And now, tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Tonight, we bring you a story of man's assault against nature.
We call it The Mountain.
So now, starring Harley Bear and Ben Wright, here is tonight's suspense play, The Mountain.
We made Camp Four on the East Glacier, 22,000 feet above sea level.
In that cold, thin air we stood looking up, and in the great loneliness we saw it.
For a few seconds as the mist cleared, we saw it.
The mountain, the peak towering over us.
It was beautiful and terrible.
Then a swirling curtain moved around it, and it was gone again.
There were six of us in the forest.
Anton and Leeds had been sent back to Camp Three, some 4,000 feet below.
Both had been badly frostbitten.
So then there were six of us left to make the attempt.
Nobody had done it before.
No one had ever reached the top of that tremendous, windswept place.
And now we were ready for the assault.
That night we held our last meeting in Camp Four.
Thomas, Feldman, Elridge, Gaines, Perucci, and myself.
It's the best way, the most practical.
Three of us stay and three of us try to make it.
Now we stand a better chance if we all do it together.
What do you think, Bob?
I don't think so.
Thomas is right.
If three of us go and have to turn back, the other three will still be fresh, and they can have a go.
That's right.
All right.
I think it has to be.
Okay, two parties.
Thomas, you'll head out the second.
Stay at the camp.
I'll lead the first one up.
Right.
Oh, now wait a minute.
Don't we get a vote on this?
No, it's a waste of time.
Start voting and we'll start arguing again.
Those monsoons aren't going to hold off forever.
Yeah, but how's your leg, Harry?
Oh, it's not bad, but I might hold you back.
You better leave me down here.
All right.
Perucci, you want me to go?
Do you feel up to it?
Sure, you bet.
Gaines?
Okay.
Uh-uh.
You're not acclimated.
Cough?
Nothing.
It'd get a lot worse, Harry.
You better not.
Well, look, why not let me go with you and leave Harry and Charles down here?
That leg will be all right in a couple of days, don't you think, Harry?
It ought to be.
He hasn't had enough experience for a lead man.
Oh.
There's nothing wrong with me.
Or is there?
Well, I don't know, John.
It's going to be pretty tough.
Well?
Listen, John.
You'll keep out of this, Thomas.
What about it, Bob?
I'm in good shape.
Well, I guess so.
Okay, you, Perucci, and myself.
That'll be it.
We'll start at daybreak.
And that's the way we decided there was no other possibility.
It wasn't that we didn't like Elridge.
It was just that he was always flying off the handle, and because of that, he wasn't a good risk.
Nerves don't go so well with mountain climbing.
Not that mountain, cold and dangerous.
It's never gained peak, hidden in mist.
Later that evening, Thomas and I were going over the equipment before turning in.
You know, someday they'll invent an oxygen tank that's light.
I don't bet these things weigh over 30 pounds.
Yeah.
Say, about Elridge.
What about him?
You think he ought to go?
It doesn't matter.
It's the only way, I guess.
You're taking a big chance.
He'll be all right.
We could only wait just a couple of days.
Harry'd be all right.
We're late now. If the mountain starts, none of us will be able to do it.
Yeah, that's the trouble.
While you're out producing alone, he gets on pretty well with Elridge.
That'll help.
Yeah, it'll be fine.
We're all in good shape.
I think we're going to make it.
In a way, I hope you don't.
I'd like a crack out of myself.
Wouldn't that be something?
The first man to get to the top.
You understand why I didn't take you, don't you?
Of course.
Wishful thinking, that's all.
Well, you'd better turn in.
I'll finish checking this out.
Okay. See you in the morning.
On May the 18th, we started to climb the Northwest Bridge.
We were at 23,000 feet.
Each of us carried a 30-pound oxygen tank besides the equipment we needed for our next camp.
For three or four hours, it wasn't bad, but as we went higher,
the wind started to take it out of us.
We felt the cold more.
Take ten, huh?
Yeah.
Boy, when you look at it up there, that's it.
You almost feel like you can jump and touch the top.
It'd be a big jump for Roochie.
What do you figure, about 3,500 feet more?
Yeah, something like that.
If the weather holds, we might make it by tomorrow.
That's what I thought.
Not a cloud in the sky.
Will you look at that thing?
Boy, what can you say when you see a mountain like that?
Save your breath.
We'll move in a few minutes.
Then we get patches of snow, and the pace slowed down.
We spelled each other's leader, and it was my turn up ahead.
Roochie was bringing up the rear when I heard him yell.
Bob, Roochie's gone down.
Dig in.
All right.
What is it?
Kravats?
Yeah, use the ice axe.
It won't hold.
The snow's too soft here.
It's slipping.
Father, it's slipping.
I saw the snow crumbling away from beneath Eldridge's feet.
I saw it, and I thought of a man I knew who slipped from an aerial ladder 100 feet up.
And as he fell to the ground, his legs raced wildly, arms waving, trying to find their arms to pull himself back up.
And Eldridge was doing it now, his heels churning into the soft snow at the edge of the kravats.
And then he found solid ice.
Bob?
Yeah?
Can you pull me back?
I can't get Roochie up from here.
I'm afraid I'll go over too.
I'm right out of the air group.
Can he get a hold of his axe?
No, he's acting free.
The walk's over.
Hurry.
I'll try.
You have to, John.
I can't do it alone.
There's too much weight.
I'm telling you, I can't.
I'm afraid to move.
I can feel it going under me or around me.
There's solid ice a couple of feet back.
I can grab it with my axe.
Don't let go!
Don't let it go slack, Bob.
I won't.
You just hang on.
I knew that if I slipped behind me, it was the end.
I looked at the figure of Eldridge, his body bent backwards away from the drop beneath him.
I closed my eyes, reached behind with my pick, and dug into the ice.
I can't!
I'm slipping!
I can't!
And as Eldridge shouted, I thought I heard another cry.
And then suddenly the rope's weight was lighter.
I saw Eldridge get up on hands and knees, crawl away from the crevasse toward me.
Norman!
Where's Norman?
He's gone.
He fell.
He's gone.
He can't be.
How?
I don't know.
Perhaps the rope frayed on some ice at the edge.
Suddenly it went slacker.
I heard him.
Bob, I heard him.
Well, maybe it's not deep.
He might have fallen into a drift at the bottom.
You stay here.
I've got to see.
I belayed the rope about the eye pack and paid out the rest of it as I slid down the slope
of the crevasse.
But when I looked over the edge, I knew that dark blue, almost black emptiness below, I
knew there'd be no snow drift for Norman Perucci's body unless it was perhaps 10,000
feet below us.
We bypassed that place, found a shelter from the wind, and pitched our tent.
For a long time, neither one of us spoke.
I think we were too exhausted to say anything.
Exhausted and shocked.
There are only two of us now.
I keep hearing him.
Yeah, I know.
No, you don't.
Not the way I do.
He was a nice kid.
Yeah.
Doesn't he was cold?
How high do you think we are?
Twenty-four thousand.
Yeah, I wondered.
A little hard to breathe.
You better use the oxygen.
No, not yet.
We won't need it tomorrow.
Yes, we will.
Better save it.
We're going down in the morning.
No!
We've got to.
You and I couldn't make it up there alone.
There's 2,500 feet to go, maybe more.
No, we've got to go back.
We'll let the others try.
Just because he's gone, is that why?
Look, I've done more climbing than you out here.
What happened today is bad for the nerves.
We couldn't make it.
We'll go back and try again later.
The monsoons will be here later.
We've got to do it now.
Thomas and the others can do it.
No, we'll keep going.
I've got to.
I'm not going back.
What's the matter with you?
You're talking like a kid.
Look, I was the last one on your list when you got the party together, wasn't I?
Yes, but...
Why?
Why was I last?
I don't know.
Somebody had to be with you, that's all.
You're a liar.
You didn't want me along.
None of you did.
You're here, aren't you?
You know I'm afraid of climbing, don't you?
Whiz into everybody a little.
Isn't that why we do it?
Isn't that part of it?
No, I mean really scared.
I'm really scared.
You know that.
No, I don't.
Well, something happened when North...
Something happened to me today and I've got to go onto the top now.
You think I'll call you a coward if we don't?
No.
All right, then forget it.
We'll try again.
Maybe next year you'll be along too.
I'll do it alone then.
I'm going on alone.
You want to come along with me, all right?
If not, it doesn't matter anyway.
Well, I'm going.
So long.
John?
John!
He didn't stop.
He just moved up the ice slab and around a hammock out of sight.
I went back inside the tent to get my pack.
I couldn't let him do it alone and I was trapped into going with him.
Then I saw that the fool hadn't even taken his rope.
It was neatly coiled in the corner.
I grabbed it up and as I did so I saw the end of it.
The end which had broken when Paruti hung over the crevasse.
The rope which Eldridge had said was parted by the ice.
But there were no frayed ends.
The break was clean.
It had been cut through and the oil of Eldridge's knife blade was still on it.
When Eldridge had thought he was going over the crevasse,
he'd cut the rope which had held Norman Paruti's body some 20 feet into the chasm.
To save his own life, he'd done this.
I pulled the coil through the straps of my pack and left the tent.
I caught up with Eldridge about a hundred feet higher.
He was standing on a shallow ledge catching his breath and his head was tilted back,
eyes fixed on that mountain.
Nasty foot back there. I was cutting steps up the cliff. I nearly fell.
You didn't though.
No I didn't.
You're coming with me, huh?
I want to see that you get down alive.
You forgot your rope. I found it in the tent.
I didn't think I'd need it.
You might.
Here.
Thanks.
We better tie on together.
All right.
You want to go first?
No.
It's your party now.
You lead.
See?
He had a funny look on his face as we roped together.
I think he must have known then that I'd found out what he'd done.
He didn't say anything though but turned and began to move upwards.
At three o'clock that afternoon we were at about 25,000 feet.
It was hard to breathe now. Terribly hard.
We decided to rest for a few minutes.
I remember looking down from the ridge, looking down into the incredible scene below and then up
and the peak which loomed over us clear against the sky, perhaps 1,500, 2,000 feet over us.
I remembered Perucci's excitement as he'd seen it further down and even then I thought it could be beaten, that we might do it.
We'll use the oxygen from here as soon as we start again.
We can't do any more today.
We can.
Go higher.
Then what?
When it gets dark, camp.
Finish it tomorrow if we don't today.
If the storm comes up we'll be in trouble.
They won't.
They're going to make it I know.
I know we are.
They haven't been far.
It doesn't matter after that.
We'll have to go down to the others.
Yeah.
I suppose so.
We'll have to tell them about Perucci.
Yes?
Are we going to tell the same story?
I think we will.
Do you know why I followed you?
Why I came along?
Yes.
Just like that.
Yes.
You murdered a man and that's all there is to it.
No.
It wasn't murder.
I was afraid.
In Europe I went over with all goats.
Oh, it was the only way.
If you'd waited, we could have got him out.
I didn't know it then.
I thought myself, go ahead.
I had to do it.
And what's all this for?
To wipe out the sin?
Get to the peak and be a man again?
Yeah.
No way.
Perhaps you won't be.
You'll never be.
When this gets out and it's going to,
there'll be no place for you to hide.
No place to go.
Well, we'd better get moving.
We began to use the oxygen, sparingly,
and kept moving up, slower and slower.
Our hearts pounding with the effort.
100 feet, 200, 300.
And I began to feel lightheaded.
I couldn't.
Now another step.
I couldn't.
And then it was 400 feet.
A hellish collapse in front of me.
Lay in the fine snow, sobbing.
And stop.
Stop here.
No.
We've got to go on.
No.
We've got to.
And sobbed like a child.
His mind willed him to keep going,
but his body wouldn't allow him.
We lay there using our precious oxygen
because I think had we not done so,
we'd have died of fatigue.
The wind had disappeared completely.
And there was a silence so complete
that you could almost imagine it bore a sound in itself.
Deadening.
Awful.
We made camp and cried to sleep.
We were too tired to think of food.
And then with the night came a heavy mist.
They began to grow much colder.
The morning of May 20th was gray.
The peak of the mountain was shrouded.
And I knew it was going to snow.
Directly ahead of us was an ice wall.
There was no way around it.
We had to climb almost vertically,
cut our own steps with ice axes one by one,
and climb.
This time I took the lead.
And as I nodded the rope, Eldred said,
you don't trust me, do you?
You're afraid if I'm leading and you fall,
I'll cut the rope again.
You might.
Let's go.
At that point we had ascended 25,400 feet.
The ice wall would take us another hundred higher.
The wind began to blow again when we were halfway up.
We'll move around to the right after this step.
There's a bit of a ledge.
All right?
Okay. Come on.
No, wait. We can't stop.
The oxygen won't hold out.
We'll go back.
This is it.
Snow might keep up for days.
I'm going up.
You can't see six feet ahead of you.
That's enough.
I'm not going to give up now.
We're too close.
You're crazy.
Yeah, I guess so.
You're coming?
Yes, I am.
I want to get you back alive.
The snow on the pyramid was solid.
Even with the blizzard it was comparatively easy going.
And then the slope seemed to lurch.
And I had a split second to see the waves of snow pouring down on me.
An avalanche swept us down.
I'd stopped falling.
My first stop when I came through, I wasn't dead.
Then I saw a pair of legs pout next to me.
I didn't think that you were going to make it.
Where'd that land?
Hanging over the ice wall.
You were behind me.
You didn't go over.
No, don't ask me why.
There must have been a corner at the avalanche that hit us.
You ended up pulling me down.
My axe caught in one of the steps that held us both.
Then you pulled me up.
Yeah, yeah, it looks like it.
Thanks.
How long have you been out?
About an hour.
A little more.
The blizzard's letting up?
Yeah.
You feel like going on?
I think so.
All right.
Will you tell me something?
What?
Why did you pull me out of it?
Why didn't you just let me go over the edge?
Then you wouldn't have had me around to tell.
I'm not a murderer, Bob.
I cut Norman's rope because I was afraid.
If I thought there was even a chance of us not falling, I wouldn't have done it.
But I didn't, though.
Now, it doesn't excuse me, but it...
It doesn't mean that I'd kill you to get out of it.
Well, we've got to save the chalk. We'll need our breath.
Now, do you want to leave?
Or shall I?
I'll do it.
The storm had passed, and all we could see was the cold sky again.
The peak was still only occasionally visible through patches of mist.
We went up.
Higher.
Then my oxygen tank gave out, and we had to share altitude.
We'd nearly reached 26,000 feet, and we could see the top.
For a moment, it stood out clear.
And it looked so easy, the last lap.
But by now, we could move only a few steps at a time, till we had to rest.
And I couldn't get up again.
Hey, look. Looks pretty easy.
If I set ridge, I...
I have to wait.
Huh? All right.
You wait for me. I'll go off.
No, we'll... we'll do it together.
Huh?
Just wait a couple minutes.
It'll be getting dark.
I'll be back for you.
No, don't. I'll be back.
Here. Here. You take the oxygen.
I don't need it.
No, don't. No.
I won't need it. Here.
Wait here.
Now, I'll get down again.
Oh, wait.
I... I'm sorry I was afraid.
I still am afraid.
Now, that's why I...
I've got to do it.
You understand?
Yeah.
Fell off, Bob.
I didn't have the strength to stop him as he untied the rope which held us together.
And he was gone.
And after a while, I felt stronger and I sat up.
I could see him, a dark blob against the mountain of snow, smaller, smaller.
And he was climbing upward.
He'd reached the final pinnacle and become a dot that was lost in the mist.
I saw Eldridge once more.
He couldn't have been more than 250 feet below the peak.
For perhaps 10 seconds I saw him.
And then he disappeared.
I waited.
And waited into the night.
And the next morning I began to look for him.
But the oxygen was gone.
I knew that if I had to climb another foot, I'd die.
And so I turned back.
There was no wind anymore.
It was almost warm.
Somehow I got down, down to the base camp, and I told them the story.
Almost the whole story, but not quite.
I changed a rope which had been cut with a knife into a rope which had frayed and parted on the ice.
I remember as we started down to the valley below, I turned and stood a minute looking back,
looking up.
And then a cloud softly poured over the peak.
And in a moment the mountain was gone.
Music
Suspense, in which Parley Bearer and Ben Wright starred in tonight's presentation of the mountain.
Next week, a story of what might have happened to the first atomic-powered submarine.
We call it X-915.
That's next week on Suspense.
Music