WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:02.000 Suspense! 00:10.000 --> 00:19.000 Tonight, as we open a special limited series of five Friday night performances at this hour, 00:19.000 --> 00:22.000 suspense brings you an incomparable study in terror. 00:22.000 --> 00:25.000 This Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum. 00:25.000 --> 00:32.000 In a new setting as a radio play especially written for suspense by contemporary master of the art, John Dixon Carr. 00:32.000 --> 00:38.000 As star this evening, we bring you a noted actor of the New York stage, Mr. Jose Ferrer. 00:38.000 --> 00:57.000 And as usual, Suspense is produced, edited and directed by William Spear. 00:57.000 --> 01:11.000 I was sick, sick unto death with that long agony. 01:11.000 --> 01:17.000 And when at length they unbound me and I was permitted to sit, I felt my senses were leaving me. 01:17.000 --> 01:23.000 The sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged into one dreamy indeterminate hum. 01:23.000 --> 01:31.000 Yet for a while I saw, but without terrible and exaggeration, 01:31.000 --> 01:36.000 I saw the soft and nearly imperceptible waving of the sable draperies on the walls of the room. 01:36.000 --> 01:40.000 I saw the flames of the seven tall candles which burned on the table. 01:40.000 --> 01:45.000 I saw the lips of the black-robed judges, and these lips appeared to me white. 01:45.000 --> 01:50.000 White as paper, white as horror. I saw them writhe with a deadly locution. 01:50.000 --> 02:04.000 I saw them passion the syllables of my name. 02:04.000 --> 02:09.000 John Dalbray, Captain John Dalbray. 02:09.000 --> 02:11.000 Good Fathers, Gentlemen. 02:11.000 --> 02:12.000 We hear you, my son. 02:12.000 --> 02:17.000 I am very weak and infirm. I have been confined for many months in a dungeon. 02:17.000 --> 02:19.000 I have been tormented by nightmares. 02:19.000 --> 02:20.000 One conscience, one trust. 02:20.000 --> 02:23.000 Pray silence, Fra Antonio. 02:23.000 --> 02:27.000 Even now I have no knowledge of where I am or to whom I may be speaking. 02:27.000 --> 02:30.000 You're speaking to me, my son. 02:30.000 --> 02:41.000 I am Fra Pedro de Spidia, prior of the Dominicans of Segovia and Grand Inquisitor for all Spain. 02:41.000 --> 02:44.000 Is this the court of the Inquisition? 02:44.000 --> 02:45.000 It is. 02:45.000 --> 02:47.000 May God help me. 02:47.000 --> 02:50.000 He will help you, my son, if you trust him. 02:50.000 --> 02:51.000 But I am a French officer. 02:51.000 --> 02:55.000 That is true. A soldier and creature of the archfiend Napoleon Bonaparte. 02:55.000 --> 02:58.000 But a French officer, nonetheless. A prisoner of war. 02:58.000 --> 03:00.000 By what right do you try me in this court? 03:00.000 --> 03:03.000 Let the clerk read the charges against this prisoner. 03:03.000 --> 03:07.000 Pray silence while the clerk reads the charges. 03:07.000 --> 03:10.000 The charges against the prisoner are as follows. 03:10.000 --> 03:16.000 In primus, that he is one, John Dalbray, a captain of artillery in the army of Bonaparte, 03:16.000 --> 03:18.000 so-called Emperor of the French. 03:18.000 --> 03:22.000 This means nothing, as the prisoner says it is no crime. Proceed. 03:22.000 --> 03:27.000 Item, that on the fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord 1808, 03:27.000 --> 03:32.000 the said John Dalbray did wed a spouse and married that most noble lady, 03:32.000 --> 03:35.000 the Donna Beatrice Valdez, niece and ward of the Elucidus. 03:35.000 --> 03:36.000 One moment. 03:36.000 --> 03:38.000 Your Excellency spoke. 03:38.000 --> 03:44.000 Fra Antonio, was any cheat employed to trap this girl and to marry to Gamestor Will? 03:44.000 --> 03:47.000 No, we have no actual evidence of any cheat. 03:47.000 --> 03:49.000 Was the girl of age? 03:49.000 --> 03:50.000 I believe so. 03:50.000 --> 03:54.000 Then wherefore is the prisoner here? 03:54.000 --> 03:57.000 This marriage was a deplorable thing, if you'd like. 03:57.000 --> 04:00.000 Bonaparte himself is almost at the gates of Madrid. 04:00.000 --> 04:03.000 His General Assal menaces our city of Toledo itself, 04:03.000 --> 04:06.000 but lawful marriage, however regrettable, is no sin or crime. 04:06.000 --> 04:09.000 There are other matters in the indictment, I think. 04:09.000 --> 04:12.000 Then continue, but give us nothing that is not material. 04:12.000 --> 04:17.000 Item, that on the 12th of October, 1808, the said John Dalbray, 04:17.000 --> 04:21.000 being in command of a five-gun battery of light artillery, 04:21.000 --> 04:26.000 did direct the fire of his guns against the Holy Church of St. Martha the Innocent, 04:26.000 --> 04:30.000 and thereby of his wicked malice, destroyed that church utterly. 04:30.000 --> 04:35.000 Captain Dalbray, is this charge true? 04:35.000 --> 04:36.000 Yes. 04:36.000 --> 04:37.000 You admit it! 04:37.000 --> 04:39.000 Good Father, hear what I have to say. 04:39.000 --> 04:41.000 If you recall, the church blew up. 04:41.000 --> 04:43.000 You boast of your sin, young man! 04:43.000 --> 04:46.000 It blew up because it was stored with kegs of gunpowder for your army. 04:46.000 --> 04:48.000 I had every right to fire on it. 04:48.000 --> 04:51.000 And that is all the defense you have to make. 04:51.000 --> 04:54.000 I tell you, I had every right to fire on it! By military law... 04:54.000 --> 04:57.000 Is military law above God's law? 04:57.000 --> 04:59.000 I don't know. I did my duty. 04:59.000 --> 05:01.000 Long live the Emperor! 05:01.000 --> 05:05.000 Captain Dalbray, hear the sentence of this court. 05:05.000 --> 05:08.000 Must I stand up to hear it? 05:08.000 --> 05:10.000 I am very weak. 05:10.000 --> 05:11.000 I remain seated. 05:11.000 --> 05:13.000 I thank you most humbly. 05:13.000 --> 05:17.000 Had your offense been any except this, 05:17.000 --> 05:19.000 the Holy Office would have been merciful. 05:19.000 --> 05:21.000 Mark what I say. 05:21.000 --> 05:25.000 No man, however great his heresy, 05:25.000 --> 05:28.000 is ever condemned to be burnt in the fire. 05:28.000 --> 05:29.000 Fire! 05:29.000 --> 05:35.000 If he first recant and acknowledged the error of his ways. 05:35.000 --> 05:42.000 But for you, Jean Dalbray, it can be no mercy, no pity, no atonement. 05:42.000 --> 05:44.000 The only sentence of this court can be... 05:44.000 --> 05:46.000 Death! Death! Death! 05:46.000 --> 05:50.000 The secular of government armed to which we must release you 05:50.000 --> 05:55.000 is devised two ways of punishment in cases such as yours. 05:55.000 --> 05:58.000 You hear the tolling of bells. 05:58.000 --> 06:00.000 I hear them. 06:00.000 --> 06:03.000 It is the procession of the condemned going to the autodeté. 06:03.000 --> 06:06.000 Soon the yellow light of the flames will stream through the window. 06:06.000 --> 06:08.000 And flicker on floor and ceiling. 06:08.000 --> 06:12.000 No get in horror mortis into his mounibus. 06:12.000 --> 06:14.000 Domine in nomine patre. 06:14.000 --> 06:17.000 Most of those condemned out of mercy 06:17.000 --> 06:20.000 will be strangled before they are burned. 06:20.000 --> 06:23.000 It cannot be so with you, Jean Dalbray. 06:23.000 --> 06:27.000 You must die in one of two ways. 06:27.000 --> 06:30.000 Either with the direst of physical agony. 06:30.000 --> 06:32.000 A slow fire of green wood. 06:32.000 --> 06:34.000 Ice bandages about the head and heart 06:34.000 --> 06:36.000 so that the fire does not approach too quickly. 06:36.000 --> 06:37.000 Not too... 06:37.000 --> 06:39.000 Be silent, Frantonio. 06:39.000 --> 06:41.000 I cry your pardon, Grand Inquisitor. 06:41.000 --> 06:48.000 Or else, Jean Dalbray, you must die in a certain other way. 06:48.000 --> 06:49.000 I'm done with this. 06:49.000 --> 06:51.000 Pass your sentence and let me go. 06:51.000 --> 06:55.000 The law does not permit me to tell you now what this other way is. 06:55.000 --> 07:01.000 It must approach you slowly and force itself into your mind. 07:01.000 --> 07:04.000 It must stalk you like a tiger. 07:04.000 --> 07:10.000 It must bring you face to face at last with the king of carrots. 07:10.000 --> 07:12.000 The sentence of this court. 07:25.000 --> 07:26.000 I had swooned. 07:26.000 --> 07:30.000 Yet still I will not say that all of consciousness was lost. 07:30.000 --> 07:33.000 There are shadows of memory which tell me indistinctly 07:33.000 --> 07:38.000 of tall figures that lifted me and bore me in silence down. 07:38.000 --> 07:42.000 Down, still down, until a hideous dizziness 07:42.000 --> 07:45.000 suppressed me at that descent into the earth. 07:45.000 --> 07:47.000 There was a vague horror at my heart 07:47.000 --> 07:50.000 because of that heart's unnatural stillness. 07:50.000 --> 07:56.000 Then consciousness swam back to my wits again. 07:56.000 --> 08:00.000 Darkness, stone floor and darkness. 08:00.000 --> 08:04.000 Oh, oh Beatrice, oh my wife. 08:07.000 --> 08:09.000 Did you call me, Jean? 08:09.000 --> 08:12.000 Beatrice, was it you who spoke? 08:12.000 --> 08:13.000 Yes, Jean. 08:13.000 --> 08:17.000 You here in the dungeons of the Inquisition? 08:17.000 --> 08:21.000 I am not really speaking to you, my poor Jean. 08:21.000 --> 08:25.000 I am only in your imagination. 08:25.000 --> 08:28.000 Am I mad then? 08:28.000 --> 08:32.000 No, but your brain is fevered. 08:32.000 --> 08:35.000 You only think you hear me. 08:35.000 --> 08:38.000 I hear you clearly, as clearly as I once heard you. 08:38.000 --> 08:42.000 In the little church near the Abro where we were married. 08:42.000 --> 08:43.000 Yes. 08:43.000 --> 08:45.000 I destroyed that church, Beatrice. 08:45.000 --> 08:46.000 I had to. 08:46.000 --> 08:47.000 It was my commanding officer's order. 08:47.000 --> 08:48.000 I know, Jean. 08:48.000 --> 08:49.000 Be comforted. 08:49.000 --> 08:51.000 There are those who care. 08:51.000 --> 08:53.000 You won't leave me? 08:53.000 --> 09:00.000 As long as I am in your heart, I shall be here. 09:00.000 --> 09:03.000 I was strong once, but now I am weak. 09:03.000 --> 09:06.000 Once I was reckless, but now I am afraid. 09:06.000 --> 09:08.000 Where am I, Beatrice? 09:08.000 --> 09:09.000 What are they going to do to me? 09:09.000 --> 09:11.000 I cannot tell. 09:11.000 --> 09:15.000 Remember, my voice comes only from your own brain. 09:15.000 --> 09:18.000 Are you fettered? 09:18.000 --> 09:19.000 No. 09:19.000 --> 09:20.000 They have not chained you to the wall? 09:20.000 --> 09:21.000 No. 09:21.000 --> 09:23.000 They have taken away my uniform. 09:23.000 --> 09:28.000 They have given me sandals and a robe of what feels like coarse surge. 09:28.000 --> 09:31.000 But I am still free. 09:31.000 --> 09:32.000 Free. 09:32.000 --> 09:34.000 Take courage, Jean. 09:34.000 --> 09:38.000 Free and in the grasp of the Inquisition. 09:38.000 --> 09:39.000 Give me a kiss. 09:39.000 --> 09:40.000 Yes, Jean. 09:40.000 --> 09:41.000 It is completely dark. 09:41.000 --> 09:43.000 There is hardly any air. 09:43.000 --> 09:47.000 I dread to get up and I dread to stretch out my hand. 09:47.000 --> 09:52.000 Suppose they have burned me alive. 09:52.000 --> 09:54.000 Courage. 09:54.000 --> 10:00.000 Can you stand up? 10:00.000 --> 10:01.000 I think so. 10:01.000 --> 10:02.000 Then walk. 10:02.000 --> 10:05.000 Walk as far as you can. 10:05.000 --> 10:07.000 Measure the limits of the cell. 10:07.000 --> 10:10.000 If this is not a tomb... 10:10.000 --> 10:11.000 You are right, Beatrice. 10:11.000 --> 10:14.000 As always, I will try. 10:14.000 --> 10:15.000 Courage. 10:15.000 --> 10:16.000 Yes, courage. 10:16.000 --> 10:20.000 Now pray for a poor devil who always meant well. 10:20.000 --> 10:21.000 One pace. 10:21.000 --> 10:22.000 Two. 10:22.000 --> 10:23.000 Three. 10:23.000 --> 10:24.000 Four. 10:24.000 --> 10:26.000 You are very weak, Jean. 10:26.000 --> 10:27.000 Rest a moment. 10:27.000 --> 10:28.000 Yes. 10:28.000 --> 10:29.000 Yes. 10:29.000 --> 10:32.000 Where are you now, Beatrice? 10:32.000 --> 10:34.000 In the flesh, I mean. 10:34.000 --> 10:36.000 You know that, Jean. 10:36.000 --> 10:40.000 In the old house by the olive grove. 10:40.000 --> 10:43.000 Scorned of my people. 10:43.000 --> 10:44.000 Yes. 10:44.000 --> 10:45.000 I know it. 10:45.000 --> 10:50.000 Each morning I climb to the hilltop and watch. 10:50.000 --> 10:52.000 Go on. 10:52.000 --> 10:58.000 Sometimes I think I hear gunfields rumble in the hills. 10:58.000 --> 11:03.000 And long moving columns with the red dust rising above them. 11:03.000 --> 11:05.000 Go on. 11:05.000 --> 11:08.000 First come the heavy cavalry in plume-crested helmets. 11:08.000 --> 11:11.000 On their flanks, wheeling like hawks. 11:11.000 --> 11:14.000 Light hasars in blue and scarlet. 11:14.000 --> 11:19.000 And behind them in a glitter of bayonets as vast as light points on the sea. 11:19.000 --> 11:21.000 Rank upon rank. 11:21.000 --> 11:25.000 The long gray coats and tall bare skin caps of... 11:25.000 --> 11:29.000 The Old Gods and the Grand Armies. 11:34.000 --> 11:38.000 It is only a vision, my dear one. 11:38.000 --> 11:41.000 They do not come. 11:41.000 --> 11:44.000 Will they ever come, dear Beatrice? 11:44.000 --> 11:47.000 I cannot tell. 11:47.000 --> 11:52.000 Then I must face what has been prepared for me. 11:52.000 --> 11:53.000 Beatrice. 11:53.000 --> 11:54.000 Yes, Jean. 11:54.000 --> 11:56.000 I tried to walk. I took some steps. 11:56.000 --> 11:57.000 Four steps, yes. 11:57.000 --> 11:59.000 In which direction? I can remember. 11:59.000 --> 12:00.000 Are you facing the same way? 12:00.000 --> 12:02.000 I don't know. Perhaps. 12:02.000 --> 12:04.000 Then walk again. Try. 12:04.000 --> 12:06.000 Keep your hand in front of you. 12:06.000 --> 12:10.000 Yes. As Robin leads me, the floor is treacherous with slagging. 12:10.000 --> 12:13.000 I'll try. Four pieces. 12:13.000 --> 12:16.000 Five. Six. Seven. 12:16.000 --> 12:18.000 It can't be a tune. 12:18.000 --> 12:20.000 Eight. Nine. Ten. 12:20.000 --> 12:22.000 Look out! 12:26.000 --> 12:29.000 I'm all right. I felt the rope grip me. 12:29.000 --> 12:31.000 But... 12:31.000 --> 12:32.000 What is it? 12:32.000 --> 12:34.000 My hand is in front of me. 12:34.000 --> 12:36.000 Lower than my face. 12:36.000 --> 12:39.000 But I feel nothing. 12:39.000 --> 12:40.000 Nothing, Jean? 12:40.000 --> 12:43.000 It's a pit. A circular pit. 12:43.000 --> 12:45.000 And I fell on... 12:45.000 --> 12:46.000 On the very edge of it. 12:46.000 --> 12:48.000 It would have made you walk into it. 12:48.000 --> 12:49.000 Yes. 12:49.000 --> 12:52.000 There's a loose fragment of rock just inside the edge. 12:52.000 --> 12:55.000 If I can dislodge it... 12:55.000 --> 12:57.000 Listen. 13:06.000 --> 13:08.000 Water. 13:08.000 --> 13:09.000 There's something down there. 13:09.000 --> 13:10.000 Rats, it may be. 13:10.000 --> 13:13.000 Rats, yes. But something else. 13:13.000 --> 13:14.000 I heard it move. 13:14.000 --> 13:15.000 So do I. 13:15.000 --> 13:16.000 Accidents saved me. 13:16.000 --> 13:19.000 They would have had me plunged there symbolically like the descent of the soul 13:19.000 --> 13:21.000 to keep company with something else. 13:21.000 --> 13:24.000 And quick death forms no part of their plan. 13:24.000 --> 13:27.000 What is in the pit, Jean? 13:27.000 --> 13:28.000 I can't say. 13:28.000 --> 13:29.000 But you were saved. 13:29.000 --> 13:32.000 Saved, Beatrice. Saved. 13:32.000 --> 13:34.000 From the imposition. 13:34.000 --> 13:36.000 My torture has been merely... 13:36.000 --> 13:38.000 Postponed. 13:49.000 --> 13:51.000 Please, sleep well upon me. 13:51.000 --> 13:53.000 A sleep like that of death. 13:53.000 --> 13:56.000 How long it lasted, I know not. 13:56.000 --> 14:00.000 But when I opened my eyes once again, I could see. 14:01.000 --> 14:03.000 Yes, see. 14:03.000 --> 14:09.000 My prison was large and lofty, its walls formed of massive iron plates bolted or joined together. 14:09.000 --> 14:14.000 A wild sulfurous luster, I could not trace its origin, lit up the dungeon. 14:14.000 --> 14:19.000 And the circular pit and the crudely dodged skeleton figures painted in evil colors on the iron walls. 14:19.000 --> 14:23.000 Skeleton figures, demon figures, gargoyle figures. 14:23.000 --> 14:27.000 Their colors a little blurred as from the effects of the damp. 14:27.000 --> 14:28.000 And I... 14:28.000 --> 14:32.000 Must approach you slowly and force itself into your mind. 14:32.000 --> 14:34.000 It must stalk you like a tiger. 14:34.000 --> 14:38.000 It must bring you face to face at last with the king of terror. 14:38.000 --> 14:43.000 I now lay on my back and at full length and on a low framework of wood. 14:43.000 --> 14:49.000 To this framework I was securely bound by a long fastening resembling a surgical bandage. 14:49.000 --> 14:51.000 Bound? 14:51.000 --> 14:52.000 But why? 14:52.000 --> 14:54.000 Why? Why? Why? 14:54.000 --> 15:00.000 The bandage passed round and round my body, leaving at liberty only my head and my left arm. 15:00.000 --> 15:05.000 With much exertion I could supply myself with food from an earthen dish on the floor beside me. 15:05.000 --> 15:10.000 It was meat, highly seasoned, and there was no water. 15:20.000 --> 15:22.000 Beatrice, Beatrice, where are you? 15:22.000 --> 15:25.000 I am here, Jean, as always. 15:25.000 --> 15:26.000 My voice sounds stronger. 15:26.000 --> 15:27.000 Does it, Jean? 15:27.000 --> 15:30.000 I can see you now. I can see you as clearly as I saw you months ago. 15:30.000 --> 15:32.000 How I wish it were true. 15:32.000 --> 15:36.000 You were born in the parasol you carried in summer and the high-waisted blue dress... 15:36.000 --> 15:39.000 You are weaker, my dear, and more fevered. 15:39.000 --> 15:41.000 Have I been asleep? 15:41.000 --> 15:42.000 Yes, Jean. 15:42.000 --> 15:46.000 They must have been here while I slept. They have bound me. 15:46.000 --> 15:47.000 Why? 15:47.000 --> 15:49.000 Why? Why? Why? 15:49.000 --> 15:51.000 Stop those voices! Stop them! 15:51.000 --> 15:55.000 Mine too, Jean. I am not here either, you know. 15:55.000 --> 15:57.000 Don't drive me away. 15:57.000 --> 15:58.000 Beatrice, look! 15:58.000 --> 15:59.000 Where? 15:59.000 --> 16:02.000 At the ceiling of this room, 30, 40 feet up. What do you see? 16:02.000 --> 16:06.000 Rated on the ceiling, a figure of Father Time. 16:06.000 --> 16:07.000 Anything else? 16:07.000 --> 16:09.000 But Father Time carries no scythe. 16:09.000 --> 16:17.000 He carries instead what looks like a gigantic pendulum from an ancient clock. 16:17.000 --> 16:23.000 About one thing I swear I am in my right senses. I saw that pendulum move. 16:23.000 --> 16:24.000 Painting cannot move. 16:24.000 --> 16:29.000 Yet I swear the pendulum did. It swung a little, back and forth, just like a real pendulum. 16:29.000 --> 16:31.000 Try not to trouble your brain. 16:31.000 --> 16:35.000 Father Time is not like those other paintings dogged on the walls, the imps and devils and skeletons. 16:35.000 --> 16:38.000 That pendulum is real. Beatrice, take care! 16:38.000 --> 16:41.000 Take care of what? You are not looking at the pendulum now. 16:41.000 --> 16:43.000 Take care of the rats! The rats from the pit! 16:43.000 --> 16:44.000 I see them. 16:44.000 --> 16:46.000 They're swarming out in dozens. You can see their glimmer. 16:46.000 --> 16:49.000 One of them ran across the hem of your dress. 16:49.000 --> 16:50.000 Did it, Jean? 16:50.000 --> 16:51.000 What do I want? 16:51.000 --> 16:55.000 They have caught the scent of the meat in the dish beside you. 16:55.000 --> 16:57.000 You'll not get it. Go, go away, you vermin! 16:57.000 --> 16:59.000 Move your hand above the plate, Jean, move! 16:59.000 --> 17:02.000 Beatrice, where are you going? I can hardly hear you. 17:02.000 --> 17:03.000 You are sending me away. 17:03.000 --> 17:05.000 I'm sending you away? 17:05.000 --> 17:10.000 My poor loved one, you can't bear to see the rats running about my feet, can you? 17:10.000 --> 17:13.000 Even when you know I'm not here. 17:13.000 --> 17:14.000 Beatrice! 17:14.000 --> 17:17.000 It is true, Jean. You are sending me. 17:17.000 --> 17:19.000 Yes, it's true. 17:19.000 --> 17:25.000 Go! In a cell swarming with vermin, there are others I had rather see here. 17:25.000 --> 17:27.000 I had rather see... 17:37.000 --> 17:40.000 Did you call me, Captain Dalbray? 17:40.000 --> 17:42.000 Then in spirit I am here. 17:45.000 --> 17:46.000 Who are you? 17:46.000 --> 17:47.000 Don't you recognize me? 17:47.000 --> 17:48.000 No! 17:48.000 --> 17:54.000 I am that second Inquisitor, Frantoneo, whom you thought unfair at your trial. 17:54.000 --> 17:59.000 But we were not unfair. We administer the law. That is all. 17:59.000 --> 18:00.000 Go! I command you, go! 18:00.000 --> 18:04.000 Not until I have first told you what you already guess. 18:04.000 --> 18:05.000 Which is? 18:05.000 --> 18:11.000 As the Grand Inquisitor said, there are two forms of death for such as you. 18:11.000 --> 18:16.000 One, death with its direct physical torture. 18:16.000 --> 18:21.000 The other, death with its direct mental torture. 18:21.000 --> 18:23.000 And I have been condemned to the second... 18:23.000 --> 18:26.000 Your guess is good. Listen. 18:28.000 --> 18:30.000 Do you hear anything? 18:30.000 --> 18:35.000 Yes. I hear... something. 18:35.000 --> 18:38.000 Turn your eyes upwards. Look at the ceiling. 18:38.000 --> 18:40.000 Oh! The pendulum! 18:40.000 --> 18:42.000 Aye, the pendulum. 18:42.000 --> 18:43.000 It has descended. 18:43.000 --> 18:49.000 Only a foot or so as yet. As you notice, it is not really a pendulum. 18:49.000 --> 18:50.000 No? 18:50.000 --> 18:56.000 No. Its underside is a crescent, formed of sharp, of razor sharp steel. 18:56.000 --> 18:59.000 A ponderous weight, Captain Dalbray. 18:59.000 --> 19:02.000 Its movement is slow now. 19:02.000 --> 19:04.000 Soon it will take on momentum. 19:04.000 --> 19:08.000 It will swing wider and wider. 19:08.000 --> 19:10.000 Thirty feet perhaps. 19:10.000 --> 19:14.000 Presently as it swings, you will hear it hiss. 19:14.000 --> 19:19.000 And with each broad movement, it will creep a trifle lower. 19:19.000 --> 19:22.000 Steel is directly above me. 19:22.000 --> 19:26.000 Yes. Above the region of your heart. 19:26.000 --> 19:30.000 Lie still and look up at it. 19:30.000 --> 19:33.000 How long before? 19:33.000 --> 19:36.000 You need have no immediate fear. 19:36.000 --> 19:38.000 It will not be too soon. 19:38.000 --> 19:40.000 But how soon? 19:40.000 --> 19:43.000 In the name of Peter, give me some answer. 19:43.000 --> 19:46.000 Hours. Perhaps days. 19:46.000 --> 19:50.000 Its motion can be arrested while you sleep. 19:50.000 --> 20:08.000 And now Captain Dalbray, still in spirit, I leave you to your meditation. 20:08.000 --> 20:19.000 Minutes. Hours. Days. 20:19.000 --> 20:22.000 Down. Steadily down it crept. 20:22.000 --> 20:25.000 Days passed. It might have been many days. 20:25.000 --> 20:29.000 Before it swept so closely as to family with its accurate breath. 20:29.000 --> 20:32.000 The odor of the sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils. 20:32.000 --> 20:35.000 The right. To the left. 20:35.000 --> 20:38.000 Far. Wide. 20:38.000 --> 20:40.000 Restricted. For damned spirit. 20:40.000 --> 20:45.000 To my heart, with the stealthy pace of a tiger. 20:45.000 --> 20:48.000 Down. Certainly relentlessly down. 20:48.000 --> 20:52.000 I prayed. I wearied heaven with my prayer for its more speedy descent. 20:52.000 --> 20:57.000 I grew frantically mad and struggled to force myself up against that swinging, glittering death. 20:57.000 --> 20:59.000 With no avail. 20:59.000 --> 21:02.000 Down. Still. Unceasingly down. 21:02.000 --> 21:04.000 Still. Inevitably down. 21:04.000 --> 21:07.000 The sharp steel clashed past within three inches of my chest. 21:07.000 --> 21:19.000 And then, only then... 21:19.000 --> 21:23.000 I heard you calling, John. I am here. 21:23.000 --> 21:26.000 It is a strange thing, Beatrice. I am quite calm. 21:26.000 --> 21:28.000 You are resigned, then? 21:28.000 --> 21:33.000 No, that is the strange thing. Even now, I am not resigned. 21:33.000 --> 21:34.000 Is there a way out? 21:34.000 --> 21:38.000 How can there be? Ten, twelve more vibrations than it will fray the surge of my robe. 21:38.000 --> 21:41.000 One slightly, as a razor in a delicate hand. 21:41.000 --> 21:44.000 There will be many sweeps before it bites deep. 21:44.000 --> 21:45.000 I can't escape it. 21:45.000 --> 21:46.000 And yet... 21:46.000 --> 21:47.000 And yet... 21:47.000 --> 21:50.000 I could only use my wits. 21:50.000 --> 21:54.000 You kept me away from you, John. You locked me out of your thoughts. 21:54.000 --> 21:59.000 If I am here only in your thoughts, why should I fear the rats? 21:59.000 --> 22:02.000 The rats? The rats? 22:02.000 --> 22:03.000 Do they still swarm here? 22:03.000 --> 22:07.000 Across the floor and over the meat platter, they have taken nearly all your food. 22:07.000 --> 22:10.000 Yes, they are ravenous. And they have sharp teeth. 22:10.000 --> 22:11.000 Well... 22:11.000 --> 22:15.000 The meat is oily and spiced. If I take what remains of it, scatter you, Vernon, 22:15.000 --> 22:17.000 and rub that meat on the bandages that hold me here. 22:17.000 --> 22:18.000 Try it, John, try. 22:18.000 --> 22:21.000 It may be too late. If I move my body a fraction of an inch out... 22:21.000 --> 22:22.000 Try it, I tell you, try. 22:22.000 --> 22:24.000 Look, they scatter as soon as I do try. 22:24.000 --> 22:27.000 But they are watching you. I can see their eyes glitter. They are creeping back. 22:27.000 --> 22:30.000 Can I stand those rats crawling across me? Can the flesh bear it? 22:30.000 --> 22:33.000 A little has leaped on the wooden framework. Another follows. 22:33.000 --> 22:35.000 They are gnawing at the bandage. 22:35.000 --> 22:37.000 Seven, eight more sweeps of the pendulum. 22:37.000 --> 22:38.000 Does the bandage give way? 22:38.000 --> 22:39.000 A little. 22:39.000 --> 22:41.000 Lie still, John, lie still. 22:41.000 --> 22:46.000 Ten, a dozen rats gnaw. Is death, I wonder, worse than this disgust? 22:46.000 --> 22:49.000 A dozen sharp knives would do no better. 22:49.000 --> 22:57.000 The bandage is loosened to ribbons. If you move sideways, carefully, and drop to the floor. 22:57.000 --> 23:00.000 Fearless, I can't. I haven't the strength. 23:00.000 --> 23:02.000 The steel has frayed. You roll the minute more. It will be too late. Try. 23:02.000 --> 23:09.000 Then, and with all the good powers that is in me, and the hatred that I bear my enemies... 23:14.000 --> 23:16.000 Fear! 23:16.000 --> 23:26.000 A second time. 23:28.000 --> 23:36.000 See, John, the pendulum stopped. They are drawing it back up through the roof. 23:36.000 --> 23:39.000 Each move I make is watched. You never doubted that. 23:39.000 --> 23:44.000 No. Yet with all they could do to you, they have failed twice. 23:44.000 --> 23:48.000 They will not fail a third time, my dear. There must be no more dallying with the king of terrors. 23:48.000 --> 23:50.000 What else can they do? 23:50.000 --> 23:54.000 I can't say. See how the rats gnaw and silence the bandage. 23:54.000 --> 23:57.000 To what food, I wonder, have they been accustomed in the pit? 23:57.000 --> 23:59.000 But you escaped the pit. 23:59.000 --> 24:04.000 I escaped it once. Listen. 24:04.000 --> 24:05.000 What do you hear? 24:05.000 --> 24:06.000 Roaning and grinding as of metal. 24:06.000 --> 24:08.000 It was only the cogwheels of the pendulum knife. 24:08.000 --> 24:09.000 I think not, Beatrice. 24:09.000 --> 24:10.000 Why not? 24:10.000 --> 24:15.000 It seemed to come from behind these iron-plated walls. It seemed to shake the dungeon as a mill-wheel might shake it. 24:15.000 --> 24:18.000 Stand up, my poor John. Get up off your knees. 24:18.000 --> 24:20.000 I can't, Beatrice. I can't anymore. 24:20.000 --> 24:26.000 The paintings on the wall of this dungeon, the skeletons and imps and devils, they seem different. 24:26.000 --> 24:33.000 They are different. The colors sharpened grow bright, the demon's eyes glare, the skeleton's hands outstretched. 24:33.000 --> 24:36.000 Don't you catch even yet the odor of the heated iron? 24:36.000 --> 24:38.000 Heated iron! 24:38.000 --> 24:41.000 I have been much humbled, but I won't have you seen in tears. 24:41.000 --> 24:43.000 I order you to go! 24:43.000 --> 24:45.000 John, in the name of Heaven! 24:45.000 --> 24:48.000 Yes, in the name of Heaven! Go! 24:59.000 --> 25:01.000 The suffocating heat pervades the prison. 25:01.000 --> 25:05.000 The deeper glow settles in the painted eyes that glare at me. 25:05.000 --> 25:08.000 I could draw no breath of air into my lungs. 25:08.000 --> 25:17.000 Against the loom of that fiery destruction, the thought of the pit and its coolness came like balm. 25:17.000 --> 25:20.000 I stagger to the edge of the pit. I look into it. 25:20.000 --> 25:24.000 The entangled walls and roof light it to its depths. 25:24.000 --> 25:31.000 Yet for one wild moment, even then, I refuse to believe the meaning of what I see. 25:31.000 --> 25:36.000 Does the pit please you, Captain Dalbray? 25:36.000 --> 25:38.000 You again! 25:38.000 --> 25:41.000 Do you find its contents pleasing? 25:41.000 --> 25:43.000 Not the pit! Most people guard anything but the pit! 25:43.000 --> 25:46.000 And how shall you avoid it? Look! 25:46.000 --> 25:49.000 This dungeon has changed its shape! 25:49.000 --> 25:55.000 That is true. The walls are closing in. It was formerly a square, and now it is. 25:55.000 --> 26:00.000 That means slowly towards the center. To force me into the pit? 26:00.000 --> 26:03.000 Of course! It will force you along with me! 26:03.000 --> 26:08.000 Then apparently you must be told, Captain Dalbray, that you are speaking only to your own sick fancy! 26:08.000 --> 26:10.000 No! We are not here at all! 26:10.000 --> 26:12.000 Farewell! 26:12.000 --> 26:21.000 And now, flatter and flatter, through the red-burning walls, with a swiftness that left me no time for thought, I shrank back. 26:21.000 --> 26:29.000 But as the closing walls pressed me resistlessly onward, at length for my sad and writhing body there was no longer an inch of foothold. 26:29.000 --> 26:36.000 These blinged worms! I tottered on the edge of the pit! I averted my eyes! 26:36.000 --> 26:44.000 There was a discordant hum of human voices! There was a loud blast! As of many trumpets! 26:49.000 --> 26:56.000 The fiery walls rushed back, and outspread charm caught my own as I fell, painting through the abyss. 26:56.000 --> 27:01.000 Through the arm of General Lassalle, the French army had entered Toledo. 27:01.000 --> 27:07.000 The Inquisition was in the hands of its enemies! 27:19.000 --> 27:21.000 Suspense! 27:21.000 --> 27:26.000 Produced, edited and directed by William Spear. 27:26.000 --> 27:31.000 Tonight you heard Mr. José Ferrer as star of The Pit and the Pendulum. 27:31.000 --> 27:40.000 First in a limited series of five Friday night performances at this hour, which will present radio's outstanding theatre of thrills, Suspense. 27:40.000 --> 27:47.000 Tonight's radio play was adapted by John Dixon Carr from the famous short story by Edgar Allan Poe. 27:47.000 --> 27:51.000 José Ferrer will soon be seen with Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Lorraine. 27:51.000 --> 28:00.000 Appearing tonight with Mr. Ferrer were Jeanette Nolan, John McIntyre, Elliot Lewis, Joseph Kearns, Eric Snowden and Paul McVeigh. 28:00.000 --> 28:07.000 Music for Suspense is under the direction of Lud Bluskin with original music composed by Lucian Morrowick. 28:07.000 --> 28:17.000 Next Friday same time we will again bring you Suspense! 28:37.000 --> 29:04.000 Music 29:04.000 --> 29:08.000 This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.