Auto Light and its 98,000 dealers bring you Mr. Jeff Chandler in tonight's presentation
of Suspense.
Tonight Auto Light presents a true story, the report of two murders and the heroic man
responsible for these necessary atrocities.
It's called Death at Scrakerood Pond, our star Mr. Jeff Chandler.
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And now, Auto Light presents Transcribed, Death at Scrakerood Pond, a true story, starring
Mr. Jeff Chandler as Arnie, hoping once again to keep you in suspense.
Mother.
Who is it?
There's no one.
It's all right.
You're hurt.
George!
Train full of Nazis.
George! George, do you hear me?
I'm not badly hurt, Father.
Let me see.
No? No, you're not.
Seems...
Yes, the bullet has gone through your shoulder,
and the blood you've lost.
Get him up. Get him from the floor.
Yes.
Put your arm above my neck, George.
I'm not here.
Now, what have you done?
I've helped to blow up a train.
A Nazi troop train.
And in running away, you were shot.
Yes.
Let him alone.
Arnie.
Come in, Arnie.
He's there.
How are you, George?
Weak. That's all.
You are recognized, George.
I'm sorry, I can't...
Can you walk?
Yes. Yes, I think so.
Then come. Come on. I'll help you.
Mrs. Helmand, Mrs. Helmand.
We're taking him out of the country.
First to a doctor, and then outside.
The underground.
When there's victory, Mother.
Papa.
No! Get off!
Nick, last...
Let them go. Let them go.
There was a trail of blood. I followed it here.
Ah, come.
We'll go back to bed.
To shiver with fright.
Yes.
Go to bed and stare at the dark
and wait for the knock on the door in the Gestapo.
Stare in the dark and think gambits.
Think of clever things to say to the Gestapo, such as what?
My son, a member of the underground? My son?
Surely there is a mistake.
Or I have no son, Lieutenant.
Therefore, you cannot arrest me for something this boy has done.
Will these be your thoughts too, Anna, when you go to bed?
The same.
For surely they will come.
There will come a knock on the door,
and they will drag us from our home and send us where?
Perhaps to Germany and Dachauana to burn.
Miklas, these are the thoughts I have.
Because of our son. Anna, because of our son.
Yes.
Now he's been recognized. Anna said.
Yes.
They will come here.
They will come.
We can go to bed now and stare at the dark.
At least now we know this will be the last time.
No.
What are you doing?
Fire!
12,000 Kroner.
This is all the money in the house?
Yes, but the bank, we have so much more.
12,000 Kroner.
Suddenly I am a pauper.
Anna.
What is it?
Your jewelry, get it.
But why?
All of it. Get your things together.
We are going to get out of here, across the border.
They will take us across the underground.
They have to, they have to.
Do you understand me, Anna?
You are the patriots.
And you are the sellers of freedom.
And Mrs. Hellman and I have come to bargain and buy.
I told you the borders are closed.
The Nazi patrols swarmed.
I don't know, Mr. Hellman.
You don't know.
Your underground has helped hundreds to escape.
Less worthy.
Yet you balk at us. Why?
What do you think, Hansel?
I think this, Arnie.
The Gestapo has searched for us two years now.
These people coming here have made it easy for them.
Let's have nothing to do with them.
And I think this.
If you do not help us.
If you do not lead us across the border into Sweden.
Then I will report you to the Gestapo.
I personally will tell them who you are, where you are.
No, wait. Wait.
No, he did not mean that, my husband.
Miklas did not.
You heard him.
He did not mean it.
He is frightened and he is desperate.
And he does not know what he said.
Do not beg of them, Anna.
We are not their beggars.
Please, Miklas.
I will not beg.
I will tell them of us.
Thirty years we have lived in your country, Mr. Arnie, Mr. Hansen.
With pride, with respect, with love for the things of your country.
And because my son has spilled blood for this country.
We now must flee it and begin another life.
And we are not young.
But we are rich.
And we will pay you well for this new life.
More than any of the others.
We are rich.
We will pay you well.
We are not in this to make profit on sorrow, Mrs. Hellman.
Heroes then is what you are.
Listen to me.
It is not good, Arnie.
I tell you it is not good.
Listen to me.
This new life you want, it lies through bitter wilderness and savage hardships and swamp and cold.
Be eloquent, Arnie. Be eloquent.
Let the words spill slow and thoughtful from your mouth while the Gestapo searches for us, for you, comes nearer and nearer.
We could try, Hansen.
How?
I know a way through the forest, a way unused before, where Skrykerud pond is.
Maybe we could.
Yes, I think we could.
Good.
Then it is settled.
You see, Arnie, it is simply a matter of bargaining.
One knows how to bargain. One lives...
Get your things together. We are getting out right now.
Quickly.
At your command, Arnie. At your command.
Wait. Wait for us.
Wait here, Hansen. I will go back to them.
What's the matter?
I cannot go, Father. I cannot.
You have to keep going, Mrs. Zuhörder. We will rest here.
Listen to me. It has taken us almost seven hours to go three miles.
There is still twenty miles to the Swedish border and there are Nazi patrols that will be late in the hour.
You take us for animals, for beasts?
We will rest here and we will eat something.
Do you hear me? We will rest and we will eat. Where is the food?
Hansen.
Arnie, we have to keep moving.
We are going to rest here, Froh. Get some of the food out of your pack.
Look, Arnie.
Get it.
Here, take this, Mrs. Hellman. Mr. Hellman.
This is food?
This that one throws to pigs, the livings of the gutter.
This you ask us to eat?
It is all we have. Do you want it?
No. No.
I have much better here. Here in my flask.
Get up. Get up. It is nearly light and twenty miles to go.
No.
The patrol will be by here soon. We are still...
We live with it then, Arnie. We cannot move.
You must. In this way you endanger the lives of hundreds of others.
You destroy the underground. You play into Nazi hands.
And if we do, I will save my life and my wife's life.
For what I can tell them.
All right. We rest here.
We will rest here for a while.
Thoughtful hero. Generous hero.
Hansen, come over here.
Hansen.
Yes?
They can destroy us and the underground.
The lives of other men and women who believe with us.
Yes.
Destroy what their own son has fought for in the blade.
Yes.
Enemies then.
Yes.
We are at war.
I have fought these things.
When I carried her on my back and then him.
And I wondered how long for you to think also.
Now.
There's a rock under the snow there, Hansen.
Take it from the snow.
It's wonderful, me.
And when we are across the border, Miklas, they will be for us.
Where are you?
Old man who is dead.
And with you, your old woman.
And I am sorry.
And for them the border reached.
And an end to wilderness.
And freedom.
Vast stillness.
Understand, old man, old woman.
The only stillness we can give you.
Because this time is what it is.
It is done, Hansen. Now quickly we go home.
Auto Light is bringing you Mr. Jeff Chandler in Death at Skrykerud Pond.
Tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Say, Harlow, who gets that big Auto Light salute tonight?
Well, Hab, tonight it's our privilege to honor distinguished truck manufacturing members of the Auto Light family.
And along with them, the entire trucking industry.
That covers a lot of ground, Harlow.
And so do America's trucks, Hab. Over 90 billion miles last year alone.
Why, Hab, do you know that trucks move more tons of goods than any other form of transportation?
Yes, Harlow, and did you know that the trucking industry recently celebrated its 50th anniversary of service to America?
Right, and during those 50 years our trucks have become marvels of ruggedness and dependability.
That's due to the unique design and manufacturing skills of the truck manufacturers we salute tonight.
And let's not forget the men who drive those trucks, Harlow.
They've got the world's finest safety record.
They sure do, Hab, and that's another reason why Auto Light wishes to take this opportunity
to express appreciation for our many years of close association to truck manufacturer members of the Auto Light family and their dealers everywhere.
And now, Auto Light brings back to our Hollywood soundstage, Mr. Jeff Chandler of Death at Skrykerood Pond.
A true story, well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Suspense.
Do not drink alone, Arnie. Drink with me.
Yes, Helga.
Victory drink, Arnie, for the end of war and again a time of peace we once knew.
And you and my brothers, then Hanson, to live as you were meant to live.
The bells of our village, the small bells and the great, you hear them, Arnie?
Yes, I hear them.
And you and my brothers, then Hanson, to live as you were meant to live.
The bells of our village, the small bells and the great, you hear them, Arnie?
Yes, as once long ago they rang.
To you, Arnie, and to my brother.
To your brother, then Hanson.
Who is brave and a good man and who fought for us, for the women and the children of women, who fought and bled and blessed us again with peace.
My brother and you, Arnie.
There were others.
My brother and you. Drink with me, Arnie.
And may I also drink to you, Arnie, as Helga drinks to you, as all do in your house.
You are welcome here, Kurt. Drink, dance, whatever thing your joy will be.
To you, Arnie, and to your fine house and your warm friends.
But I look about and I do not see a certain warm friend, soldier friend, underground friend.
Who?
The friend of the sabotage train of many years ago.
The friend, George Hellman.
Where is he, Arnie?
I don't know.
And a lost son brings to mind the father and the mother.
The old people and their money, jewels they had, it is said, and many kroner.
And now the old people are lost and there is wonder of them.
And you have fine things in your house.
The kroner, Arnie.
The kroner and jewels of the Hellmans.
Where, Arnie?
That you bought with them, the lamp, and that, the silver.
And now I must teach you another thing.
Not to lay your murderous hands upon me.
Enough, Arnie.
Enough.
Get out.
Sven.
Yes?
The old days.
Dead.
The old days of war, shouts and sobbing.
Dead.
Many years now.
Of underground and explosion, bright as sunburst.
Child crying alone in a snow field.
Wandering alone in a snow field.
They are dead.
You hear me, Arnie?
The old days are dead.
Forgotten.
Helga.
Quickly.
I have brought you extra clothing and food.
Why, Helga?
Why do you...
The body of Miklas Hellman and of Anna, the old woman, his wife.
The villager found them at Skraka-Ru pond.
He's gone to the police.
You bring clothes and food for us?
Why?
Warrants have been issued for the arrest of their murderers.
It's not murder.
It is what they have named it.
They too have forgotten the old days, the days of war.
They call it murder.
I've told you.
I'll tell them.
Run, hide.
No.
Take my brother with you and go.
I'll tell them what happened.
I'll convince them.
You'll not convince them.
These are other days and they have forgotten how it was.
Sven and I did what had to be done.
There was no shame in it.
Then tell Sven to go, my brother.
Tell him.
Sven.
What you say, Arnie, that I will do as in the old days.
Go, Sven.
Go.
What Arnie said, there was no shame in it.
It was a thing of war, of need.
Then we stay.
Let them come.
Arnie Leuken, how do you plead?
I confess freely to having caused the death of Mr. and Mrs. Helman.
However, to the charge of murder, I plead not guilty.
And Sven Hansen, how do you plead?
I was with Arnie Leuken.
The Helmans died because of me.
Yet I did not commit murder.
There was nothing else we could do.
So we did it.
Why couldn't you let them try to reach the border themselves?
They would never have made it.
Oh, come now, Mr. Hansen.
Men have crossed Greenland on foot.
Those old people.
Consider what you have said.
Those old people.
Yet you killed them. Something obscene.
Not so.
There is nothing else we could do.
Nor could they have crossed another hundred yards on foot.
That, of course, is your opinion.
I suggest, Mr. Hansen, that you had other motives that made it necessary to kill.
I suggest that these motives correspond with that which is most base.
Because the war is over, because the mass killing is done.
And the death of two solitary people is important.
It's forgotten now that the Helmans were our enemy.
Enemy? How?
They would have betrayed us.
It would have meant the end of the whole underground.
Which, of course, is conjecture.
Mr. Leuken. Arnie Leuken.
Tell me a thing.
It concerns motive, Mr. Leuken.
I told you.
It concerns motive, Mr. Leuken.
Both you and Mr. Hansen have repeatedly stated that your only motive was to silence the Helmans.
Is that correct?
Yes.
Truly?
Yes.
Not to rob them?
No.
Not to rob this unfortunate couple of the money they had brought with them?
No.
Nor their jewels?
Nor their jewels, Mr. Leuken?
Mr. Leuken?
Forgotten. Forgotten. Forgotten.
What?
Days of wrath. Days of how long ago, Mr. Prosecutor, when death leaned close to every man and beckoned.
When death was a Nazi, when to trick the brown-shirted men with a club was a...
You are quite right, sir. It was long ago. Now it is done with.
Now the return to dignity. Which is why you are here.
Prosecutor respectfully requests the court to grant recess until tomorrow.
Court will adjourn until tomorrow.
And struck them down in cold blood.
Then did you or did you not go through their belongings and search for the money?
Over a hundred thousand kroner.
No.
You did not go through their belongings?
We... we searched them for... for papers.
We wanted to destroy their papers so they could not be identified if they were found.
And you found the money?
And we found the money.
And not being murderers, not being killers with malicious motives, rather gentle people,
layers to rest of old folk who by some misadventure of age happen not to be able to walk 20 miles,
therefore you did not take the money.
What do you want me to say? What? What?
That you did not take the money.
We took the money.
Oh?
We took the money.
There was not a lot of it. Only... only 12,000 kroner. Listen.
The real motive then.
Listen to me.
Silence them, take their money, throw them into the lake.
That is not true.
Well then forgive me. Which part of it is not true?
That you did not take their money? That you did not throw them in the lake?
That you did not kill them?
Listen.
Kill them.
There will be silence in my courtroom.
Kill them.
Who is it who speaks?
Olsen. Canute Olsen and well you know me.
And since it is you respected citizen, there is no need to tell you that as a spectator...
No longer spectator sir. Man with compulsion to speak certain facts.
I request permission to address the court.
Very well.
Kill them I say.
These two men killed the Hellmans, took their lives from them. No doubt of it.
Mr. Olsen is here.
Mr. Olsen. Mark what you said sir. Mr.
The Q to it all.
And what was my fanciful name when there was war here?
Myself I can hardly remember. Avenger was it or Snowhawk?
I cannot remember all of them. Code names that changed each week.
Head of the underground myself with childish names to help fight a war.
To shield me so to live in the...
All of those here remember that you were...
Heroic? Did you want to say that? A soldier, fighter for liberty?
No less than these two men who killed.
Heroes, soldiers, fighters for liberty.
Killed because they were under orders to kill those who brought liberty into jeopardy.
And I gave those orders.
This is what I needed to say.
The prisoners will face the jury.
Foreman, has your jury reached the verdict?
Yes sir we have.
On the charge of murder of Mr. and Mrs. Miklas Hellman.
We find the defendants Arnie Leuken and Sven Hansen not guilty.
It is customary sir.
That the accused upon his acquittal offer thanks to the foreman of the jury which tried him.
So I wish to do this thing.
From my heart I thank you.
And this too I must say.
What happened at Skrykerud pond.
What was done there was done on the face of a bleeding world.
A world at war.
I was caught up in it and Sven and those two old people and you and all of us.
Now it is done.
A trial was held here today.
Proof that humanity is with us again.
I will go home now and make prayer.
Let no one ever be called upon to do what I did.
Let the world live in peace.
Suspense presented by Auto Light tonight's star Mr. Jeff Chandler.
This is Harlow Wilcox again.
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Next week we will dramatize an astounding experience.
A man and a machine flung at a barrier of sound.
It's called The Outer Limit.
Our star Mr. William Holden.
That's next week on Suspense.
Suspense is transcribed and directed by Elliot Lewis with music composed by Lucian Morrowick.
Death at Strangerood Fond was adapted for Suspense by Morton Fine and David Friedkin
with James P. Cavanaugh from Theodore Olson's report.
Featured in tonight's cast were Paula Winslow, Herb Butterfield, Kathy Lewis,
Byron Cain, Lou Merrill, Jack Crouchon, Joseph Kearns and Herb Ellis.
Jeff Chandler may currently be seen co-starring with Maureen O'Hara
in Universal International's Technicolor production War Arrow.
And remember next week Mr. William Holden in The Outer Limit.
This is the CBS Radio Network.