WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:18.000 And now, tonight's presentation from radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense. 00:18.000 --> 00:23.440 Tonight, the story of a murder, deliberate, cold, motiveless, in which we will examine 00:23.440 --> 00:25.680 its effects on our protagonist. 00:25.680 --> 00:39.800 The story is called, The Earth is Made of Glass. 00:39.800 --> 00:40.800 Good morning, Dr. West. 00:40.800 --> 00:42.200 Oh, good morning, Miss Adam. 00:42.200 --> 00:44.520 I've brought down the night charts from the fourth floor. 00:44.520 --> 00:46.520 Ah, now look the more. 00:46.520 --> 00:49.520 What sort of night did you have? 00:49.520 --> 00:50.960 Fairly quiet, Doctor. 00:50.960 --> 00:51.960 No new cases. 00:51.960 --> 00:52.960 There were. 00:52.960 --> 00:54.480 I don't know where you'd put them. 00:54.480 --> 00:57.960 Well, we have one vacant bed this morning, 436. 00:57.960 --> 00:58.960 Mr. Steele? 00:58.960 --> 01:01.280 Yes, he died about 4 a.m. 01:01.280 --> 01:03.680 Surprised he held on that long? 01:03.680 --> 01:06.280 I thought you might be upset, Doctor. 01:06.280 --> 01:10.800 I mean, the day supervisor, Miss Rosenberg, told me you and Mr. Steele were either related 01:10.800 --> 01:11.800 or very close friends. 01:11.800 --> 01:13.200 No, no, not at all. 01:13.200 --> 01:16.440 Mr. Steele suffered certain delusions. 01:16.440 --> 01:20.000 Just before he died, he asked me to give you this, Dr. West. 01:20.000 --> 01:22.720 It's some kind of diary or journal. 01:22.720 --> 01:26.000 He said he owed it to you, that it was in compensation. 01:26.000 --> 01:29.360 Very well, leave it on the desk. 01:29.360 --> 01:31.600 I'll ask who is in charge of settling his estate. 01:31.600 --> 01:33.920 All right, Doctor. 01:33.920 --> 01:36.600 I looked at the first few pages. 01:36.600 --> 01:37.600 Very strange. 01:37.600 --> 01:38.600 Oh. 01:38.600 --> 01:39.600 Well, I'm going off duty. 01:39.600 --> 01:40.600 Very well, Miss Adams. 01:40.600 --> 01:41.600 I'll see you tomorrow. 01:41.600 --> 01:42.600 Yes, Doctor. 01:42.600 --> 01:43.600 The Journal of Richard Thomas Steele. 01:43.600 --> 01:44.600 Strange. 01:44.600 --> 01:56.440 He tore out a good many pages. 01:56.440 --> 01:58.040 Everything up to July 26th. 01:58.040 --> 02:00.520 That's only a month ago. 02:00.520 --> 02:02.520 Why on earth did he leave it to me? 02:02.520 --> 02:04.000 Who do you think I was? 02:04.000 --> 02:08.600 Poor devil, there was certainly something torturing him. 02:08.600 --> 02:11.520 July 26th, an extremely depressing day. 02:11.520 --> 02:15.040 From early morning on, the air was hot, heavy, sticky. 02:15.040 --> 02:21.960 I stayed indoors. 02:21.960 --> 02:26.720 I stayed indoors with the blinds drawn, spent three and a half hours arranging and cataloging 02:26.720 --> 02:28.680 a new shipment of books. 02:28.680 --> 02:34.800 I must say I gloated over the volume of bacon, gold leaf uncut, 1836, a treasure. 02:34.800 --> 02:39.120 In the afternoon, I ventured out to play chess with Elliot. 02:39.120 --> 02:41.720 He's an uninspired player and a worse conversationalist. 02:41.720 --> 02:47.040 I'm appalled that a man of Elliot's pretensions still wallows in 18th and 19th century thought 02:47.040 --> 02:50.040 patterns, twaddle and sentimentality. 02:50.040 --> 02:54.280 He's totally out of step with the times, blindly determined to keep his mind closed to any 02:54.280 --> 02:55.680 developments in science. 02:55.680 --> 03:00.560 It was so apparent in that argument we had over Ralph Waldo Emerson. 03:00.560 --> 03:05.960 I noticed he had a volume of Emerson's essays, a cheap reprint, and I thumbed through it. 03:05.960 --> 03:10.520 There was one paragraph in the essay called Compensation, which especially annoyed me. 03:10.520 --> 03:14.280 I must have snorted because Elliot was instantly on the defensive. 03:14.280 --> 03:18.200 When I asked him if he actually believed such claptrap, he fairly leaped at me. 03:18.200 --> 03:20.360 Certainly, I believe there's compensation, Richard. 03:20.360 --> 03:22.800 Tit for tat, measure for measure, love for love. 03:22.800 --> 03:24.680 Whatever a man does comes back to him. 03:24.680 --> 03:29.120 Good for good, evil for evil, so that if I should commit a crime, I would of necessity 03:29.120 --> 03:30.120 be punished? 03:30.120 --> 03:31.160 In one way or another, yes. 03:31.160 --> 03:35.520 You mean that I would in some way suffer in compensation for my evil deeds? 03:35.520 --> 03:38.040 Isn't that what Emerson says? 03:38.040 --> 03:39.240 I want to know what you believe. 03:39.240 --> 03:40.680 I believe what he says. 03:40.680 --> 03:42.480 Well, let's read what he says. 03:42.480 --> 03:48.040 Discounting the poetry and all the emotional overtones, Emerson says, commit a crime and 03:48.040 --> 03:49.920 the earth is made of glass. 03:49.920 --> 03:54.440 Commit a crime and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in 03:54.440 --> 03:57.960 the woods the track of every partridge in fox and squirrel and mole. 03:57.960 --> 03:59.680 You cannot recall the spoken word. 03:59.680 --> 04:01.240 You cannot wipe out the foot track. 04:01.240 --> 04:04.880 You cannot draw up the ladder, so as to leave no in-letter clue. 04:04.880 --> 04:07.760 Some damning circumstance always transpires. 04:07.760 --> 04:12.640 The laws and substances of nature, water, snow, wind, gravitation, become penalties 04:12.640 --> 04:13.640 to the thief. 04:13.640 --> 04:14.640 Well, Eliot. 04:14.640 --> 04:15.640 Beautiful, isn't it? 04:15.640 --> 04:16.640 Don't be evasive, Eliot. 04:16.640 --> 04:17.640 We're discussing his theory. 04:17.640 --> 04:21.120 Well, I don't see how there can be any argument. 04:21.120 --> 04:22.120 We know... 04:22.120 --> 04:25.440 We know a good deal more than Emerson, you old fellow, especially about the laws and 04:25.440 --> 04:26.440 substances of nature. 04:26.440 --> 04:28.120 They surely haven't changed. 04:28.120 --> 04:30.920 No, no, but we've taken them into the laboratory. 04:30.920 --> 04:35.040 We've tested the substances and we've mastered the laws, put them under our control. 04:35.040 --> 04:36.920 The scientific method, Eliot. 04:36.920 --> 04:39.360 White cancels out every word your friend Emerson wrote. 04:39.360 --> 04:41.600 The scientific method. 04:41.600 --> 04:43.760 Is it an open sesame to all knowledge? 04:43.760 --> 04:45.400 Does it make us gods? 04:45.400 --> 04:48.440 There are still mysteries we can never fathom, Richard. 04:48.440 --> 04:51.360 For instance, the mysteries in ourselves. 04:51.360 --> 04:52.360 In our souls? 04:52.360 --> 04:54.600 Yes, in our souls. 04:54.600 --> 04:59.320 Whatever it is we have that cannot be weighed or tested, yet which manifests itself in every 04:59.320 --> 05:01.720 good or evil thing we do. 05:01.720 --> 05:03.840 Say you commit a murder. 05:03.840 --> 05:04.840 Say I do. 05:04.840 --> 05:05.840 A perfect crime. 05:05.840 --> 05:09.080 For I grant you that a man of your intelligence can outwit the police. 05:09.080 --> 05:11.640 Nevertheless, you could not escape from... 05:11.640 --> 05:14.120 Well, let's call it your conscience. 05:14.120 --> 05:17.880 But say I commit a laboratory murder. 05:17.880 --> 05:18.880 What? 05:18.880 --> 05:21.260 Let me put it this way. 05:21.260 --> 05:25.600 To catch a murderer, the police first set out to discover some connection between the murderer 05:25.600 --> 05:29.040 and his victim, which leads them to the motive for the crime. 05:29.040 --> 05:33.040 And when a murderer is caught by his own conscience, it is also through his connection with his 05:33.040 --> 05:35.560 victim, his emotional connection. 05:35.560 --> 05:41.480 But in a pure abstract murder, one occurring in an emotional vacuum, the two participants 05:41.480 --> 05:46.400 would be connected only by the unadulterated act of killing. 05:46.400 --> 05:51.760 But isn't every man connected first of all with himself? 05:51.760 --> 05:55.600 I mean, a man renders judgment on himself. 05:55.600 --> 05:58.280 In his soul, I would say. 05:58.280 --> 06:02.840 With superstitious claptrap, Elliot, apparently you're completely unable to grasp my premise 06:02.840 --> 06:06.800 that theoretically, a laboratory murder is entirely possible. 06:06.800 --> 06:07.800 Why not actually? 06:07.800 --> 06:12.400 It would be very interesting to test the theory and find out. 06:12.400 --> 06:20.760 July 28th, the weather continues warm, humidity high. 06:20.760 --> 06:24.040 This is the last summer I shall spend in New York. 06:24.040 --> 06:28.480 Today, I roamed around my library, read a little, thought a great deal. 06:28.480 --> 06:33.200 It's odd how I keep referring back to my conversation with Elliot. 06:33.200 --> 06:36.120 Abstract murder, a laboratory murder. 06:36.120 --> 06:39.560 I jotted down one or two theoretical points today. 06:39.560 --> 06:49.040 An amusing project in such hot weather. 06:49.040 --> 06:53.520 What utter nonsense to think of conducting a laboratory experiment and writing on paper. 06:53.520 --> 06:56.080 Boy, it's a contradiction in terms. 06:56.080 --> 06:59.480 The core of the scientific method is to prove theory in life. 06:59.480 --> 07:03.720 So, let us proceed actually to create a pure murder. 07:03.720 --> 07:08.080 A murder committed, as I said to Elliot, in a material and emotional vacuum. 07:08.080 --> 07:13.600 A murder of someone with whom I have no connection, whom I have no possible reason to kill. 07:13.600 --> 07:18.800 But I will decide how to choose my victim after I've made all the other preparations 07:18.800 --> 07:21.480 and have purchased the necessary equipment. 07:21.480 --> 07:23.560 Gloves, sir. 07:23.560 --> 07:24.560 What kind of gloves? 07:24.560 --> 07:26.640 Oh, any kind of gloves. 07:26.640 --> 07:28.640 But I mean, what do you want them for? 07:28.640 --> 07:29.640 Driving, gardening? 07:29.640 --> 07:32.000 I want gloves I can use for almost anything. 07:32.000 --> 07:34.640 Oh, well, now we call these utility gloves. 07:34.640 --> 07:36.480 Oh, yes, those are excellent. 07:36.480 --> 07:37.760 Yes, what size, sir? 07:37.760 --> 07:38.760 Any size, medium. 07:38.760 --> 07:40.240 Now, these look just about... 07:40.240 --> 07:41.720 No, no, no, I don't want to try them on. 07:41.720 --> 07:44.720 I'll pick them as they are, just wrap them up. 07:44.720 --> 07:49.120 You know, I'm very fond of a genuine old-fashioned hardware store like this one. 07:49.120 --> 07:52.680 Lots of people tell me that, sir. 07:52.680 --> 07:54.200 Anything special you're looking for? 07:54.200 --> 07:56.320 No, I suppose I'm just browsing. 07:56.320 --> 07:57.320 Oh, yes, sir. 07:57.320 --> 07:59.320 What are those, ice picks? 07:59.320 --> 08:00.320 Yes, sir. 08:00.320 --> 08:02.320 Oh, quite a selection. 08:02.320 --> 08:03.760 Screwdrivers and... 08:03.760 --> 08:06.240 Oh, there's something I want. 08:06.240 --> 08:07.240 A knife? 08:07.240 --> 08:08.240 One of those. 08:08.240 --> 08:12.240 Well, to be fair with you, sir, those are pretty poor knives. 08:12.240 --> 08:13.760 That's why they're marked down. 08:13.760 --> 08:17.000 Too big for paring, too small for carving. 08:17.000 --> 08:18.000 Just knives. 08:18.000 --> 08:19.280 That's about it. 08:19.280 --> 08:27.600 With the best possible recommendation, I'll take one. 08:27.600 --> 08:32.680 A meaningless knife, all-purpose gloves, knife and gloves new, factory-made, uncontaminated 08:32.680 --> 08:36.600 by human association, smelling only of the harsh impersonal machines which turned them 08:36.600 --> 08:37.640 out. 08:37.640 --> 08:41.400 My first safeguards against the intrusion of emotion. 08:41.400 --> 08:44.040 And now to complete my plans. 08:44.040 --> 08:46.160 Who will it be? 08:46.160 --> 08:48.120 I must never see his or her face. 08:48.120 --> 08:52.000 I must not know his or her name, age, occupation, thoughts or desires. 08:52.000 --> 08:55.640 I must come into contact with this victim as casually as though we were blown together 08:55.640 --> 08:56.640 by the wind. 08:56.640 --> 09:01.800 There can be no selection, no volition on my part, except the elementary volition necessary 09:01.800 --> 09:10.760 to raise my arm to kill. 09:10.760 --> 09:14.040 July 30th, the exact record of what has occurred. 09:14.040 --> 09:16.760 But I must write it down now while it's fresh in my mind. 09:16.760 --> 09:19.440 I'll be absolutely precise and objective. 09:19.440 --> 09:20.440 Very well then. 09:20.440 --> 09:25.040 At exactly 10 p.m. tonight, I left my house, wearing the new gloves and carrying the knife 09:25.040 --> 09:27.040 in my right-hand coat pocket. 09:27.040 --> 09:30.580 I walked an undetermined number of blocks, turning corners at random, taking care to 09:30.580 --> 09:33.480 observe no street signs or landmarks. 09:33.480 --> 09:36.400 I observed only one thing, that there were many people on the street. 09:36.400 --> 09:40.440 In fact, I became aware that I was pushing through a rather dense crowd. 09:40.440 --> 09:44.520 I walked on with difficulty, but not once did I allow myself to become conscious of 09:44.520 --> 09:47.000 the exact nature of my surroundings. 09:47.000 --> 09:55.080 Then at last, I found my progress through the crowd blocked by what I can only describe 09:55.080 --> 09:56.400 as a human back. 09:56.400 --> 10:01.840 I raised the knife and drove it into the back with all my force. 10:01.840 --> 10:06.920 I continued walking without haste, pausing only a fraction of a second to hear, 10:06.920 --> 10:10.640 He's dead! He's dead! 10:10.640 --> 10:12.760 He's dead, yes. 10:12.760 --> 10:18.440 I paused just long enough to hear, thus confirmed my unqualified belief that without any possible 10:18.440 --> 10:37.840 consequence to myself, I had taken another human being's life. 10:37.840 --> 10:43.000 You are listening to Mr. Joseph Kearns in Sylvia Richards' Study and Motive, The Earth 10:43.000 --> 10:44.520 is Made of Glass. 10:44.520 --> 11:00.720 Tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense. 11:00.720 --> 11:06.560 This is Flag Week, when all patriotic organizations urge all patriotic Americans to display their 11:06.560 --> 11:08.440 stars and stripes. 11:08.440 --> 11:14.840 Your flag hanging on high tells all who pass that America truly is one nation indivisible. 11:14.840 --> 11:20.000 Give new glory to old glory by showing your country's colors during Flag Week and on all 11:20.000 --> 11:23.640 patriotic holidays, national and local. 11:23.640 --> 11:29.920 And now, we bring back to our Hollywood soundstage, Mr. Joseph Kearns, in Elliot Lewis's production 11:29.920 --> 11:36.560 of The Earth is Made of Glass, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. 11:36.560 --> 11:51.280 August 1st. 11:51.280 --> 11:56.120 All day I felt enormously stimulated, elated by the success of my experiment. 11:56.120 --> 12:00.040 The very intensity of the sun outside my study has added to my feeling of well-being. 12:00.040 --> 12:05.760 Tomorrow, I shall complete my notes on this extraordinary and I'm sure valuable psychological 12:05.760 --> 12:06.760 study. 12:06.760 --> 12:11.600 Today, I shall relish to the full my mood of achievement. 12:11.600 --> 12:15.040 How I regret that I can't tell old Elliot. 12:15.040 --> 12:19.280 I can picture the disbelief and horror on his face if he knew. 12:19.280 --> 12:30.080 Compensation, oh tut-tut, Mr. Hammerson. 12:30.080 --> 12:31.880 August 3rd. 12:31.880 --> 12:35.320 Yesterday I was unable to write in my journal because of the excessive heat and because 12:35.320 --> 12:38.840 I suffered from a headache and a vibration in my ears. 12:38.840 --> 12:44.800 Today, I'm forcing myself to write to have on record the final control in my experiment, 12:44.800 --> 12:46.160 my laboratory murder. 12:46.160 --> 12:51.200 To assure complete ignorance of the identity of my victim, I have read no newspaper and 12:51.200 --> 12:53.880 will not read any for a period of two or three weeks. 12:53.880 --> 12:59.120 Nor will I hold conversation with anyone apt to be morbidly interested in murder, as reported 12:59.120 --> 13:02.120 in the tabloid press. 13:02.120 --> 13:09.400 August 4th. 13:09.400 --> 13:15.120 The heat is unbearable and all day I have felt that odd heavy vibration in my head. 13:15.120 --> 13:17.960 Now also on my arms and body. 13:17.960 --> 13:21.200 It is almost constant in a one-two, one-two rhythm. 13:21.200 --> 13:31.480 But sometimes it's a sound as well as a vibration like the distant sound of the sea. 13:31.480 --> 13:38.520 I must consult a doctor. 13:38.520 --> 13:42.680 Last night I was kept awake by the throbbing in my head and toward morning I was subjected 13:42.680 --> 13:43.680 to a new agony. 13:43.680 --> 13:49.640 Very softly at first, but louder and louder like voices heard in delirium, my head became 13:49.640 --> 13:55.680 filled with an almost hysterical babbling. 13:55.680 --> 13:58.520 Not for an instant have the voices stopped or even paused. 13:58.520 --> 14:11.640 I simply keep time with the reverberation of my heart. 14:11.640 --> 14:13.640 August 8th. 14:13.640 --> 14:18.560 I have no need to consult a doctor for I know the nature of my illness. 14:18.560 --> 14:24.400 Last night, trying to drive the unspeakable uproar from my brain, I turned to music. 14:24.400 --> 14:28.800 But when I put the record on the machine, Schnabel's recording of Beethoven's F minor 14:28.800 --> 14:34.480 Sonata, the Appassionata, the sound in the voices rose to a bedlam, shrieking, round 14:34.480 --> 14:36.080 out the music. 14:36.080 --> 14:41.320 And then I knew, in spite of every precaution, my laboratory murder had not taken place in 14:41.320 --> 14:42.320 a vacuum. 14:42.320 --> 14:44.960 Two things had penetrated my shield. 14:44.960 --> 14:49.600 First, the voices echoing in my ears, the fragmented speech about a concert, are the 14:49.600 --> 14:54.200 same voices I heard in that crowd, rising again and again to the climax of a woman's 14:54.200 --> 14:55.200 life. 14:55.200 --> 15:03.960 And the pulsing sound I hear when I drove that knife home into a beating heart, its 15:03.960 --> 15:07.400 vital rhythm, the mighty leap and contraction of the heart's muscle on the blade of the 15:07.400 --> 15:13.040 knife, was transmitted back to me through my hand and remains indelibly recorded in 15:13.040 --> 15:25.280 the heartbeat of my own blood. 15:25.280 --> 15:27.360 August 11. 15:27.360 --> 15:31.800 During the past hour, the incessant hammering of sound has receded, but I know this respite 15:31.800 --> 15:32.800 will be brief. 15:32.800 --> 15:37.600 Now, while I'm able to reason, I must discover where I erred and act swiftly to correct my 15:37.600 --> 15:38.600 error. 15:38.600 --> 15:41.440 There's no turning back. 15:41.440 --> 15:47.520 The death I caused is an accomplished fact, and each day I remember something more. 15:47.520 --> 15:52.640 Today, suddenly, like a photograph imprinted on my brain, I saw the black collar of his 15:52.640 --> 15:57.880 coat, his gray hat, and between his clipped, silky reddish hair. 15:57.880 --> 16:04.000 And I had and still have an insatiable desire to turn his head around to see his face. 16:04.000 --> 16:07.740 Perhaps there is only one course for me to take, to reverse my plan, learn everything 16:07.740 --> 16:12.760 about my victim, every possible detail, create for myself a total portrait, and then discard 16:12.760 --> 16:14.240 it in its entirety. 16:14.240 --> 16:18.240 Learn his name, age, address, all the statistics of his life. 16:18.240 --> 16:24.560 Why, beg your pardon, Miss, where are the newspaper files? 16:24.560 --> 16:25.960 What dates did you wish to see? 16:25.960 --> 16:28.520 The week of July 30. 16:28.520 --> 16:29.520 Which paper? 16:29.520 --> 16:30.840 The times, I'll stop with that. 16:30.840 --> 16:31.840 Oh, just a moment. 16:31.840 --> 16:33.840 I want them for the whole week. 16:33.840 --> 16:35.840 Yes, yes. 16:35.840 --> 16:42.080 Well, here are all the copies for July bound, and these loose ones are August, so far. 16:42.080 --> 16:43.080 Oh, thank you. 16:43.080 --> 16:47.400 Now, don't take them out of the reading room and return them to the desk when you're through, 16:47.400 --> 16:48.400 please. 16:48.400 --> 16:49.400 Yes, thank you, I will. 16:49.400 --> 16:54.200 I opened the bound volume near the end and immediately saw his picture, page one, center. 16:54.200 --> 16:58.280 The photograph was blurred, but without reading a word, I recognized him because he matched 16:58.280 --> 16:59.280 his hair. 16:59.280 --> 17:03.040 I mean, his face went with the back of the head I had seen. 17:03.040 --> 17:06.960 But before I could read the headline above the picture, someone spoke to me. 17:06.960 --> 17:09.280 Pardon me, but may I look at that for just a moment? 17:09.280 --> 17:11.480 Oh, it couldn't be. 17:11.480 --> 17:15.480 Standing at my shoulder, smiling, young, apparently as alive as I. 17:15.480 --> 17:16.480 But it was. 17:16.480 --> 17:17.480 He was there. 17:17.480 --> 17:18.480 He, my victim. 17:18.480 --> 17:20.680 The face in the paper and his face were the same. 17:20.680 --> 17:21.800 I swear they were the same. 17:21.800 --> 17:25.760 I'm sorry to bother you, and the girl at the desk told me you had that volume at the time. 17:25.760 --> 17:26.760 Yes, yes. 17:26.760 --> 17:31.280 There's an item I wanted to see in the July 30 issue. 17:31.280 --> 17:33.280 I'd wait, but I have to catch a train. 17:33.280 --> 17:35.280 If I'm late, my wife worries. 17:35.280 --> 17:38.280 You know how it is. 17:38.280 --> 17:50.080 If I am late, my wife worries. 17:50.080 --> 17:52.880 That night he was very late. 17:52.880 --> 17:53.880 Somewhere she's still waiting. 17:53.880 --> 17:54.880 Waiting. 17:54.880 --> 17:56.880 Is that what he wanted me to know? 17:56.880 --> 17:59.880 Oh, but this is madness, hysteria. 17:59.880 --> 18:03.480 It's merely coincidence that the man in the library looks so much like him. 18:03.480 --> 18:04.480 He's dead. 18:04.480 --> 18:07.280 I know he's dead, and the dead neither walk nor speak. 18:07.280 --> 18:09.480 I must believe that. 18:09.480 --> 18:22.040 And I must go back to the library and find out where he lived, who and what he was. 18:22.040 --> 18:23.040 August 15th. 18:23.040 --> 18:24.880 I'm beyond all human help. 18:24.880 --> 18:30.160 I can confide the terrors I live with only to the pages of this journal. 18:30.160 --> 18:34.240 Today I went to Riverside to a quiet street where he had lived, Treeline Street, running 18:34.240 --> 18:35.960 down to the Hudson River. 18:35.960 --> 18:39.560 I walked past his house, number 246 Palisades Road. 18:39.560 --> 18:43.160 A young woman on the front porch was trimming a morning glory vine. 18:43.160 --> 18:47.360 I ached to speak to her and ask her name, but the words stuck in my throat. 18:47.360 --> 18:48.360 I walked on. 18:48.360 --> 18:50.880 Then at the next corner it happened again. 18:50.880 --> 18:55.040 I had paused at the curb when he came up behind me. 18:55.040 --> 18:58.000 Pardon me, did you see the bus go by? 18:58.000 --> 18:59.000 The bus? 18:59.000 --> 19:02.960 Yes, the bus for Columbia. 19:02.960 --> 19:03.960 Say what's wrong? 19:03.960 --> 19:04.960 Are you ill? 19:04.960 --> 19:05.960 No, no, no, I'm all right. 19:05.960 --> 19:07.960 You look like you're about to faint. 19:07.960 --> 19:08.960 I'm all right. 19:08.960 --> 19:09.960 I live right near here. 19:09.960 --> 19:10.960 If you want to lie down... 19:10.960 --> 19:11.960 No, no, no, please, I'm all right. 19:11.960 --> 19:12.960 My house is just down the block. 19:12.960 --> 19:13.960 No, please, no, I... 19:13.960 --> 19:14.960 Well, it's up to you. 19:14.960 --> 19:20.440 I can't make you come, but I hate to see you suffer needlessly. 19:20.440 --> 19:31.320 August 20th. 19:31.320 --> 19:34.200 He doesn't like to see me suffer. 19:34.200 --> 19:39.600 Yet because of him, there isn't one day, one hour when I'm free from despair and fear. 19:39.600 --> 19:42.800 Yes, I accept him now. 19:42.800 --> 19:44.080 The dead do walk and speak. 19:44.080 --> 19:45.920 At least one dead man does. 19:45.920 --> 19:49.200 Whether actually or in the madness of my brain, I do not know. 19:49.200 --> 19:54.080 I only know that if I venture out of my house, inevitably he finds me. 19:54.080 --> 19:58.440 Sometimes he follows at a distance, sometimes waits ahead of me in beckons, and sometimes 19:58.440 --> 20:02.480 he meets me face to face as he did two days ago. 20:02.480 --> 20:04.960 I was going home and I stopped at the corner drugstore. 20:04.960 --> 20:06.440 Evening, Mr. Steele. 20:06.440 --> 20:07.440 Malded? 20:07.440 --> 20:10.320 No, no, I'll have a cup of coffee. 20:10.320 --> 20:11.320 Sure thing. 20:11.320 --> 20:13.320 Yeah, this stool's vacant next to this gentleman. 20:13.320 --> 20:14.320 Thank you. 20:14.320 --> 20:15.320 Oh, no, no. 20:15.320 --> 20:16.320 Go ahead, sit down. 20:16.320 --> 20:17.320 Sure, sit down. 20:17.320 --> 20:19.320 I won't bite you. 20:19.320 --> 20:20.320 Here's your coffee. 20:20.320 --> 20:21.320 No, Joel, I changed my mind. 20:21.320 --> 20:22.320 Look, fella, if it's something about me... 20:22.320 --> 20:23.320 What's wrong, Mr. Steele? 20:23.320 --> 20:24.320 What do you want with me? 20:24.320 --> 20:25.320 Tell me what you want. 20:25.320 --> 20:26.320 Me? 20:26.320 --> 20:27.320 I don't want anything. 20:27.320 --> 20:28.320 Then why don't you leave me alone? 20:28.320 --> 20:29.320 Somebody you know, Mr. Steele? 20:29.320 --> 20:30.320 Apparently Mr. Steele thinks he knows me. 20:30.320 --> 20:31.320 I do. 20:31.320 --> 20:32.320 Oh, I do. 20:32.320 --> 20:33.320 Maybe so, Mr., if you say so. 20:33.320 --> 20:34.320 But if you know me, it sure wasn't from this life. 20:34.320 --> 20:35.320 Must have been some other incarnation. 20:35.320 --> 21:00.360 That was the evening of the 17th. 21:00.360 --> 21:04.280 And yesterday I'd started down the subway steps at 53rd Street. 21:04.280 --> 21:09.640 After looking all around to make sure he was nowhere near, I'd only gone a few steps when 21:09.640 --> 21:11.880 I felt my arm jostle when I turned. 21:11.880 --> 21:12.880 Oh, pardon me. 21:12.880 --> 21:13.880 Please, what do you want? 21:13.880 --> 21:14.880 What? 21:14.880 --> 21:15.880 What do you mean? 21:15.880 --> 21:17.560 Why are you following me? 21:17.560 --> 21:20.000 I looked and I didn't see you, and then suddenly you struck my arm. 21:20.000 --> 21:21.560 Maybe it's just fate or something. 21:21.560 --> 21:23.040 Anyway, I said I was sorry. 21:23.040 --> 21:24.880 Then have mercy on me and go away. 21:24.880 --> 21:26.880 Look, you don't own the subway. 21:26.880 --> 21:29.080 Please, please, please, I beg of you. 21:29.080 --> 21:32.080 Okay, okay, since my face seems to give you the willies, I'll be big-hearted. 21:32.080 --> 21:37.760 I'm in no hurry, got all the time in the world, so I'll wait and take the next train. 21:37.760 --> 21:38.760 Will that help? 21:38.760 --> 21:40.120 You know it will. 21:40.120 --> 21:55.600 I don't know and don't want to, but run along now before I change my mind. 21:55.600 --> 21:57.600 August 26th. 21:57.600 --> 22:00.880 What will you have, quote God, pay for it and take it? 22:00.880 --> 22:05.200 Well, I have paid and I must now take. 22:05.200 --> 22:10.720 For the day I learned the cure for all my pain and torment, the day the course I have 22:10.720 --> 22:12.960 to take is clear. 22:12.960 --> 22:16.720 Today on a deserted path nearing Fifth Avenue, I saw him again. 22:16.720 --> 22:18.840 He was coming directly toward me. 22:18.840 --> 22:19.840 I waited. 22:19.840 --> 22:22.840 I didn't even try to escape. 22:22.840 --> 22:28.200 Oh, wait, I must ask you. 22:28.200 --> 22:29.200 Ask me what? 22:29.200 --> 22:31.080 Well, there's one question I have to know. 22:31.080 --> 22:33.640 I'm not sure I understand. 22:33.640 --> 22:35.680 We don't have to play games or pretend. 22:35.680 --> 22:36.680 I accept you. 22:36.680 --> 22:37.680 You're real. 22:37.680 --> 22:39.560 Yes, I guess I'm real enough. 22:39.560 --> 22:41.440 And only you can give me the answer. 22:41.440 --> 22:42.440 Why me? 22:42.440 --> 22:44.160 Please, I can't stand much more. 22:44.160 --> 22:46.280 Can't you see? 22:46.280 --> 22:47.520 You look sick. 22:47.520 --> 22:48.520 If you want me to help you, I'm... 22:48.520 --> 22:51.360 There's only one way you can help, only one way. 22:51.360 --> 22:52.360 Just answer me. 22:52.360 --> 22:53.360 Well, okay. 22:53.360 --> 22:54.360 Go ahead, I'll try. 22:54.360 --> 22:55.360 Do you believe in compensation? 22:55.360 --> 22:59.920 What do you mean by that? 22:59.920 --> 23:04.720 I mean if someone does evil, if I have done evil, must I get evil in return? 23:04.720 --> 23:07.880 Well, say it again. 23:07.880 --> 23:11.360 Do you believe in good for good, evil for evil? 23:11.360 --> 23:14.560 Look, what about killing? 23:14.560 --> 23:16.480 Well there's all sorts of killing. 23:16.480 --> 23:18.320 In the war I killed several people. 23:18.320 --> 23:21.800 Oh, but senseless killing, killing with no reason. 23:21.800 --> 23:24.120 What's the compensation for that? 23:24.120 --> 23:27.840 You asked a pretty complicated question of a pretty simple guy. 23:27.840 --> 23:31.640 The only thing that comes to my mind right now is what it says in the Bible, an eye for 23:31.640 --> 23:34.640 an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 23:34.640 --> 23:36.320 That's... that's what you believe? 23:36.320 --> 23:38.920 Well sure, I guess that's what I believe. 23:38.920 --> 23:57.080 Well does that answer your question? 23:57.080 --> 24:02.520 An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, command. 24:02.520 --> 24:06.400 The price asked by the only one who can ask it. 24:06.400 --> 24:14.880 Well, I'll pay, for I've learned that no event between two human beings can happen in a vacuum. 24:14.880 --> 24:19.400 We're all enmeshed, bound together through our blood in a pulsing net. 24:19.400 --> 24:25.560 And if one of us does violence to another, he does violence to himself. 24:25.560 --> 24:26.920 Very well. 24:26.920 --> 24:27.920 This price I'm glad to pay. 24:27.920 --> 24:28.920 I'm glad to die for his death. 24:28.920 --> 24:29.920 There's no other way. 24:29.920 --> 24:36.920 Hello Mr. Steele. 24:36.920 --> 24:46.680 Are you awake? 24:46.680 --> 24:49.600 Where am I? 24:49.600 --> 24:50.600 In the hospital. 24:50.600 --> 24:51.600 How do you feel? 24:51.600 --> 24:52.600 Hospital... 24:52.600 --> 24:53.600 Oh, but I must... 24:53.600 --> 24:54.600 I have to die. 24:54.600 --> 24:57.800 Not if we can keep you from it. 24:57.800 --> 24:58.800 I have to. 24:58.800 --> 25:00.240 You did your best. 25:00.240 --> 25:02.440 And what a silly way to do it with a butcher knife. 25:02.440 --> 25:05.080 I tell you, you have to let me die. 25:05.080 --> 25:06.800 Where's the doctor? 25:06.800 --> 25:09.800 Now lie down, lie down Mr. Steele. 25:09.800 --> 25:11.200 The doctor will be here in a minute. 25:11.200 --> 25:12.920 I have to make him see. 25:12.920 --> 25:13.920 I promised. 25:13.920 --> 25:14.920 You promised? 25:14.920 --> 25:15.920 Oh, here's the doctor now. 25:15.920 --> 25:16.920 Dr. West, I'm having a little trouble. 25:16.920 --> 25:17.920 Trouble, Miss Rosenberg? 25:17.920 --> 25:18.920 What seems to be the matter? 25:18.920 --> 25:19.920 You... 25:19.920 --> 25:20.920 Forgive me. 25:20.920 --> 25:21.920 I'm sorry. 25:21.920 --> 25:22.920 I'm sorry. 25:22.920 --> 25:23.920 I'm sorry. 25:23.920 --> 25:24.920 I'm sorry. 25:24.920 --> 25:25.920 I'm sorry. 25:25.920 --> 25:26.920 I'm sorry. 25:26.920 --> 25:27.920 I'm sorry. 25:27.920 --> 25:28.920 I'm sorry. 25:28.920 --> 25:30.400 I tried to do as you said. 25:30.400 --> 25:31.400 I tried to die. 25:31.400 --> 25:36.400 Tell her please go away and leave me alone. 25:36.400 --> 25:41.400 I promise I'll die. 25:41.400 --> 25:46.720 Miss Adams? 25:46.720 --> 25:50.640 Yes, Dr. West? 25:50.640 --> 25:52.200 Did you finish reading his journal? 25:52.200 --> 25:53.200 Yes, doctor. 25:53.200 --> 25:56.200 It's a weird document. 25:56.200 --> 25:57.720 It certainly is. 25:57.720 --> 26:00.040 What made him think you were the man he killed? 26:00.040 --> 26:01.040 That was the nature of his illness. 26:01.040 --> 26:03.360 He had a fixed delusion. 26:03.360 --> 26:06.160 He looked at me and saw someone else's face. 26:06.160 --> 26:07.160 How strange. 26:07.160 --> 26:10.920 Yes, but there's something stranger still. 26:10.920 --> 26:13.680 When I finished reading this, I called the police and checked. 26:13.680 --> 26:14.680 About the murder? 26:14.680 --> 26:17.560 Yes, and there was no such murder as he described. 26:17.560 --> 26:20.760 Not on July 30th, not ever. 26:20.760 --> 26:22.040 He didn't kill anyone? 26:22.040 --> 26:25.480 He never drove his knife into a living back. 26:25.480 --> 26:28.720 But Richard Steele killed in his mind. 26:28.720 --> 26:30.880 You mean just because he thought of killing? 26:30.880 --> 26:33.400 No, he went further than that. 26:33.400 --> 26:34.880 He selected his victim. 26:34.880 --> 26:35.880 Who? 26:35.880 --> 26:37.520 The man whose picture was in the paper. 26:37.520 --> 26:38.520 I looked it up. 26:38.520 --> 26:43.680 It was on the front page of the book review section, a photograph of an author. 26:43.680 --> 26:45.320 Someone he wanted to kill? 26:45.320 --> 26:50.400 Yes, and even for that crime, because he wished for someone's death. 26:50.400 --> 26:52.800 The earth was made of glass. 26:52.800 --> 26:55.120 There was full compensation. 26:55.120 --> 26:56.120 Whose death? 26:56.120 --> 26:57.120 Who was it? 26:57.120 --> 27:02.440 The author of a new biography called Ralph Waldo Emerson and Our Times. 27:02.440 --> 27:04.520 And who was it by? 27:04.520 --> 27:21.760 The author was Richard Steele himself. 27:21.760 --> 27:29.720 Suspense, in which Joseph Kearns was starred in The Earth is Made of Glass. 27:29.720 --> 27:35.560 Next week, the story of a man with no imagination who found it necessary to cause the violent 27:35.560 --> 27:37.180 end of a life. 27:37.180 --> 27:42.240 It was written by the winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, E. Jack Newman, and it's 27:42.240 --> 27:46.000 called Sequel to Murder. 27:46.000 --> 28:03.920 Next week on Suspense. 28:03.920 --> 28:08.640 Suspense is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis with music composed by Lucian Morowick 28:08.640 --> 28:11.440 and conducted by Lud Luskin. 28:11.440 --> 28:15.920 The Earth is Made of Glass was written for suspense by Sylvia Richards. 28:15.920 --> 28:20.720 In tonight's story, Joseph Kearns was heard as Mr. Steele. 28:20.720 --> 28:26.160 Featured in the cast were Whitfield Connor, Charlotte Lawrence, Herb Butterfield, Jerry 28:26.160 --> 28:36.920 Hausner, Paula Winslow, and Junius Matthews. 28:36.920 --> 28:55.440 And remember, next week, E. Jack Newman's new Suspense play, Sequel to Murder. 28:55.440 --> 29:00.240 When four noisy people give one noisy party in a Baltimore home, two of the four wind 29:00.240 --> 29:01.500 up at the morgue. 29:01.500 --> 29:06.000 It's an unsettling bit of business that interested all of Baltimore just a few years ago. 29:06.000 --> 29:10.400 And CBS Radio's Crime Classics weighs the available facts for you tomorrow night on 29:10.400 --> 29:12.240 most of these stations. 29:12.240 --> 29:17.880 Hear all about the death of a Baltimore birdie and friend on Crime Classics tomorrow night. 29:17.880 --> 29:36.480 You can join the FBI in peace and war Wednesdays on the CBS Radio Network.