dreams, Ted.
You haven't lost them, though. You're still in there pitching.
Oh, yes, yes.
Private practice.
Two cars in the garage, two chickens in the pot.
That's the kind of ball I've been pitching the past ten years.
And it's the kind I'll keep on pitching until some other doc says,
coronary thrombosis, and they carry me out.
Oh, you can't kid me, Phil. You're happy.
And I'd just about given up the idea that there was such a thing as a happy man.
And now you think you've found one.
I know I have. I knew it the minute I came into this room.
I knew it the minute I saw her.
Gwen?
Yes, Gwen.
I hate Gwen.
You what?
And what's more, she hates me.
Oh, it's nothing that shows on the surface.
We get along because we have to, because my reputation would suffer if we didn't.
Phil, you can't be serious.
No?
Why do you think I've given up every dream I've ever had?
Why do you think I spend my life treating the imaginary ills of a lot of wealthy hypochondriacs
so Gwen can have this and Gwen can do that,
so Gwen can satisfy every greedy instinct and every petty rotten ambition any woman ever had?
Good Lord. I never realized.
You've got to do something about it, Phil.
You've got to get out.
Go to another city.
Go to another country.
Yeah, she'd be after me like a hawk.
She'd have me up before the Medical Association.
Oh, there are a thousand and one things she'd do and would do.
I've thought every way there is.
There's no use.
Well, well, now I've got that off my chest.
Now you know.
I'm sorry I disillusioned.
Dr. Martin.
Oh.
Yes, well, well, now?
Oh, right. I'll be right down.
Hey, you're not going out now. I want to talk to you.
No, I'm still a doctor. Even Gwen can't stop that.
I'll be back before you leave, though.
If you want to stick around, I'd sort of like to ride out the airport with you.
Is it really important, Phil?
Oh, yeah. Now, just make yourself at home.
You can fix anything you want out in the kitchen, but look out for that oven, though.
It leaks when you turn it off wrong.
I won't be long.
Okay.
I'll wait, doctor.
Thanks, doctor.
Kind of hoped you would, Ted.
That was the second thing.
Ted's deciding to stay.
But I didn't know it then.
All I knew was that Joe had called from the office and she was upset.
Still, I... I decided to walk. I was upset, too.
When I got there, she was going over the accounts.
Hello, darling. Hello.
That was nice.
Well, isn't that always?
Always. Terribly.
Well, what are you doing?
Isn't all that rush to get the bills out?
There is, though. For me. For you?
Well, what is it, Joe? What's the matter?
Phil, I had a talk with Father this evening.
What? Something about us?
All about us.
Well, he doesn't know anything. He couldn't. Nobody does, unless you told him.
You know I wouldn't do that, Phil.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry, darling. I know.
Anyway, it isn't what he knows. It's what he thinks.
We had an awful row. He said he'd go to the trustees of the hospital.
He said he'd go to Gwen.
He said that?
That's why I'm getting the bills out for you now, because I'm...
I'm going away.
Where? How long?
No, darling, it's not going to be like that.
It's for good.
Well, Joe...
It's for good, Phil.
Joe, I can't let you go.
I know it hasn't been perfect. I know it's been infinitely worse for you than for me.
But at least we've had something.
At least I've always known you were here on the other side of the door,
and I could see you and talk to you.
I can't live with a door between us anymore.
Well, maybe you just don't love me enough to...
No, darling, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that.
Phil, I'm not playing noble, and I'm not trying to put you on the spot,
because it isn't as though there was some decision you could make. There isn't.
This had to happen someday, and it has. That's all.
I could go with you.
You couldn't do that, Phil.
Well, why not? I could change my name, I could go to another city, even another country.
I could get back into research. I could...
Oh, darling. It's no go, Phil.
Oh, I... I know. I...
I asked her for a divorce again this morning.
You don't have to tell me the answer.
There is no answer for us, Phil.
Not one that we can take.
There we are.
Yeah. Yeah, there we are.
Well, you... you better go now. I've got all this to do.
Well, let me help you.
No.
Why not?
I could weaken. And then where would we be?
Oh, Joe, please.
Oh, Phil, please go. Please. Please. Please.
All right. All right. I'll go.
I don't know how long I walked that night or where.
Perhaps most men are weak and never know it.
But when you're losing the woman you think you love, that's when you'll find it out.
That's when you'll see yourself at last in the pitiless glare of all your poor, frightened, shylish helplessness.
And so I walked that night.
Poor, frightened, shylish helplessness. And so I walked.
And I was sick to the depths of my soul. And I walked some more.
And somewhere in the distance I heard a siren.
There was a glow against the sky. A fire.
And then I realized I was near my home.
And then it wasn't just a glow against the sky of any fire.
It was my own house.
It burned almost to the ground.
How did it happen? I don't know. Somebody said they think it was the gas stove.
Stunned and confused, I think, again edging through the crowd.
And then there was a sudden stillness.
And a few men took off their hats.
And I saw it. The stretcher.
And the blanket thrown over the shapeless form.
And the blackened, shriveled cowboy boot.
And I remembered. Ted.
Ted had been in that house.
Yeah, which levy said you wouldn't hardly know it was a man.
Frantically I started forward and then I stopped because I thought somebody had spoken to me.
Dr. Mark. Dr. Philip Mark. I know it's you.
They weren't looking at me. They were looking at the ground and the stretcher and that thing that lay there on it.
Dr. Philip Mark. Yeah, I knew him. Oh, he was a good doctor.
Oh, Dr. Mark. Oh, what an awful way to die.
Suddenly I was shaking with excitement.
I pulled my hat over my eyes. I turned up my collar.
I edged back through the crowd out into the street and I turned the corner and then I ran.
Joe. Joe. I'm going with you.
Phil. What did you do? You haven't.
No, no, it's all right. I'll tell you about it later. We're free.
Joe. Joe, we're free. I'm dead.
I mean, I mean, Dr. Philip Martin is dead.
For Suspense, Roma Wines are bringing you as star James Stewart in Consequence
by George Sklar and Vladimir Posner.
And now, the Roma Wines presentation tonight in radio's outstanding theatre of thrills, Suspense.
Between the acts of suspense, this is Truman Bradley for Roma Wines.
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Remember, more Americans enjoy Roma than any other wine.
And now, Roma Wines bring back to our Hollywood soundstage, James Stewart,
who as Dr. Philip Martin, in consequence, continues a narrative well calculated to keep you in suspense.
There must be something of the criminal in every man,
because it seemed that I knew automatically everything I would have to do and how I was going to do it.
Hotel Wilton.
Dr. Wolf, please. Dr. Theodore Wolf.
Thank you.
I'm sorry, sir. Dr. Wolf doesn't answer.
Oh, well, say, what's the number of his room again? I'd like to drop him a note.
Dr. Wolf is in 502.
502. Thank you.
I knew in a big hotel like that the chances of anyone remembering exactly what Ted looked like were pretty slim,
and I figured that they'd give me the key all right as long as I didn't stumble around asking for the number.
I let myself into 502 and I snapped on the light.
I found the plane ticket on the bureau and then I pried open his luggage and changed into one of his suits.
I put on his hat and his overcoat just in case. I packed my own things away.
There were a pair of dark glasses on the bureau too when I put them on.
Then I went down, checked out, paid cash.
I knew he'd bought the plane ticket at the airport, so the travel clerk at the hotel, why, he wouldn't know Ted Wolf from Adam.
Yes, sir?
I'm Dr. Wolf. I've been staying here at the hotel.
Oh, yes, doctor.
I have a through plane ticket here to Ecuador, Pan American, for tonight. I'd like to turn it in.
One moment, doctor. Oh, that's Dr....
Dr. Theodore Wolf.
Thank you. Hello, Pan American, Rutan Hotel. Say I got a through ticket to Ecuador. Dr. Theodore Wolf. Will you take it?
All right. That'll be quite all right, doctor.
While you're at it, you might as well get me a couple of train tickets.
Yes, sir. Where to, sir?
Why?
I said where to, sir.
Oh, Los Angeles.
We'd taken care of everything.
A note to my bank, supposedly from Ted, enclosing Philip Martin's check for $5,000, and a letter in my own handwriting,
explaining that I'd agreed to lend him that amount, and asking the bank to forward the money to my account in Los Angeles.
My account is Ted Wolf, and we drafted a letter to the people in Ecuador, and in Los Angeles, Joe became Mrs. Ted Wolf.
At first, everything clicked. I got the kind of a job a doctor would dream about,
where I could write my own ticket and spend at least half my time entirely on research.
And Joe started taking courses in a medical degree. Well, after all, she was only 24.
And then, and then, right here, right here in broad daylight, in the hospital, it happened.
Hello.
Joe, Joe, pack a bag as quick as you can. Just enough for two or three days in the mountains, as fast as you can.
Bill.
It's Gwen. I saw her just now upstairs in the reception room.
Gwen, are you sure?
Absolutely sure.
Oh, no, it, it, it, couldn't, couldn't it be a coincidence, Phil? I, I mean, couldn't Gwen maybe just have happened to be...
Maybe, maybe, maybe. Now listen, Joe, I've been thinking...
She mustn't know where we go.
That's just what I was thinking. Maybe it would be better if she did know where we were going.
If she did?
I don't know, I don't know. Maybe just a coincidence. But if it is a showdown, the mountains would be a better place than here.
All right.
I'll phone the landlady.
Oh, Phil, is that safe?
Gwen won't talk, not until she's sure.
Carlton Apartments, Mrs. Burton.
Hello, Mrs. Burton, this is Dr. Wolf. I wonder if you'd do me a favor.
Oh, I'd be glad to, Dr. Wolf.
We're going out of town for a couple of days and I just remembered that some friends said they might stop by.
We thought they might like to join us, so I wanted them to know where we were.
All right.
Maybe you could just stick a note on our door where they could see it. We're going to Caribou Lake.
And we'll be in the cottage at the very top of the mountain. It's straight up a dirt road from the lake. They can't miss it.
Caribou Lake, the cottage at the top of the mountain, up the dirt road from the lake. Is that all?
Yes, thank you, Mrs. Burton, that's all.
Caribou Lake is nothing much more than just a general store where you can buy bake, hire boats and cottages.
At that time of year, there's hardly anybody there except the people around the store.
Our cottage was good three miles away up a twist and dirt road running above the lake.
But you could see it good and plain even at night when the lights were on.
We stopped at the store and both went in to buy the things we needed, you know, food and kerosene, matches and stuff like that.
Then we went on up the mountain.
By that time it was almost dark and Joe fixed something for us to eat.
Neither one of us could touch it.
We were watching the road for lights of a car.
It was about half past eight when we saw them.
They went right past the store without stopping and they came on up the mountain.
They couldn't have been anyone else but Gwen.
Well?
Well, she didn't waste any time.
Phil, what if the car is rented?
Oh, she'd bring her own. She loves to drive.
Phil, you're not afraid, are you?
No, not anymore.
I'll go.
Well, well this is a surprise.
Hello, Gwen.
Dr. Martin. Always poised. Nothing surprises you, does it?
I suppose it was the check.
Partly.
Then I happened to notice that a Dr. Theodore Wolfe had married a Miss Josephine Reynolds in Los Angeles.
It did occur to me that your idealistic friend must have been an awfully fast worker.
Well, aren't you and your, uh, bride going to ask me in?
Come in, Mrs. Martin.
Thank you.
Quite cozy, aren't you?
We have been.
Well, I'm sorry to break up your little idea.
Cut it out, Gwen. What do you want?
Why, my dear man, what do you think I want?
The way things are now, you've got $200,000 worth of life insurance coming to you.
Why don't you let us alone?
Philip, I don't know whether you realize how much worry and anguish you've caused me.
Sure, I know. I know just exactly how much.
Then perhaps you also know exactly how you stand with the law in this matter.
I don't know about all this impersonation business, except that it would permanently ruin your career.
But I do know that the laws covering bigamy are quite drastic.
I used to think that money meant everything to you, Gwen.
I guess it doesn't.
I don't feel called upon to accept rebukes from you, Philip, for anything, not after what you've done.
I feel that I'm being most generous to both of you.
What is it exactly you want, Gwen?
Either you come back and we'll explain the whole thing as amnesia or something, or you both go to jail.
How could you?
You shut up.
Listen, does anybody else know about this?
Of course not.
Nobody knows you came out here, or why?
After all, Philip, I do have some pride left.
I just said I was taking a little trip to New York to, uh, to forget.
All right, all right.
Now just give us a couple of minutes to talk things over, will you?
Alone.
Very well.
Although I don't see that there's very much to talk about.
Will you go outside, or shall we?
I'll go.
I'll wait in the car.
Oh, Phil.
It's all right, Joe.
I don't mind now.
Neither do I.
Do you think you can do it?
Me?
Yes, I, I'll have to have an alibi.
Have you thought about how...
Yeah, yeah, all day, I guess.
But it's all right, it's good.
She'll disappear the same way I did.
Uh, fire?
Yeah, yeah.
Only I'll have to be down at the store when it happens.
This place will go up like kindling.
And when they pull her out, they'll think it's you.
Nobody knows she's here.
And I'll be there to say it is you.
How are you going to start...
I got that all fixed, I got that all fixed.
I'll be sitting down in the cellar.
All you have to do is...
Here.
Use this hatchet.
Can you?
Yes, I will.
And then go out to the car and get on the floor in the back seat,
under a blanket, lock it from the inside.
I can probably get away right afterwards.
All right, Phil.
I'll see you in the car.
The whole thing shouldn't take more than a couple of hours.
Phil, you're not afraid.
Are you?
No.
I'm glad.
Gwen?
Yes?
Come on in.
Well, have you decided?
Yes.
Uh, you might as well eat with us.
There'll be a few details to talk over.
I'm not sure I feel much like eating in this house, Philip.
Well, I'm not going to start back hungry.
Uh, give me the keys to your car, will you?
It's blocking mine.
I've got to go down to the store and get something for dinner.
Really, Philip?
Oh, stop griping, you've won.
Give me the keys.
Very well.
But I wouldn't try any mad dashes if I were you.
Now, don't be a fool, Gwen.
No, I don't suppose you would.
Alone.
She went in, I took the keys.
First I went around back and down cellar.
I put a lot of old newspapers around the wood pile
and doused the whole thing with kerosene.
Then I cut a stub of a plumber's candle
and set it on the papers and lit it.
I knew just about how long it would take the candle to burn down,
about 45 minutes, something like that.
Then I went out and got in Gwen's car
and started down the mountain without lights.
At the drop above the lake, I put it in the low,
crammed on the wheels and jumped out.
It bounced once and then went over where there's about 40 feet of water.
Unless somebody told them where to look, they'd never find it.
All that had taken about 15 minutes.
The walk down to the store took about 20 more.
Gwen, you forget something, Dr. Wolfe?
Yep, I like a fool to back.
I can't get through the night without a pipe.
No, just how it is.
You walk now?
Yep, yeah, working up an appetite.
Here you are.
You folks have collars tonight?
No, why?
I thought I saw a car go up your way a while back.
Oh, I saw the lights. They didn't come up.
Somebody must have made the wrong turn.
Didn't they come back?
I don't know. I was out back for a spell.
You see that car come back by, Daisy?
You must have seen it all right about an hour ago.
Seems like I did hear a car about there.
Sure, sure, that was it.
Yep, pretty sure it is.
She's duly don't always see so good, but she hears pretty.
Am I?
Look at here, Ed. Look at up there.
Looks like a fire.
Hey, it is, it is a fire.
Why golly, Doc, that looks like your place.
Oh, it couldn't be. But it must be.
It's big too. We better get up there, Doc.
What, do you have your car?
We'll go in the truck. It's right outside.
The boys can bring Ma along in the car.
Did you hear that, Ma?
Yep, Lenny, Johnny, get off the car.
All right, come on, Doc.
Oh, man, I sure hope everything's all right.
Yeah, yeah, so do I.
The cottage was all wood and dry,
and it was completely gone by the time we got there.
It was the boys who dragged her out of the embers.
I wouldn't look if I was you, Doc.
Oh, oh, oh, Joe.
Must have been quick anyway.
She's burnt almost to nothing.
Hey, Ma, you better go on, Doc.
We'll take care of everything.
All right.
Want one of the boys to go with you?
No, no, I'll...
I'll get in touch with you from town.
I'll make the arrangements down there and send down for the...
Yes, well, you just go on.
We'll see to everything.
All right.
Come on, sorry, Dr. Wolf.
I climbed into the car and started down the mountain.
When I was around the first bend,
I reached over with one hand
and touched the blanket on the floor behind me.
Are you all right?
Yes, Philip.
I'm quite all right.
Gwen.
Gwen has never told me how it happened,
but of course she killed her.
We both killed her.
I know that I'm trapped.
I'm hopelessly, irrevocably trapped
by the terrible burden of guilt we share between us, as she is.
I know now that two people held together
by such a frightful bond cannot both go on living,
for that bond can be broken in only one way.
One of the two must die.
And so I write this only to have the true facts brought to light
in the event of such a death.
For no matter how innocent it may appear,
no matter how natural the cause,
no matter how plausible the accident,
it will be no accident.
It will be murder,
cold-blooded, calculated, deliberate murder.
And now the local news.
Dr. Philip Martin, who has been in ill health for the past three months
while recovering from an attack of amnesia,
died today in his home from an overdose of sleeping sedative.
He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Gwendolyn Martin.
Suspense!
Presented by Roma Wines, R-O-M-A.
Made in California for enjoyment throughout the world.
Before we hear again from James Stewart, the star of Consequence,
tonight's suspense play, this is Truman Bradley for Roma Wines.
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This is Jimmy Stewart again.
Suspense is a radio show that got started just about the time I first found myself overseas.
And with everybody, it has always been one of the two or three top favorites.
I've been looking forward for a long time to my appearance with the show tonight.
And next Thursday, a very swell actor, Richard Green, will be your star in his first broadcast
since he joined the British Army four and a half years ago.
Next Thursday, same time, Roma Wines will bring you Mr. Richard Green,
as star of Suspense, radio's outstanding theater of thrills.
Produced by William Spear for the Roma Wine Company of Fresno, California.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.