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And now, tonight's presentation from radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.

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Tonight, the story of a murder, deliberate, cold, motiveless, in which we will examine

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its effects on our protagonist.

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The story is called, The Earth is Made of Glass.

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Good morning, Dr. West.

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Oh, good morning, Miss Adam.

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I've brought down the night charts from the fourth floor.

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Ah, now look the more.

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What sort of night did you have?

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Fairly quiet, Doctor.

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No new cases.

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There were.

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I don't know where you'd put them.

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Well, we have one vacant bed this morning, 436.

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Mr. Steele?

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Yes, he died about 4 a.m.

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Surprised he held on that long?

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I thought you might be upset, Doctor.

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I mean, the day supervisor, Miss Rosenberg, told me you and Mr. Steele were either related

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or very close friends.

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No, no, not at all.

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Mr. Steele suffered certain delusions.

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Just before he died, he asked me to give you this, Dr. West.

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It's some kind of diary or journal.

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He said he owed it to you, that it was in compensation.

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Very well, leave it on the desk.

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I'll ask who is in charge of settling his estate.

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All right, Doctor.

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I looked at the first few pages.

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Very strange.

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Oh.

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Well, I'm going off duty.

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Very well, Miss Adams.

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I'll see you tomorrow.

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Yes, Doctor.

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The Journal of Richard Thomas Steele.

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Strange.

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He tore out a good many pages.

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Everything up to July 26th.

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That's only a month ago.

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Why on earth did he leave it to me?

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Who do you think I was?

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Poor devil, there was certainly something torturing him.

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July 26th, an extremely depressing day.

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From early morning on, the air was hot, heavy, sticky.

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I stayed indoors.

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I stayed indoors with the blinds drawn, spent three and a half hours arranging and cataloging

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a new shipment of books.

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I must say I gloated over the volume of bacon, gold leaf uncut, 1836, a treasure.

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In the afternoon, I ventured out to play chess with Elliot.

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He's an uninspired player and a worse conversationalist.

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I'm appalled that a man of Elliot's pretensions still wallows in 18th and 19th century thought

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patterns, twaddle and sentimentality.

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He's totally out of step with the times, blindly determined to keep his mind closed to any

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developments in science.

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It was so apparent in that argument we had over Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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I noticed he had a volume of Emerson's essays, a cheap reprint, and I thumbed through it.

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There was one paragraph in the essay called Compensation, which especially annoyed me.

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I must have snorted because Elliot was instantly on the defensive.

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When I asked him if he actually believed such claptrap, he fairly leaped at me.

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Certainly, I believe there's compensation, Richard.

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Tit for tat, measure for measure, love for love.

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Whatever a man does comes back to him.

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Good for good, evil for evil, so that if I should commit a crime, I would of necessity

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be punished?

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In one way or another, yes.

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You mean that I would in some way suffer in compensation for my evil deeds?

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Isn't that what Emerson says?

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I want to know what you believe.

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I believe what he says.

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Well, let's read what he says.

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Discounting the poetry and all the emotional overtones, Emerson says, commit a crime and

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the earth is made of glass.

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Commit a crime and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in

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the woods the track of every partridge in fox and squirrel and mole.

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You cannot recall the spoken word.

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You cannot wipe out the foot track.

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You cannot draw up the ladder, so as to leave no in-letter clue.

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Some damning circumstance always transpires.

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The laws and substances of nature, water, snow, wind, gravitation, become penalties

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to the thief.

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Well, Eliot.

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Beautiful, isn't it?

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Don't be evasive, Eliot.

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We're discussing his theory.

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Well, I don't see how there can be any argument.

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We know...

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We know a good deal more than Emerson, you old fellow, especially about the laws and

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substances of nature.

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They surely haven't changed.

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No, no, but we've taken them into the laboratory.

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We've tested the substances and we've mastered the laws, put them under our control.

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The scientific method, Eliot.

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White cancels out every word your friend Emerson wrote.

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The scientific method.

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Is it an open sesame to all knowledge?

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Does it make us gods?

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There are still mysteries we can never fathom, Richard.

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For instance, the mysteries in ourselves.

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In our souls?

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Yes, in our souls.

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Whatever it is we have that cannot be weighed or tested, yet which manifests itself in every

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good or evil thing we do.

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Say you commit a murder.

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Say I do.

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A perfect crime.

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For I grant you that a man of your intelligence can outwit the police.

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Nevertheless, you could not escape from...

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Well, let's call it your conscience.

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But say I commit a laboratory murder.

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What?

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Let me put it this way.

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To catch a murderer, the police first set out to discover some connection between the murderer

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and his victim, which leads them to the motive for the crime.

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And when a murderer is caught by his own conscience, it is also through his connection with his

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victim, his emotional connection.

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But in a pure abstract murder, one occurring in an emotional vacuum, the two participants

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would be connected only by the unadulterated act of killing.

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But isn't every man connected first of all with himself?

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I mean, a man renders judgment on himself.

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In his soul, I would say.

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With superstitious claptrap, Elliot, apparently you're completely unable to grasp my premise

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that theoretically, a laboratory murder is entirely possible.

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Why not actually?

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It would be very interesting to test the theory and find out.

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July 28th, the weather continues warm, humidity high.

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This is the last summer I shall spend in New York.

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Today, I roamed around my library, read a little, thought a great deal.

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It's odd how I keep referring back to my conversation with Elliot.

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Abstract murder, a laboratory murder.

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I jotted down one or two theoretical points today.

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An amusing project in such hot weather.

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What utter nonsense to think of conducting a laboratory experiment and writing on paper.

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Boy, it's a contradiction in terms.

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The core of the scientific method is to prove theory in life.

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So, let us proceed actually to create a pure murder.

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A murder committed, as I said to Elliot, in a material and emotional vacuum.

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A murder of someone with whom I have no connection, whom I have no possible reason to kill.

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But I will decide how to choose my victim after I've made all the other preparations

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and have purchased the necessary equipment.

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Gloves, sir.

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What kind of gloves?

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Oh, any kind of gloves.

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But I mean, what do you want them for?

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Driving, gardening?

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I want gloves I can use for almost anything.

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Oh, well, now we call these utility gloves.

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Oh, yes, those are excellent.

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Yes, what size, sir?

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Any size, medium.

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Now, these look just about...

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No, no, no, I don't want to try them on.

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I'll pick them as they are, just wrap them up.

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You know, I'm very fond of a genuine old-fashioned hardware store like this one.

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Lots of people tell me that, sir.

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Anything special you're looking for?

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No, I suppose I'm just browsing.

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Oh, yes, sir.

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What are those, ice picks?

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Yes, sir.

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Oh, quite a selection.

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Screwdrivers and...

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Oh, there's something I want.

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A knife?

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One of those.

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Well, to be fair with you, sir, those are pretty poor knives.

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That's why they're marked down.

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Too big for paring, too small for carving.

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Just knives.

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That's about it.

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With the best possible recommendation, I'll take one.

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A meaningless knife, all-purpose gloves, knife and gloves new, factory-made, uncontaminated

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by human association, smelling only of the harsh impersonal machines which turned them

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out.

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My first safeguards against the intrusion of emotion.

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And now to complete my plans.

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Who will it be?

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I must never see his or her face.

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I must not know his or her name, age, occupation, thoughts or desires.

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I must come into contact with this victim as casually as though we were blown together

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by the wind.

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There can be no selection, no volition on my part, except the elementary volition necessary

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to raise my arm to kill.

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July 30th, the exact record of what has occurred.

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But I must write it down now while it's fresh in my mind.

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I'll be absolutely precise and objective.

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Very well then.

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At exactly 10 p.m. tonight, I left my house, wearing the new gloves and carrying the knife

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in my right-hand coat pocket.

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I walked an undetermined number of blocks, turning corners at random, taking care to

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observe no street signs or landmarks.

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I observed only one thing, that there were many people on the street.

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In fact, I became aware that I was pushing through a rather dense crowd.

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I walked on with difficulty, but not once did I allow myself to become conscious of

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the exact nature of my surroundings.

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Then at last, I found my progress through the crowd blocked by what I can only describe

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as a human back.

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I raised the knife and drove it into the back with all my force.

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I continued walking without haste, pausing only a fraction of a second to hear,

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He's dead! He's dead!

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He's dead, yes.

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I paused just long enough to hear, thus confirmed my unqualified belief that without any possible

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consequence to myself, I had taken another human being's life.

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You are listening to Mr. Joseph Kearns in Sylvia Richards' Study and Motive, The Earth

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is Made of Glass.

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Tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.

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This is Flag Week, when all patriotic organizations urge all patriotic Americans to display their

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stars and stripes.

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Your flag hanging on high tells all who pass that America truly is one nation indivisible.

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Give new glory to old glory by showing your country's colors during Flag Week and on all

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patriotic holidays, national and local.

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And now, we bring back to our Hollywood soundstage, Mr. Joseph Kearns, in Elliot Lewis's production

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of The Earth is Made of Glass, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.

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August 1st.

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All day I felt enormously stimulated, elated by the success of my experiment.

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The very intensity of the sun outside my study has added to my feeling of well-being.

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Tomorrow, I shall complete my notes on this extraordinary and I'm sure valuable psychological

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study.

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Today, I shall relish to the full my mood of achievement.

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How I regret that I can't tell old Elliot.

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I can picture the disbelief and horror on his face if he knew.

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Compensation, oh tut-tut, Mr. Hammerson.

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August 3rd.

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Yesterday I was unable to write in my journal because of the excessive heat and because

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I suffered from a headache and a vibration in my ears.

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Today, I'm forcing myself to write to have on record the final control in my experiment,

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my laboratory murder.

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To assure complete ignorance of the identity of my victim, I have read no newspaper and

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will not read any for a period of two or three weeks.

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Nor will I hold conversation with anyone apt to be morbidly interested in murder, as reported

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in the tabloid press.

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August 4th.

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The heat is unbearable and all day I have felt that odd heavy vibration in my head.

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Now also on my arms and body.

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It is almost constant in a one-two, one-two rhythm.

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But sometimes it's a sound as well as a vibration like the distant sound of the sea.

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I must consult a doctor.

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Last night I was kept awake by the throbbing in my head and toward morning I was subjected

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to a new agony.

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Very softly at first, but louder and louder like voices heard in delirium, my head became

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filled with an almost hysterical babbling.

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Not for an instant have the voices stopped or even paused.

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I simply keep time with the reverberation of my heart.

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August 8th.

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I have no need to consult a doctor for I know the nature of my illness.

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Last night, trying to drive the unspeakable uproar from my brain, I turned to music.

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But when I put the record on the machine, Schnabel's recording of Beethoven's F minor

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Sonata, the Appassionata, the sound in the voices rose to a bedlam, shrieking, round

249
00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:36,080
out the music.

250
00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:41,320
And then I knew, in spite of every precaution, my laboratory murder had not taken place in

251
00:14:41,320 --> 00:14:42,320
a vacuum.

252
00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:44,960
Two things had penetrated my shield.

253
00:14:44,960 --> 00:14:49,600
First, the voices echoing in my ears, the fragmented speech about a concert, are the

254
00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:54,200
same voices I heard in that crowd, rising again and again to the climax of a woman's

255
00:14:54,200 --> 00:14:55,200
life.

256
00:14:55,200 --> 00:15:03,960
And the pulsing sound I hear when I drove that knife home into a beating heart, its

257
00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:07,400
vital rhythm, the mighty leap and contraction of the heart's muscle on the blade of the

258
00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:13,040
knife, was transmitted back to me through my hand and remains indelibly recorded in

259
00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:25,280
the heartbeat of my own blood.

260
00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:27,360
August 11.

261
00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:31,800
During the past hour, the incessant hammering of sound has receded, but I know this respite

262
00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:32,800
will be brief.

263
00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:37,600
Now, while I'm able to reason, I must discover where I erred and act swiftly to correct my

264
00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:38,600
error.

265
00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:41,440
There's no turning back.

266
00:15:41,440 --> 00:15:47,520
The death I caused is an accomplished fact, and each day I remember something more.

267
00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:52,640
Today, suddenly, like a photograph imprinted on my brain, I saw the black collar of his

268
00:15:52,640 --> 00:15:57,880
coat, his gray hat, and between his clipped, silky reddish hair.

269
00:15:57,880 --> 00:16:04,000
And I had and still have an insatiable desire to turn his head around to see his face.

270
00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:07,740
Perhaps there is only one course for me to take, to reverse my plan, learn everything

271
00:16:07,740 --> 00:16:12,760
about my victim, every possible detail, create for myself a total portrait, and then discard

272
00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:14,240
it in its entirety.

273
00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:18,240
Learn his name, age, address, all the statistics of his life.

274
00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:24,560
Why, beg your pardon, Miss, where are the newspaper files?

275
00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:25,960
What dates did you wish to see?

276
00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:28,520
The week of July 30.

277
00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:29,520
Which paper?

278
00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:30,840
The times, I'll stop with that.

279
00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:31,840
Oh, just a moment.

280
00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:33,840
I want them for the whole week.

281
00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:35,840
Yes, yes.

282
00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:42,080
Well, here are all the copies for July bound, and these loose ones are August, so far.

283
00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:43,080
Oh, thank you.

284
00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:47,400
Now, don't take them out of the reading room and return them to the desk when you're through,

285
00:16:47,400 --> 00:16:48,400
please.

286
00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:49,400
Yes, thank you, I will.

287
00:16:49,400 --> 00:16:54,200
I opened the bound volume near the end and immediately saw his picture, page one, center.

288
00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:58,280
The photograph was blurred, but without reading a word, I recognized him because he matched

289
00:16:58,280 --> 00:16:59,280
his hair.

290
00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:03,040
I mean, his face went with the back of the head I had seen.

291
00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:06,960
But before I could read the headline above the picture, someone spoke to me.

292
00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:09,280
Pardon me, but may I look at that for just a moment?

293
00:17:09,280 --> 00:17:11,480
Oh, it couldn't be.

294
00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:15,480
Standing at my shoulder, smiling, young, apparently as alive as I.

295
00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:16,480
But it was.

296
00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:17,480
He was there.

297
00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:18,480
He, my victim.

298
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:20,680
The face in the paper and his face were the same.

299
00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:21,800
I swear they were the same.

300
00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:25,760
I'm sorry to bother you, and the girl at the desk told me you had that volume at the time.

301
00:17:25,760 --> 00:17:26,760
Yes, yes.

302
00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:31,280
There's an item I wanted to see in the July 30 issue.

303
00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:33,280
I'd wait, but I have to catch a train.

304
00:17:33,280 --> 00:17:35,280
If I'm late, my wife worries.

305
00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:38,280
You know how it is.

306
00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:50,080
If I am late, my wife worries.

307
00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:52,880
That night he was very late.

308
00:17:52,880 --> 00:17:53,880
Somewhere she's still waiting.

309
00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:54,880
Waiting.

310
00:17:54,880 --> 00:17:56,880
Is that what he wanted me to know?

311
00:17:56,880 --> 00:17:59,880
Oh, but this is madness, hysteria.

312
00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:03,480
It's merely coincidence that the man in the library looks so much like him.

313
00:18:03,480 --> 00:18:04,480
He's dead.

314
00:18:04,480 --> 00:18:07,280
I know he's dead, and the dead neither walk nor speak.

315
00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:09,480
I must believe that.

316
00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:22,040
And I must go back to the library and find out where he lived, who and what he was.

317
00:18:22,040 --> 00:18:23,040
August 15th.

318
00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:24,880
I'm beyond all human help.

319
00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:30,160
I can confide the terrors I live with only to the pages of this journal.

320
00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:34,240
Today I went to Riverside to a quiet street where he had lived, Treeline Street, running

321
00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:35,960
down to the Hudson River.

322
00:18:35,960 --> 00:18:39,560
I walked past his house, number 246 Palisades Road.

323
00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:43,160
A young woman on the front porch was trimming a morning glory vine.

324
00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:47,360
I ached to speak to her and ask her name, but the words stuck in my throat.

325
00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:48,360
I walked on.

326
00:18:48,360 --> 00:18:50,880
Then at the next corner it happened again.

327
00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:55,040
I had paused at the curb when he came up behind me.

328
00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:58,000
Pardon me, did you see the bus go by?

329
00:18:58,000 --> 00:18:59,000
The bus?

330
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:02,960
Yes, the bus for Columbia.

331
00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:03,960
Say what's wrong?

332
00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:04,960
Are you ill?

333
00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:05,960
No, no, no, I'm all right.

334
00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:07,960
You look like you're about to faint.

335
00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:08,960
I'm all right.

336
00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:09,960
I live right near here.

337
00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:10,960
If you want to lie down...

338
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:11,960
No, no, no, please, I'm all right.

339
00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:12,960
My house is just down the block.

340
00:19:12,960 --> 00:19:13,960
No, please, no, I...

341
00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:14,960
Well, it's up to you.

342
00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:20,440
I can't make you come, but I hate to see you suffer needlessly.

343
00:19:20,440 --> 00:19:31,320
August 20th.

344
00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:34,200
He doesn't like to see me suffer.

345
00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:39,600
Yet because of him, there isn't one day, one hour when I'm free from despair and fear.

346
00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:42,800
Yes, I accept him now.

347
00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:44,080
The dead do walk and speak.

348
00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:45,920
At least one dead man does.

349
00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:49,200
Whether actually or in the madness of my brain, I do not know.

350
00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:54,080
I only know that if I venture out of my house, inevitably he finds me.

351
00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:58,440
Sometimes he follows at a distance, sometimes waits ahead of me in beckons, and sometimes

352
00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:02,480
he meets me face to face as he did two days ago.

353
00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:04,960
I was going home and I stopped at the corner drugstore.

354
00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:06,440
Evening, Mr. Steele.

355
00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:07,440
Malded?

356
00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,320
No, no, I'll have a cup of coffee.

357
00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:11,320
Sure thing.

358
00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:13,320
Yeah, this stool's vacant next to this gentleman.

359
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:14,320
Thank you.

360
00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:15,320
Oh, no, no.

361
00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:16,320
Go ahead, sit down.

362
00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:17,320
Sure, sit down.

363
00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:19,320
I won't bite you.

364
00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:20,320
Here's your coffee.

365
00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:21,320
No, Joel, I changed my mind.

366
00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:22,320
Look, fella, if it's something about me...

367
00:20:22,320 --> 00:20:23,320
What's wrong, Mr. Steele?

368
00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:24,320
What do you want with me?

369
00:20:24,320 --> 00:20:25,320
Tell me what you want.

370
00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:26,320
Me?

371
00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:27,320
I don't want anything.

372
00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:28,320
Then why don't you leave me alone?

373
00:20:28,320 --> 00:20:29,320
Somebody you know, Mr. Steele?

374
00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:30,320
Apparently Mr. Steele thinks he knows me.

375
00:20:30,320 --> 00:20:31,320
I do.

376
00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:32,320
Oh, I do.

377
00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:33,320
Maybe so, Mr., if you say so.

378
00:20:33,320 --> 00:20:34,320
But if you know me, it sure wasn't from this life.

379
00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:35,320
Must have been some other incarnation.

380
00:20:35,320 --> 00:21:00,360
That was the evening of the 17th.

381
00:21:00,360 --> 00:21:04,280
And yesterday I'd started down the subway steps at 53rd Street.

382
00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:09,640
After looking all around to make sure he was nowhere near, I'd only gone a few steps when

383
00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:11,880
I felt my arm jostle when I turned.

384
00:21:11,880 --> 00:21:12,880
Oh, pardon me.

385
00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:13,880
Please, what do you want?

386
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:14,880
What?

387
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:15,880
What do you mean?

388
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:17,560
Why are you following me?

389
00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:20,000
I looked and I didn't see you, and then suddenly you struck my arm.

390
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:21,560
Maybe it's just fate or something.

391
00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:23,040
Anyway, I said I was sorry.

392
00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:24,880
Then have mercy on me and go away.

393
00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:26,880
Look, you don't own the subway.

394
00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:29,080
Please, please, please, I beg of you.

395
00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:32,080
Okay, okay, since my face seems to give you the willies, I'll be big-hearted.

396
00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:37,760
I'm in no hurry, got all the time in the world, so I'll wait and take the next train.

397
00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:38,760
Will that help?

398
00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:40,120
You know it will.

399
00:21:40,120 --> 00:21:55,600
I don't know and don't want to, but run along now before I change my mind.

400
00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:57,600
August 26th.

401
00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:00,880
What will you have, quote God, pay for it and take it?

402
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:05,200
Well, I have paid and I must now take.

403
00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:10,720
For the day I learned the cure for all my pain and torment, the day the course I have

404
00:22:10,720 --> 00:22:12,960
to take is clear.

405
00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:16,720
Today on a deserted path nearing Fifth Avenue, I saw him again.

406
00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:18,840
He was coming directly toward me.

407
00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:19,840
I waited.

408
00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:22,840
I didn't even try to escape.

409
00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:28,200
Oh, wait, I must ask you.

410
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:29,200
Ask me what?

411
00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:31,080
Well, there's one question I have to know.

412
00:22:31,080 --> 00:22:33,640
I'm not sure I understand.

413
00:22:33,640 --> 00:22:35,680
We don't have to play games or pretend.

414
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:36,680
I accept you.

415
00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:37,680
You're real.

416
00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:39,560
Yes, I guess I'm real enough.

417
00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:41,440
And only you can give me the answer.

418
00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:42,440
Why me?

419
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:44,160
Please, I can't stand much more.

420
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:46,280
Can't you see?

421
00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:47,520
You look sick.

422
00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:48,520
If you want me to help you, I'm...

423
00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:51,360
There's only one way you can help, only one way.

424
00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:52,360
Just answer me.

425
00:22:52,360 --> 00:22:53,360
Well, okay.

426
00:22:53,360 --> 00:22:54,360
Go ahead, I'll try.

427
00:22:54,360 --> 00:22:55,360
Do you believe in compensation?

428
00:22:55,360 --> 00:22:59,920
What do you mean by that?

429
00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:04,720
I mean if someone does evil, if I have done evil, must I get evil in return?

430
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:07,880
Well, say it again.

431
00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:11,360
Do you believe in good for good, evil for evil?

432
00:23:11,360 --> 00:23:14,560
Look, what about killing?

433
00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:16,480
Well there's all sorts of killing.

434
00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:18,320
In the war I killed several people.

435
00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:21,800
Oh, but senseless killing, killing with no reason.

436
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:24,120
What's the compensation for that?

437
00:23:24,120 --> 00:23:27,840
You asked a pretty complicated question of a pretty simple guy.

438
00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:31,640
The only thing that comes to my mind right now is what it says in the Bible, an eye for

439
00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:34,640
an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

440
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:36,320
That's... that's what you believe?

441
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:38,920
Well sure, I guess that's what I believe.

442
00:23:38,920 --> 00:23:57,080
Well does that answer your question?

443
00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:02,520
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, command.

444
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:06,400
The price asked by the only one who can ask it.

445
00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:14,880
Well, I'll pay, for I've learned that no event between two human beings can happen in a vacuum.

446
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:19,400
We're all enmeshed, bound together through our blood in a pulsing net.

447
00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:25,560
And if one of us does violence to another, he does violence to himself.

448
00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:26,920
Very well.

449
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:27,920
This price I'm glad to pay.

450
00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:28,920
I'm glad to die for his death.

451
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:29,920
There's no other way.

452
00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:36,920
Hello Mr. Steele.

453
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:46,680
Are you awake?

454
00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:49,600
Where am I?

455
00:24:49,600 --> 00:24:50,600
In the hospital.

456
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:51,600
How do you feel?

457
00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:52,600
Hospital...

458
00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:53,600
Oh, but I must...

459
00:24:53,600 --> 00:24:54,600
I have to die.

460
00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:57,800
Not if we can keep you from it.

461
00:24:57,800 --> 00:24:58,800
I have to.

462
00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:00,240
You did your best.

463
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:02,440
And what a silly way to do it with a butcher knife.

464
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,080
I tell you, you have to let me die.

465
00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:06,800
Where's the doctor?

466
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,800
Now lie down, lie down Mr. Steele.

467
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:11,200
The doctor will be here in a minute.

468
00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:12,920
I have to make him see.

469
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:13,920
I promised.

470
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:14,920
You promised?

471
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:15,920
Oh, here's the doctor now.

472
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:16,920
Dr. West, I'm having a little trouble.

473
00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:17,920
Trouble, Miss Rosenberg?

474
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:18,920
What seems to be the matter?

475
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:19,920
You...

476
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:20,920
Forgive me.

477
00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:21,920
I'm sorry.

478
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:22,920
I'm sorry.

479
00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:23,920
I'm sorry.

480
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:24,920
I'm sorry.

481
00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:25,920
I'm sorry.

482
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:26,920
I'm sorry.

483
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:27,920
I'm sorry.

484
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:28,920
I'm sorry.

485
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:30,400
I tried to do as you said.

486
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:31,400
I tried to die.

487
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:36,400
Tell her please go away and leave me alone.

488
00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:41,400
I promise I'll die.

489
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:46,720
Miss Adams?

490
00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:50,640
Yes, Dr. West?

491
00:25:50,640 --> 00:25:52,200
Did you finish reading his journal?

492
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:53,200
Yes, doctor.

493
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,200
It's a weird document.

494
00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:57,720
It certainly is.

495
00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:00,040
What made him think you were the man he killed?

496
00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:01,040
That was the nature of his illness.

497
00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:03,360
He had a fixed delusion.

498
00:26:03,360 --> 00:26:06,160
He looked at me and saw someone else's face.

499
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:07,160
How strange.

500
00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:10,920
Yes, but there's something stranger still.

501
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:13,680
When I finished reading this, I called the police and checked.

502
00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:14,680
About the murder?

503
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:17,560
Yes, and there was no such murder as he described.

504
00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:20,760
Not on July 30th, not ever.

505
00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:22,040
He didn't kill anyone?

506
00:26:22,040 --> 00:26:25,480
He never drove his knife into a living back.

507
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:28,720
But Richard Steele killed in his mind.

508
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:30,880
You mean just because he thought of killing?

509
00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:33,400
No, he went further than that.

510
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:34,880
He selected his victim.

511
00:26:34,880 --> 00:26:35,880
Who?

512
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:37,520
The man whose picture was in the paper.

513
00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:38,520
I looked it up.

514
00:26:38,520 --> 00:26:43,680
It was on the front page of the book review section, a photograph of an author.

515
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:45,320
Someone he wanted to kill?

516
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:50,400
Yes, and even for that crime, because he wished for someone's death.

517
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:52,800
The earth was made of glass.

518
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:55,120
There was full compensation.

519
00:26:55,120 --> 00:26:56,120
Whose death?

520
00:26:56,120 --> 00:26:57,120
Who was it?

521
00:26:57,120 --> 00:27:02,440
The author of a new biography called Ralph Waldo Emerson and Our Times.

522
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:04,520
And who was it by?

523
00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:21,760
The author was Richard Steele himself.

524
00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:29,720
Suspense, in which Joseph Kearns was starred in The Earth is Made of Glass.

525
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:35,560
Next week, the story of a man with no imagination who found it necessary to cause the violent

526
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:37,180
end of a life.

527
00:27:37,180 --> 00:27:42,240
It was written by the winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, E. Jack Newman, and it's

528
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:46,000
called Sequel to Murder.

529
00:27:46,000 --> 00:28:03,920
Next week on Suspense.

530
00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:08,640
Suspense is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis with music composed by Lucian Morowick

531
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,440
and conducted by Lud Luskin.

532
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:15,920
The Earth is Made of Glass was written for suspense by Sylvia Richards.

533
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:20,720
In tonight's story, Joseph Kearns was heard as Mr. Steele.

534
00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:26,160
Featured in the cast were Whitfield Connor, Charlotte Lawrence, Herb Butterfield, Jerry

535
00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:36,920
Hausner, Paula Winslow, and Junius Matthews.

536
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:55,440
And remember, next week, E. Jack Newman's new Suspense play, Sequel to Murder.

537
00:28:55,440 --> 00:29:00,240
When four noisy people give one noisy party in a Baltimore home, two of the four wind

538
00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:01,500
up at the morgue.

539
00:29:01,500 --> 00:29:06,000
It's an unsettling bit of business that interested all of Baltimore just a few years ago.

540
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:10,400
And CBS Radio's Crime Classics weighs the available facts for you tomorrow night on

541
00:29:10,400 --> 00:29:12,240
most of these stations.

542
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:17,880
Hear all about the death of a Baltimore birdie and friend on Crime Classics tomorrow night.

543
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:36,480
You can join the FBI in peace and war Wednesdays on the CBS Radio Network.