Join us on a thrilling journey to the depths of the ocean in this captivating episode of Mystery Theater. Our story, adapted from H.G. Wells' "In the Abyss," takes place in 1896, where two daring marine biologists, Sam Elstead and Star Norton, embark on a perilous dive to the deepest part of the sea. Equipped with a specially constructed iron globe, they descend into the unknown, encountering prehistoric creatures and a mysterious underwater city. As they navigate the challenges of the deep, they must rely on their wits and courage to survive the unexpected wonders and dangers lurking beneath the waves.
As the story unfolds, listeners are transported to a world where the boundaries between reality and imagination blur. The episode explores themes of exploration, the mysteries of the ocean, and the resilience of the human spirit. With vivid descriptions and a gripping narrative, "City of the Dead" invites you to ponder the secrets of the sea and the possibilities that lie beyond our understanding. Don't miss this enthralling adventure that challenges the limits of human knowledge and the depths of our curiosity.
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Unknown:
Remember FDIC, where your money grows like magic. Come in. Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. Welcome. I'm E. G. Marshall. Over two thirds of the globe on which we live is water. The oceans, the sea. From the beginning of time, that sea around us has been a source of mystery, an enormous watery world of of fear of the unknown. To some, like the great American poet Walt Whitman, it was also a place of miracles. To me, he said, the sea is a continuous miracle. The fishes that swim, the rocks, the motion of the waves, the ships with men in them. What stranger miracles are there? Our mystery drama, City of the Dead, was adapted from the HG Wells short story, In the Abyss, especially for the Mystery Theater by Arnold Moss.
It stars Christopher Tabory and Earl Hammond. It is sponsored in part by Anheuser Busch Incorporated, brewers of Budweiser, and CertainTeed Fiberglass Attic Insulation. I'll be back shortly with act one. The start. The year is 1896, more than eighty years ago. In a marine biological laboratory in New England, a little group of scientists and technicians are gathered before doctor Stanley Weybridge, director of the institute and chief of a newly developing science called oceanographic studies. He stands, pointer in hand, before an enlarged wall map of the Caribbean Sea as he concludes a briefing on the most adventurous, the most perilous project ever undertaken by the Institute.
I cannot say, gentlemen, that the plan is without danger. I wish I could. Indeed, there is every risk imaginable. But I assure you that no precaution, even the most minute, will be overlooked. Every safety device we know of will be used. Are there any questions? Yes, ma'am? Doctor Weybridge, will you tell us a little more about the place we're going to, the Cambridge Trough? Well, it starts about here on the map, deep off the coast of Haiti. Mhmm. Here you see how it follows a southwesterly course for almost a thousand miles to the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. Yes, sir?
That big crack on the map there. Well, that huge crack in the surface of the Earth was produced by movements within the Earth. Movements which have never really stopped, which accounts for the frequent earthquakes in that part of the world. So far as we know, the trough is the deepest point of the sea on the entire face of the globe. Do we know how deep the trough is? We're taking soundings in some places over 22,000 feet. That's more than four miles. And, in six months from now, that's where Star and I will be making the dive. Correct. The mother ship, the Captain Nemo, will be stationed right about here.
Mhmm. Not far off the coast of Grand Cayman Island itself. And the Poseidon, our little, home away from home, the steel globe that will be our transportation to the bottom of nowhere will be detached and dropped from the stern of the Nemo from this scaffolding here on the drawing. It's constructed of three inch steel, eight feet in diameter. Comforts of home, right? Special air cushions padding the inside, two portholes near the bottom of the craft so we can play peekaboo with the barracudas. The windows of the portholes are made of a depth. Doctor Weybridge, we have volunteered for what I'm sure will turn out to be a huge barrel of fun. A little dangerous maybe, but fun.
Sam, be serious for a moment. I give you my word that everything will be minutely inspected. The ballast device for submerging and getting back up again, the pressure mechanisms, the depth indicator, the oxygen supply, the Myers apparatus for purging the carbon dioxide you'll be exhaling. We've thought of everything. Everything except that we won't be able to communicate with you on the surface in case of trouble. That is true. It's the one thing we'd like to do. But we can't. I understand. Once we start down, we'll be free floating entirely on our own. For the next six months, you two will go through the most intensive training possible in handling the Sphere. I wish I were young enough to see for myself firsthand the things you're going to see. Have you any idea?
Like what? No. Not exactly. But there have to be things down there that no living man has ever experienced. Things that go beyond the wildest dreams of our imagination. Sam, Star, Star, the day has come when man, through you, is about to probe some of the darkest mysteries of the universe. Thank you, Doctor. Weybridge, for permitting my wife to come aboard. Oh. Taurus is one of the best research assistants the Institute's ever had. She's more than welcome. Thank you, Doctor. Weybridge. I envy Sam and Star. I wish I were going with them. You picked the perfect day for this Caribbean holiday, didn't you, doctor? Yes. Clear sky, blazing sun, and a gentle swell.
Water temperatures nearly 80. An ideal day for swinging those 20 tons of iron out into the briny. To say nothing of the two utterly defenseless young men inside that iron. You know, doctor, last night Doris and I were making some quick calculations. Now at the surface the pressure is 14 pounds per square inch. Right. 30 feet down, it's double that. Right? Mhmm. And at a mile, that's 5,280
[00:06:45] Unknown:
feet The pressure becomes something like a turn and a half per square inch. And at five miles. Yes. I know. I know.
[00:06:53] Unknown:
But you've got the steel walls of the globe to protect you. And the globe is pressurized. Now we put that sphere through every test we could think of. The margin for error has been reduced to the absolute minimum. Then it's $11.56, boys. Four minutes till noon and the descent of the Poseidon. Prepare to climb the scaffolding for boarding. Yes, sir. Ready, sir. One final review of the procedure. Now the two of you will let yourselves into the open porthole. It will then be screwed into place from the outside. The sphere will be hoisted over the side, the lines cut, and the sphere dropped into the sea. You understand? Oh, yes. We understand, sir. Sir. And once in the water, only we have control of the ballast. Alright. And you regulate ballast so as to let yourselves down gently.
Thirty five minutes for the descent and then an hour for observation and two hours for coming up. Total, a little over three and a half hours. Your oxygen supply is good for five hours. For each of you? Well, we'll watch it like hawks. And the pressure indicators. We'll be lying off a couple of miles to the Southeast so you don't collide with us as your service. Any questions? One last request, sir, if there's time. I'd like to kiss my wife. I love you, Sam. Oh, don't worry, dear. I think everything's gonna be fine. Just a hundred percent fine. Oh, and remember, we've got a big date for a turtle steak when I get back up. At exactly twelve noon, they swung us overboard.
My heart nearly burst with excitement as they let us down foot by foot to the surface of the water. And then they cut the line that attached us to the tackle above it. For a moment, we seemed to be stationary. And then with a gigantic splash, the sea closed over us and we started our journey. Well, this is it, Star. What are you thinking? Well, my mother always hoped I'd grow up to be a brilliant criminal lawyer instead of a marine biologist. That's very funny. So did my mother. Only she wanted me to be a doctor. Look above you, star. I'm trying to, but that huge burst of air bubbles shooting upward is blocking the view. They're just about gone by now.
Quickly the color of the sea changes. From light greenish blue, darker and darker, to that rich blue of stained glass windows. Yes. And now it's almost midnight blue. How far down are we? A little over 600 feet. Good mark out in your log. Absolutely pitch black already. I know that. I better turn on the electric spot. No. No. Not just yet. Take a look at those. Why, it's like a whole world of tiny blinking lights. What do you suppose they are? Not the faintest idea. They're flashing by so fast like streaks of green lightning. Some of them strung together like a train racing by on a very dark night. Alright. Turn on the floodlights. Oh, no. They all disappeared with the light. Oh, wait. Wait. Wait a minute. Will you take a look at that?
The famous reverse snowfall Weybridge and the divers told us about is that millions and millions of little snowflakes were falling up as we go plunging down. Some of them living creatures and the others the remains of those that have died. Right. Head of the class, mister Norton. Just keep your fingers crossed that we don't wind up as part of a reverse snowfall. We kept on falling. Falling. Down, down, down faster and faster. It was like being in an elevator in one of those new skyscrapers and the cable that holds it in place suddenly breaks and you keep going down waiting for the inevitable crash that will destroy it and you. You alright, Star?
You look a little uncomfortable. It's got a little warm. Well, I guess we underestimated the effect of the friction of the globe against the water. Then we'd better take off some of these heavy clothes. Careful. Don't touch the glass of the porthole. You you might burn yourself. Where are we? Over 10,000 feet, nearly two miles. Hey. See how the sides of the trough? The trench walls keep going straight up and down like the sides of an undersea mountain wood, which is what it really is. Before the temperature, that must be close to zero at this depth. Yes, I would think so. Let's hope Wavebridge was right, that the windows of the portals will hold up against the pressure and the and against the contrast in temperature inside and outside the sphere.
We're past 21,000 feet. And still dropping. Oh, that has got to be an end. You alright? Oh, yes. Great. You? I'm pretty warm. I ain't gonna take my shirt off. Me me too. I I'm I'm bathed in perspiration. Any change in the scenery? Just more slabs of rock. Once in a while a huge gigantic sponge growing out of the rock. Didn't there some coral? Mhmm. Are you jellyfish? No. No. No. No. Not not Right. I think we've come to the last stop, Star. What's your reading? It's, almost twenty twenty six thousand feet. Wow. Can you believe it? Five miles. I turned the lights on all over the place. The star, it's beautiful.
It's just beautiful. Not many fish. Well, at this depth, depth, what do you expect? Well, there are a few and they're so brightly colored Yes. In spite of the darkness. There must be some kind of built in headlights that that we can't see that lets them see one another. I'd say all of them are blind. You know, maybe. Hold it, still. Hold it. Look at that big one coming right at us. The size of him. And how slow he moves. Why he must be the grandfather of everything down here. He's pushing his nose right against the glass. How can he live under this pressure? I I I don't know but the fact is he's very much alive.
And that is what I find so hard to believe. Well, what are you talking about? Now look, Star. Either I'm dreaming and this is all some kind of crazy nightmare or for what? Take a very good look at old grandpa out there. What about him? Star, that species of of fish has been dead extinct for over one hundred million years. Scientists tell us that every form of living thing had its beginnings in the sea, that the morning of the world was started in the depths of the oceans, in the dark backward anapism of time, as Shakespeare put it. Sam Elstead and Star Norton have been startled by the sight of a living, prehistoric fish, a species that died out long before there ever was a man on Earth.
What other wonders will their strange journey to the bottom of the sea lead them to? I shall return shortly with act two. In 1896, the time of our story, the airplane, the automobile, radio, all were but a gleam in the brain of geniuses, nothing more. These discoveries were yet to come. The two young biologists of our tale have already accomplished a miracle never before attempted by man. In their specially constructed iron globe, equipped with every scientific device known at the time, they have probed five miles below sea level to the bottom most part of the oceans. In the interest of enlarging man's knowledge of the world about him, as well as the world beneath him, they have made their first amazing discovery.
Take a look at that fish star. Do you remember ever having seen anything like it before? I I'm I'm I'm not sure. But there's something very familiar about it. Back at college, when we were reading about things like, dinosaurs and brontosaurus and all those kind of fantastic animals that lived millions of years ago. Yes. What about that? Well, those were the land animals. Do you remember what was in the sea? Let me see now. There there was this one fish that was the ancestor of all the amphibians. Mhmm. And as time went on, of other vertebrates on land. What was the name of it? Does the name coelacanth ring any kind of a bell? Of course coelacanth.
With the overdeveloped fins that grew strong enough to get it out of the water and onto the land. Exactly! Now take another look at old grandpa out there. A coelacanth. That's what it is! No, but there isn't any such thing. Not anymore. They've become extinct. They died out with the dinosaurs. That's exactly the point. Those prehistoric monsters died out over a hundred million years ago. Only nobody ever told that to our friend out there. What what's that? A storm? Down here, are you out of your mind? But then what is it? The noise seems to have stopped.
Did did you feel anything, Sam? It must have been some sort of a minor tremor. Did you see how old grandpa skidded away into a cave when the noise began? Star, are you finding it hard to breathe? Not not not really. Well, well, maybe, yeah, a little. I I I have this slight headache. I'll make a note of it. Okay. Well, now why why don't you take it easy for a couple of minutes? I'll take over while you rest. I sat looking through the window of the porthole fascinated by what I saw. There were hundreds of small large eyed things, all of them certainly blind, crawling sluggishly like little lobsters across the track of our lights, leaving furrowed trails behind them. I made notes of everything.
Suddenly, I saw the outlines of of of something working its way slowly, threateningly toward the Poseidon. It was upright and seemed as tall as a man. What what do you suppose that is out there? I don't know. I can only see the demount lines. But it's coming closer. It's not swimming. It seems to be walking. Yeah. Here. Focus your light onto its head. Okay. Yeah. There we are. Shut its eyes to close out the light. What is it? An animal of some kind. I I think I've been It's not a fish. Certainly no kind of fish we've ever seen. It seems to be standing upright on two strong legs balancing itself on a long thick tail.
Look look look at its dark purple head like a lizard or an iguana. And and two large protruding eyes bulging out of their sockets. Like a grog or a toad. Look, Star, where the ear should be. There are two large dual covers. I see. And threads, or filaments floating out of the like the branches of a tree. What can they be? I have no idea. Yeah. Move the light a bit. As long as we keep the light on and it stands still. But when we move the light, it it it moves. The skin is so loose. It's almost as if we're wearing clothes.
Look at its its pod or thin or whatever they are. They're shaped like hands. Like, that hand is a man. He's he's holding something in in love of them. A long shaft of bone tipped with copper. Like a hammer of some kind. A sledgehammer. That face, it's almost human. It's grotesque, distorted Shading them with its free hand against the light. Now it's opening its mouth as if it were as if it were trying to say something. I'll turn on the listening device. What? Why is he What? Why is he going that way? What does he mean? What do you suppose he was? I I don't know, Star, but I think we're about to find out. Look. Look at him now. Moving sideways to get out of the glare of our light.
He's disappeared. I I I can't see him. No. Neither can I? He may have moved around to the back of us. He's around somewhere hiding.
[00:20:30] Unknown:
What's that?
[00:20:31] Unknown:
The whole globe is waiting. Star. Look. Look at the glass peering right into the porthole.
[00:20:39] Unknown:
Their noses pressed against the glass, their popping eyes staring in on us. Now
[00:20:45] Unknown:
there are two of them. Another cup of coffee, Mrs. Umstead. Thank you, Doctor. Weybridge.
[00:20:57] Unknown:
We'll make this the last one. Mhmm. What time is it now? You just asked. Did I?
[00:21:04] Unknown:
It's almost 02:00. The boys have surely started up on their way back now. Oh, I hope so.
[00:21:10] Unknown:
They could only get through to us some way.
[00:21:13] Unknown:
All they have to do is put the clockwork mechanism in action and up they go. And that's foolproof? Nothing is absolutely foolproof, my dear. But there's nothing to be concerned about. It's all so simple. The mechanism outside the globe releases a spring knife. The knife cuts the cord that holds the ballast? Exactly. And then they just get rid of enough ballast for them to float upward to the surface. Matter of a couple of hours, more or less. Another hour and a half then? By 03:30, you should have your husband right back here on the deck of the Nemo. What on earth are those monkeys trying to do banging on the outside of the sphere with no sledgehammer? Every once in a while they stop and then peer in through the portholes.
[00:22:04] Unknown:
Away from that. Stop that banging.
[00:22:07] Unknown:
They're looking in on us to see what effect their hammering is having on us. Star, what's our depth? It's still 26,000. Pressure? Satisfactory. Oxygen? And I have to stay submerged for at least another hour if we have to and before surfacing. And the mechanism for the release of the ballast? Ready. Anytime you say, Sam. I took a particular care of that one myself before we came down here. They get anywhere near the the ballast released or the glass of the porthole windows, we're in real trouble. I'm gonna turn on the listening device. Hear what they're saying.
I'm finding it a little hard to breathe. I don't find breathing any easier than you do. Then what is it? Hold on. Hold on. I don't know. Alright. Turn them into flames. What do you hear? What what what are they Alright. Let me listen. Turn it off. You hear what he said? I heard they declared war on a star, and we haven't a single weapon to fight back with except one. Now it's the only thing we can do. We've got to cut our ballast lines and get out of here as fast as our ship will take us. Yes, there's no choice. What? We'll quack. I don't know what happened.
Hey. Star. I think we're moving. We certainly are. Yeah. But not up. As much as sidewise. How how how could that be? I don't know but the spear is beginning to spin. I I think we're being drawn from the water. Do you see any? No. Nothing. Nothing. There's nobody out there. We've got to get out of here just as fast as we can. This monster's out there probably. The line of some time here is clear. Well, if they have, once we cut the ballast lines and start shooting up to the surface, we'll rip back the line right out of their ugly little hands. But, but why are you supposed to towing us a horse? I wouldn't know. You look at them. Can you see them, Star?
There must be at least 500 of them. Jumping around like a pack of crazy kangaroos. And they are pulling us. Well, let them. And let us keep our minds on getting up to the Nemo. Weybridge calculated about, two hours, please. Could we drop more ballast than we planned and get up any sooner? No. No. No. I I I wouldn't dare. If the slightest thing went wrong, we'd both get to the surface alright, but there's a couple of corpses. Hey. How are you feeling? Thanks. Not too well, Sam. The headache has tightened around my head like an iron band. Oh, no. No. Not another earthquake.
Here, take the tank, Two Star. You've got a bit of a nosebleed. I I don't feel swell at all. Sam, I I think I'm gonna pass out. Not before we put the clockwork into action. Get rid of some of this ballast. Steady, Star, steady. While I regulate the pressure gauge and and the oxygen control, you you cut half the ballast. Now.
[00:25:28] Unknown:
Now, Star. Now. What are you waiting for? Stop, Sam. It's not working. The mechanism's gone dead. Are you out of your mind? It's stuck to work. And you make it.
[00:25:40] Unknown:
See for yourself. Nothing's happening. Think maybe a piece of seaweed or or something is temporarily jammed it. Sam. What? Friends out there. Yeah? Is it possible You may be right. But we've got to keep trying, Star. We have got to. Between those crazy devils out there and what may be an earthquake, we're in trouble. Very serious trouble. In this strange world of heavy blackness, a swarm of luminous man sized creatures looking almost human have appeared outside the iron globe, Poseidon. They have lifted it off the bottom of the sea. The attempts of young Elstead and Norton to break away, to rise to the surface and the safety of the mothership seem to be thwarted by these weird sea animals who are dragging them off to to where?
To act three, of course. I shall return shortly. The sea, we have been told, is the right hand man of time. Every secret since the beginning of time lies hidden somewhere in the water's depths. The time in this instance is 1896. Outside the underwater globe, Poseidon, a funnel of pale light pierces the darkness for a few yards, disclosing the peaceful, undulating expanses of graying white ooze, broken here and there by the tangled thickets of a growth of sea lilies waving their hungry tentacles. Inside the metal globe, two men scramble desperately to free themselves from what seems to be the inevitable, to escape from the perils of the unknown to the safety of the known.
Star, you've got to cut the lines of that ballast. Every extra minute we stay down here is another minute off our lives. I'm I'm doing the best I can, Sam. The cutting mechanism, it it it just isn't working. I'm almost sure those devils smashed the clockwork mechanism. We have got to go on hoping that they didn't, that it's only being blocked by something. I hope you're right. Well, I'm turning the oxygen supply down a bit. And the apparatus for purging what we breathe out up. Oh, no. No. Not too much, Sam. I'm having trouble in not breathing as it is, and and so are you. Well, I'm gonna crouch down low, close to the lower porthole.
Gonna fill my way to that side. Maybe I can get a look at what's happening below us. Good idea. Do you see anything? Oh, it's just some huge huge cracks in the sea by them. I can just barely make them out. Anything else? No. Our our friends have some kind of cable on us. They're they're still very much with us. Oh, I get anything to know. Where they're taking us? Yes. Well, wherever it is, Star. But let's hope it's soon because the way things are going You don't have to say it. Uh-huh. Sooner or later, that oxygen gauge is gonna read a perfectly round serum. Yeah. Which we will never see. Then it won't matter where those those monkeys have taken us, will it?
Oh, any luck in the ballast lines? No. Nothing. You know, I've heard of dead men being buried at sea. This may be the first time it's gonna happen to two men who are still alive. What time is it, Star? Nearly 04:00. Well, I hope my wife won't be too disappointed if she doesn't have turtle steak for dinner tonight. Isn't there anything we can do, Doctor. Weybridge? You know, for the past hour, we've been sweeping slowly in a spiral around the spot where the Poseidon submerged.
[00:30:15] Unknown:
With no sign of it. I don't think I can stand it any longer, Doctor. Webley. Now you've got to get hold of yourself, Doris. What possibly could have happened?
[00:30:24] Unknown:
I couldn't say.
[00:30:25] Unknown:
Maybe the windows burst in on them and mashed them to pieces. Oh, I doubt that very much. Maybe the clockwork's gone wrong? Well, that's not very likely either. But if it has, Sam and Star are down there five miles under our feet. And the cold and the dark anchored in that little bubble of yours,
[00:30:43] Unknown:
counting off the minutes of life that are still left for the Doris, stop that. Stop it and listen to me. If anything serious has gone wrong, and I'm sure it hasn't, remember, they have enough oxygen for another good hour at least. It's too soon to start worrying. You've got to be patient. Oh, if there were only something we could
[00:31:04] Unknown:
do. Nope. Stop that, Doris. Stop it. I can't help it. It's so funny. What pitiful, arrogant little creatures we humans are. Down there miles and miles of water reaching to Lord knows where and this beautiful blue sky stretching out over us with no end and we, proud, insignificant little Pygmies, feel we have to conquer it all. Why do we have to stick our big noses into every unknown secret of the universe? Why can't
[00:31:53] Unknown:
rocking. Something funny is happening out there. It seems to have got lighter. It's just they were, a broad horizon, a pale, luminous sky. And our friends? They've got to suspend it like a balloon some hundred or so feet above the bottom. There seem to be thousands of them. No. What is that? Stars. There's a whole city down there. Streets and houses and waving trees spread all over the place. There's a building much taller than the rest. It looks like a ruined Abbey or a cathedral of some kind. Take a look for yourself. You're absolutely right.
It's it's all laid out like a big map. But none of the houses have a roof. Look. You can even see inside every one of them. Everything's so so white. Sam, where are we? Where have they taken
[00:33:00] Unknown:
us?
[00:33:02] Unknown:
They've they've got us inside the walls now. They they made a bill of waterlogged wood and twisted copper wire rope and iron spars and yeah. And what? The dead white bones and skulls of human beings all over the place
[00:33:21] Unknown:
in zigzag lines and spirals
[00:33:25] Unknown:
and curves. Curves. Let me take a look. Thousands of silvery little fish darting in and out of the eye sockets. Look at those devils now. What are they up to? Lying down flat on their bellies, prostrating themselves in front of our globe. All except that very true one standing in front of them. Yes. On top of a platform encrusted with morse skulls and moans. Bone. It's it's a woman. Her scales, She's got a crown on the head. She just stands there above the rest of them, opening and shutting that sleek mouth of hers as if you were leading the others in some kind of prayer. I'm turning on the listening device.
[00:34:12] Unknown:
Oh, beloved people of perpetual night. Lend ear to what I the writings. These are the gods to whom we must do honor. She's talking about us, Sam. I know. We must now release them from We must now release them from the star that brought them to us so we may worship them with fullness of heart. You may proceed.
[00:36:19] Unknown:
Well, what are they gonna do? You hear, they're going to release us from our star. They're going to open this thing and let us Oh, no. But that's a certain death sentence. That's that's the choice. Suffocation from lack of oxygen or drowning. They're they're back at the windows. If they manage to crack one of them No. It's not likely. The glass is three inches thick.
[00:36:56] Unknown:
We're going on star. I can't believe it. We're rising up. Oh.
[00:37:04] Unknown:
We could feel the impact of the globe shooting onto the surface, slowed only by some of the lead ballast that was still attached to it. Star had already passed out. Then something like a huge wheel was suddenly released in my head, spinning around and around. I thought with every ounce of strength left in my body to hold on, but in seconds, I too collapsed and lost consciousness completely. The next thing I saw was the face of my wife looking anxiously into mine. Are you alright, darling?
[00:37:40] Unknown:
Well, I I suppose so. Where's Star? Still with the ship's doctor. The doctor says he'll be alright.
[00:37:48] Unknown:
Well, you made us so worried there for a while, Sam, but we're glad you're back. You have no idea how glad I am to be back, Doctor. Weybridge, for what happened. Let's say let's say we had a couple of anxious moments. The main thing is you're here. Whatever it was, you're very lucky. The doctor says that you'll both be back to your normal selves in a couple of days. Where did we surface, doctor? I I blacked out before I could tell. The Poseidon shot up out of the water not more than a quarter of a mile from where we were waiting. We unscrewed the hatch and found the two of you lying crumpled up on the bottom. They couldn't tell whether you were dead or alive.
[00:38:26] Unknown:
What really made us swallow hard was the fact that you had only six minutes of oxygen left.
[00:38:32] Unknown:
Six minutes? At all. What's that you're holding in your hand, doctor? Well, I thought after you were arrested, you might be able to tell me. What is it? Well, in going over the outside of the sphere, one of the boys found these two little things jammed into the clockwork mechanism. May I see them, please? Handle them carefully, Doris. They're a specimen of sea animal I've never seen in my entire professional experience.
[00:39:01] Unknown:
About five inches long. Mhmm. Heads like a lizard of some kind. Strong legs,
[00:39:08] Unknown:
wide flat tail. Look at the petrel fins, if you can call them that. Like little human hands. Their faces in some
[00:39:17] Unknown:
peculiar way look pretty human too.
[00:39:20] Unknown:
Did you come across any of them down there, Sam? Oh, we we saw something like them, but what we saw was longer than five inches. I remind you that seen through the three inch thick glass of your portholes, they would have been magnified. Magnified? Of course. Yes. At least 12 or 15 times. From where you sat, one of these fellows, if you had seen them, would have appeared to have been almost as big as a man. As big as a man? What what do you think it is, doctor? I can't be sure. But what you brought up may will be a kind of prehistoric cross between some kind of fish, a hangover from a long forgotten past, and what millions of years later was to evolve into a man?
If I told you we've seen thousands of them, that they attacked us and that their top lady tried to make gods of us, would you say that we had gone out of our minds? No. Not out of your minds, but definitely out of this world. Some scientists have stated without equivocation that they see no reason why under certain conditions intelligent water breathing vertebrates could not live at the bottom of the deepest sea. Of course, you're entirely free to disagree with the scientists and say that Elstad and Norton, suffering from a lack of oxygen, may have dreamed the whole thing up. The choice is entirely yours. I shall be back shortly.
In February 1976, '3 men in a craft called the Alvin actually made a to what HG Wells created out of his imagination over eighty years ago in the story you have just heard. Our cast included Christopher Tabory, Earl Hammond, Cork Benson, and Katherine Byers. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown. Radio Mystery Theater was sponsored in part by Contact, the twelve hour cold capsule, and Buick Motor Division. This is E. G. Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for another adventure. Dream.
Remember FDIC, where your money grows like magic. Come in. Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. Welcome. I'm E. G. Marshall. Over two thirds of the globe on which we live is water. The oceans, the sea. From the beginning of time, that sea around us has been a source of mystery, an enormous watery world of of fear of the unknown. To some, like the great American poet Walt Whitman, it was also a place of miracles. To me, he said, the sea is a continuous miracle. The fishes that swim, the rocks, the motion of the waves, the ships with men in them. What stranger miracles are there? Our mystery drama, City of the Dead, was adapted from the HG Wells short story, In the Abyss, especially for the Mystery Theater by Arnold Moss.
It stars Christopher Tabory and Earl Hammond. It is sponsored in part by Anheuser Busch Incorporated, brewers of Budweiser, and CertainTeed Fiberglass Attic Insulation. I'll be back shortly with act one. The start. The year is 1896, more than eighty years ago. In a marine biological laboratory in New England, a little group of scientists and technicians are gathered before doctor Stanley Weybridge, director of the institute and chief of a newly developing science called oceanographic studies. He stands, pointer in hand, before an enlarged wall map of the Caribbean Sea as he concludes a briefing on the most adventurous, the most perilous project ever undertaken by the Institute.
I cannot say, gentlemen, that the plan is without danger. I wish I could. Indeed, there is every risk imaginable. But I assure you that no precaution, even the most minute, will be overlooked. Every safety device we know of will be used. Are there any questions? Yes, ma'am? Doctor Weybridge, will you tell us a little more about the place we're going to, the Cambridge Trough? Well, it starts about here on the map, deep off the coast of Haiti. Mhmm. Here you see how it follows a southwesterly course for almost a thousand miles to the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. Yes, sir?
That big crack on the map there. Well, that huge crack in the surface of the Earth was produced by movements within the Earth. Movements which have never really stopped, which accounts for the frequent earthquakes in that part of the world. So far as we know, the trough is the deepest point of the sea on the entire face of the globe. Do we know how deep the trough is? We're taking soundings in some places over 22,000 feet. That's more than four miles. And, in six months from now, that's where Star and I will be making the dive. Correct. The mother ship, the Captain Nemo, will be stationed right about here.
Mhmm. Not far off the coast of Grand Cayman Island itself. And the Poseidon, our little, home away from home, the steel globe that will be our transportation to the bottom of nowhere will be detached and dropped from the stern of the Nemo from this scaffolding here on the drawing. It's constructed of three inch steel, eight feet in diameter. Comforts of home, right? Special air cushions padding the inside, two portholes near the bottom of the craft so we can play peekaboo with the barracudas. The windows of the portholes are made of a depth. Doctor Weybridge, we have volunteered for what I'm sure will turn out to be a huge barrel of fun. A little dangerous maybe, but fun.
Sam, be serious for a moment. I give you my word that everything will be minutely inspected. The ballast device for submerging and getting back up again, the pressure mechanisms, the depth indicator, the oxygen supply, the Myers apparatus for purging the carbon dioxide you'll be exhaling. We've thought of everything. Everything except that we won't be able to communicate with you on the surface in case of trouble. That is true. It's the one thing we'd like to do. But we can't. I understand. Once we start down, we'll be free floating entirely on our own. For the next six months, you two will go through the most intensive training possible in handling the Sphere. I wish I were young enough to see for myself firsthand the things you're going to see. Have you any idea?
Like what? No. Not exactly. But there have to be things down there that no living man has ever experienced. Things that go beyond the wildest dreams of our imagination. Sam, Star, Star, the day has come when man, through you, is about to probe some of the darkest mysteries of the universe. Thank you, Doctor. Weybridge, for permitting my wife to come aboard. Oh. Taurus is one of the best research assistants the Institute's ever had. She's more than welcome. Thank you, Doctor. Weybridge. I envy Sam and Star. I wish I were going with them. You picked the perfect day for this Caribbean holiday, didn't you, doctor? Yes. Clear sky, blazing sun, and a gentle swell.
Water temperatures nearly 80. An ideal day for swinging those 20 tons of iron out into the briny. To say nothing of the two utterly defenseless young men inside that iron. You know, doctor, last night Doris and I were making some quick calculations. Now at the surface the pressure is 14 pounds per square inch. Right. 30 feet down, it's double that. Right? Mhmm. And at a mile, that's 5,280
[00:06:45] Unknown:
feet The pressure becomes something like a turn and a half per square inch. And at five miles. Yes. I know. I know.
[00:06:53] Unknown:
But you've got the steel walls of the globe to protect you. And the globe is pressurized. Now we put that sphere through every test we could think of. The margin for error has been reduced to the absolute minimum. Then it's $11.56, boys. Four minutes till noon and the descent of the Poseidon. Prepare to climb the scaffolding for boarding. Yes, sir. Ready, sir. One final review of the procedure. Now the two of you will let yourselves into the open porthole. It will then be screwed into place from the outside. The sphere will be hoisted over the side, the lines cut, and the sphere dropped into the sea. You understand? Oh, yes. We understand, sir. Sir. And once in the water, only we have control of the ballast. Alright. And you regulate ballast so as to let yourselves down gently.
Thirty five minutes for the descent and then an hour for observation and two hours for coming up. Total, a little over three and a half hours. Your oxygen supply is good for five hours. For each of you? Well, we'll watch it like hawks. And the pressure indicators. We'll be lying off a couple of miles to the Southeast so you don't collide with us as your service. Any questions? One last request, sir, if there's time. I'd like to kiss my wife. I love you, Sam. Oh, don't worry, dear. I think everything's gonna be fine. Just a hundred percent fine. Oh, and remember, we've got a big date for a turtle steak when I get back up. At exactly twelve noon, they swung us overboard.
My heart nearly burst with excitement as they let us down foot by foot to the surface of the water. And then they cut the line that attached us to the tackle above it. For a moment, we seemed to be stationary. And then with a gigantic splash, the sea closed over us and we started our journey. Well, this is it, Star. What are you thinking? Well, my mother always hoped I'd grow up to be a brilliant criminal lawyer instead of a marine biologist. That's very funny. So did my mother. Only she wanted me to be a doctor. Look above you, star. I'm trying to, but that huge burst of air bubbles shooting upward is blocking the view. They're just about gone by now.
Quickly the color of the sea changes. From light greenish blue, darker and darker, to that rich blue of stained glass windows. Yes. And now it's almost midnight blue. How far down are we? A little over 600 feet. Good mark out in your log. Absolutely pitch black already. I know that. I better turn on the electric spot. No. No. Not just yet. Take a look at those. Why, it's like a whole world of tiny blinking lights. What do you suppose they are? Not the faintest idea. They're flashing by so fast like streaks of green lightning. Some of them strung together like a train racing by on a very dark night. Alright. Turn on the floodlights. Oh, no. They all disappeared with the light. Oh, wait. Wait. Wait a minute. Will you take a look at that?
The famous reverse snowfall Weybridge and the divers told us about is that millions and millions of little snowflakes were falling up as we go plunging down. Some of them living creatures and the others the remains of those that have died. Right. Head of the class, mister Norton. Just keep your fingers crossed that we don't wind up as part of a reverse snowfall. We kept on falling. Falling. Down, down, down faster and faster. It was like being in an elevator in one of those new skyscrapers and the cable that holds it in place suddenly breaks and you keep going down waiting for the inevitable crash that will destroy it and you. You alright, Star?
You look a little uncomfortable. It's got a little warm. Well, I guess we underestimated the effect of the friction of the globe against the water. Then we'd better take off some of these heavy clothes. Careful. Don't touch the glass of the porthole. You you might burn yourself. Where are we? Over 10,000 feet, nearly two miles. Hey. See how the sides of the trough? The trench walls keep going straight up and down like the sides of an undersea mountain wood, which is what it really is. Before the temperature, that must be close to zero at this depth. Yes, I would think so. Let's hope Wavebridge was right, that the windows of the portals will hold up against the pressure and the and against the contrast in temperature inside and outside the sphere.
We're past 21,000 feet. And still dropping. Oh, that has got to be an end. You alright? Oh, yes. Great. You? I'm pretty warm. I ain't gonna take my shirt off. Me me too. I I'm I'm bathed in perspiration. Any change in the scenery? Just more slabs of rock. Once in a while a huge gigantic sponge growing out of the rock. Didn't there some coral? Mhmm. Are you jellyfish? No. No. No. No. Not not Right. I think we've come to the last stop, Star. What's your reading? It's, almost twenty twenty six thousand feet. Wow. Can you believe it? Five miles. I turned the lights on all over the place. The star, it's beautiful.
It's just beautiful. Not many fish. Well, at this depth, depth, what do you expect? Well, there are a few and they're so brightly colored Yes. In spite of the darkness. There must be some kind of built in headlights that that we can't see that lets them see one another. I'd say all of them are blind. You know, maybe. Hold it, still. Hold it. Look at that big one coming right at us. The size of him. And how slow he moves. Why he must be the grandfather of everything down here. He's pushing his nose right against the glass. How can he live under this pressure? I I I don't know but the fact is he's very much alive.
And that is what I find so hard to believe. Well, what are you talking about? Now look, Star. Either I'm dreaming and this is all some kind of crazy nightmare or for what? Take a very good look at old grandpa out there. What about him? Star, that species of of fish has been dead extinct for over one hundred million years. Scientists tell us that every form of living thing had its beginnings in the sea, that the morning of the world was started in the depths of the oceans, in the dark backward anapism of time, as Shakespeare put it. Sam Elstead and Star Norton have been startled by the sight of a living, prehistoric fish, a species that died out long before there ever was a man on Earth.
What other wonders will their strange journey to the bottom of the sea lead them to? I shall return shortly with act two. In 1896, the time of our story, the airplane, the automobile, radio, all were but a gleam in the brain of geniuses, nothing more. These discoveries were yet to come. The two young biologists of our tale have already accomplished a miracle never before attempted by man. In their specially constructed iron globe, equipped with every scientific device known at the time, they have probed five miles below sea level to the bottom most part of the oceans. In the interest of enlarging man's knowledge of the world about him, as well as the world beneath him, they have made their first amazing discovery.
Take a look at that fish star. Do you remember ever having seen anything like it before? I I'm I'm I'm not sure. But there's something very familiar about it. Back at college, when we were reading about things like, dinosaurs and brontosaurus and all those kind of fantastic animals that lived millions of years ago. Yes. What about that? Well, those were the land animals. Do you remember what was in the sea? Let me see now. There there was this one fish that was the ancestor of all the amphibians. Mhmm. And as time went on, of other vertebrates on land. What was the name of it? Does the name coelacanth ring any kind of a bell? Of course coelacanth.
With the overdeveloped fins that grew strong enough to get it out of the water and onto the land. Exactly! Now take another look at old grandpa out there. A coelacanth. That's what it is! No, but there isn't any such thing. Not anymore. They've become extinct. They died out with the dinosaurs. That's exactly the point. Those prehistoric monsters died out over a hundred million years ago. Only nobody ever told that to our friend out there. What what's that? A storm? Down here, are you out of your mind? But then what is it? The noise seems to have stopped.
Did did you feel anything, Sam? It must have been some sort of a minor tremor. Did you see how old grandpa skidded away into a cave when the noise began? Star, are you finding it hard to breathe? Not not not really. Well, well, maybe, yeah, a little. I I I have this slight headache. I'll make a note of it. Okay. Well, now why why don't you take it easy for a couple of minutes? I'll take over while you rest. I sat looking through the window of the porthole fascinated by what I saw. There were hundreds of small large eyed things, all of them certainly blind, crawling sluggishly like little lobsters across the track of our lights, leaving furrowed trails behind them. I made notes of everything.
Suddenly, I saw the outlines of of of something working its way slowly, threateningly toward the Poseidon. It was upright and seemed as tall as a man. What what do you suppose that is out there? I don't know. I can only see the demount lines. But it's coming closer. It's not swimming. It seems to be walking. Yeah. Here. Focus your light onto its head. Okay. Yeah. There we are. Shut its eyes to close out the light. What is it? An animal of some kind. I I think I've been It's not a fish. Certainly no kind of fish we've ever seen. It seems to be standing upright on two strong legs balancing itself on a long thick tail.
Look look look at its dark purple head like a lizard or an iguana. And and two large protruding eyes bulging out of their sockets. Like a grog or a toad. Look, Star, where the ear should be. There are two large dual covers. I see. And threads, or filaments floating out of the like the branches of a tree. What can they be? I have no idea. Yeah. Move the light a bit. As long as we keep the light on and it stands still. But when we move the light, it it it moves. The skin is so loose. It's almost as if we're wearing clothes.
Look at its its pod or thin or whatever they are. They're shaped like hands. Like, that hand is a man. He's he's holding something in in love of them. A long shaft of bone tipped with copper. Like a hammer of some kind. A sledgehammer. That face, it's almost human. It's grotesque, distorted Shading them with its free hand against the light. Now it's opening its mouth as if it were as if it were trying to say something. I'll turn on the listening device. What? Why is he What? Why is he going that way? What does he mean? What do you suppose he was? I I don't know, Star, but I think we're about to find out. Look. Look at him now. Moving sideways to get out of the glare of our light.
He's disappeared. I I I can't see him. No. Neither can I? He may have moved around to the back of us. He's around somewhere hiding.
[00:20:30] Unknown:
What's that?
[00:20:31] Unknown:
The whole globe is waiting. Star. Look. Look at the glass peering right into the porthole.
[00:20:39] Unknown:
Their noses pressed against the glass, their popping eyes staring in on us. Now
[00:20:45] Unknown:
there are two of them. Another cup of coffee, Mrs. Umstead. Thank you, Doctor. Weybridge.
[00:20:57] Unknown:
We'll make this the last one. Mhmm. What time is it now? You just asked. Did I?
[00:21:04] Unknown:
It's almost 02:00. The boys have surely started up on their way back now. Oh, I hope so.
[00:21:10] Unknown:
They could only get through to us some way.
[00:21:13] Unknown:
All they have to do is put the clockwork mechanism in action and up they go. And that's foolproof? Nothing is absolutely foolproof, my dear. But there's nothing to be concerned about. It's all so simple. The mechanism outside the globe releases a spring knife. The knife cuts the cord that holds the ballast? Exactly. And then they just get rid of enough ballast for them to float upward to the surface. Matter of a couple of hours, more or less. Another hour and a half then? By 03:30, you should have your husband right back here on the deck of the Nemo. What on earth are those monkeys trying to do banging on the outside of the sphere with no sledgehammer? Every once in a while they stop and then peer in through the portholes.
[00:22:04] Unknown:
Away from that. Stop that banging.
[00:22:07] Unknown:
They're looking in on us to see what effect their hammering is having on us. Star, what's our depth? It's still 26,000. Pressure? Satisfactory. Oxygen? And I have to stay submerged for at least another hour if we have to and before surfacing. And the mechanism for the release of the ballast? Ready. Anytime you say, Sam. I took a particular care of that one myself before we came down here. They get anywhere near the the ballast released or the glass of the porthole windows, we're in real trouble. I'm gonna turn on the listening device. Hear what they're saying.
I'm finding it a little hard to breathe. I don't find breathing any easier than you do. Then what is it? Hold on. Hold on. I don't know. Alright. Turn them into flames. What do you hear? What what what are they Alright. Let me listen. Turn it off. You hear what he said? I heard they declared war on a star, and we haven't a single weapon to fight back with except one. Now it's the only thing we can do. We've got to cut our ballast lines and get out of here as fast as our ship will take us. Yes, there's no choice. What? We'll quack. I don't know what happened.
Hey. Star. I think we're moving. We certainly are. Yeah. But not up. As much as sidewise. How how how could that be? I don't know but the spear is beginning to spin. I I think we're being drawn from the water. Do you see any? No. Nothing. Nothing. There's nobody out there. We've got to get out of here just as fast as we can. This monster's out there probably. The line of some time here is clear. Well, if they have, once we cut the ballast lines and start shooting up to the surface, we'll rip back the line right out of their ugly little hands. But, but why are you supposed to towing us a horse? I wouldn't know. You look at them. Can you see them, Star?
There must be at least 500 of them. Jumping around like a pack of crazy kangaroos. And they are pulling us. Well, let them. And let us keep our minds on getting up to the Nemo. Weybridge calculated about, two hours, please. Could we drop more ballast than we planned and get up any sooner? No. No. No. I I I wouldn't dare. If the slightest thing went wrong, we'd both get to the surface alright, but there's a couple of corpses. Hey. How are you feeling? Thanks. Not too well, Sam. The headache has tightened around my head like an iron band. Oh, no. No. Not another earthquake.
Here, take the tank, Two Star. You've got a bit of a nosebleed. I I don't feel swell at all. Sam, I I think I'm gonna pass out. Not before we put the clockwork into action. Get rid of some of this ballast. Steady, Star, steady. While I regulate the pressure gauge and and the oxygen control, you you cut half the ballast. Now.
[00:25:28] Unknown:
Now, Star. Now. What are you waiting for? Stop, Sam. It's not working. The mechanism's gone dead. Are you out of your mind? It's stuck to work. And you make it.
[00:25:40] Unknown:
See for yourself. Nothing's happening. Think maybe a piece of seaweed or or something is temporarily jammed it. Sam. What? Friends out there. Yeah? Is it possible You may be right. But we've got to keep trying, Star. We have got to. Between those crazy devils out there and what may be an earthquake, we're in trouble. Very serious trouble. In this strange world of heavy blackness, a swarm of luminous man sized creatures looking almost human have appeared outside the iron globe, Poseidon. They have lifted it off the bottom of the sea. The attempts of young Elstead and Norton to break away, to rise to the surface and the safety of the mothership seem to be thwarted by these weird sea animals who are dragging them off to to where?
To act three, of course. I shall return shortly. The sea, we have been told, is the right hand man of time. Every secret since the beginning of time lies hidden somewhere in the water's depths. The time in this instance is 1896. Outside the underwater globe, Poseidon, a funnel of pale light pierces the darkness for a few yards, disclosing the peaceful, undulating expanses of graying white ooze, broken here and there by the tangled thickets of a growth of sea lilies waving their hungry tentacles. Inside the metal globe, two men scramble desperately to free themselves from what seems to be the inevitable, to escape from the perils of the unknown to the safety of the known.
Star, you've got to cut the lines of that ballast. Every extra minute we stay down here is another minute off our lives. I'm I'm doing the best I can, Sam. The cutting mechanism, it it it just isn't working. I'm almost sure those devils smashed the clockwork mechanism. We have got to go on hoping that they didn't, that it's only being blocked by something. I hope you're right. Well, I'm turning the oxygen supply down a bit. And the apparatus for purging what we breathe out up. Oh, no. No. Not too much, Sam. I'm having trouble in not breathing as it is, and and so are you. Well, I'm gonna crouch down low, close to the lower porthole.
Gonna fill my way to that side. Maybe I can get a look at what's happening below us. Good idea. Do you see anything? Oh, it's just some huge huge cracks in the sea by them. I can just barely make them out. Anything else? No. Our our friends have some kind of cable on us. They're they're still very much with us. Oh, I get anything to know. Where they're taking us? Yes. Well, wherever it is, Star. But let's hope it's soon because the way things are going You don't have to say it. Uh-huh. Sooner or later, that oxygen gauge is gonna read a perfectly round serum. Yeah. Which we will never see. Then it won't matter where those those monkeys have taken us, will it?
Oh, any luck in the ballast lines? No. Nothing. You know, I've heard of dead men being buried at sea. This may be the first time it's gonna happen to two men who are still alive. What time is it, Star? Nearly 04:00. Well, I hope my wife won't be too disappointed if she doesn't have turtle steak for dinner tonight. Isn't there anything we can do, Doctor. Weybridge? You know, for the past hour, we've been sweeping slowly in a spiral around the spot where the Poseidon submerged.
[00:30:15] Unknown:
With no sign of it. I don't think I can stand it any longer, Doctor. Webley. Now you've got to get hold of yourself, Doris. What possibly could have happened?
[00:30:24] Unknown:
I couldn't say.
[00:30:25] Unknown:
Maybe the windows burst in on them and mashed them to pieces. Oh, I doubt that very much. Maybe the clockwork's gone wrong? Well, that's not very likely either. But if it has, Sam and Star are down there five miles under our feet. And the cold and the dark anchored in that little bubble of yours,
[00:30:43] Unknown:
counting off the minutes of life that are still left for the Doris, stop that. Stop it and listen to me. If anything serious has gone wrong, and I'm sure it hasn't, remember, they have enough oxygen for another good hour at least. It's too soon to start worrying. You've got to be patient. Oh, if there were only something we could
[00:31:04] Unknown:
do. Nope. Stop that, Doris. Stop it. I can't help it. It's so funny. What pitiful, arrogant little creatures we humans are. Down there miles and miles of water reaching to Lord knows where and this beautiful blue sky stretching out over us with no end and we, proud, insignificant little Pygmies, feel we have to conquer it all. Why do we have to stick our big noses into every unknown secret of the universe? Why can't
[00:31:53] Unknown:
rocking. Something funny is happening out there. It seems to have got lighter. It's just they were, a broad horizon, a pale, luminous sky. And our friends? They've got to suspend it like a balloon some hundred or so feet above the bottom. There seem to be thousands of them. No. What is that? Stars. There's a whole city down there. Streets and houses and waving trees spread all over the place. There's a building much taller than the rest. It looks like a ruined Abbey or a cathedral of some kind. Take a look for yourself. You're absolutely right.
It's it's all laid out like a big map. But none of the houses have a roof. Look. You can even see inside every one of them. Everything's so so white. Sam, where are we? Where have they taken
[00:33:00] Unknown:
us?
[00:33:02] Unknown:
They've they've got us inside the walls now. They they made a bill of waterlogged wood and twisted copper wire rope and iron spars and yeah. And what? The dead white bones and skulls of human beings all over the place
[00:33:21] Unknown:
in zigzag lines and spirals
[00:33:25] Unknown:
and curves. Curves. Let me take a look. Thousands of silvery little fish darting in and out of the eye sockets. Look at those devils now. What are they up to? Lying down flat on their bellies, prostrating themselves in front of our globe. All except that very true one standing in front of them. Yes. On top of a platform encrusted with morse skulls and moans. Bone. It's it's a woman. Her scales, She's got a crown on the head. She just stands there above the rest of them, opening and shutting that sleek mouth of hers as if you were leading the others in some kind of prayer. I'm turning on the listening device.
[00:34:12] Unknown:
Oh, beloved people of perpetual night. Lend ear to what I the writings. These are the gods to whom we must do honor. She's talking about us, Sam. I know. We must now release them from We must now release them from the star that brought them to us so we may worship them with fullness of heart. You may proceed.
[00:36:19] Unknown:
Well, what are they gonna do? You hear, they're going to release us from our star. They're going to open this thing and let us Oh, no. But that's a certain death sentence. That's that's the choice. Suffocation from lack of oxygen or drowning. They're they're back at the windows. If they manage to crack one of them No. It's not likely. The glass is three inches thick.
[00:36:56] Unknown:
We're going on star. I can't believe it. We're rising up. Oh.
[00:37:04] Unknown:
We could feel the impact of the globe shooting onto the surface, slowed only by some of the lead ballast that was still attached to it. Star had already passed out. Then something like a huge wheel was suddenly released in my head, spinning around and around. I thought with every ounce of strength left in my body to hold on, but in seconds, I too collapsed and lost consciousness completely. The next thing I saw was the face of my wife looking anxiously into mine. Are you alright, darling?
[00:37:40] Unknown:
Well, I I suppose so. Where's Star? Still with the ship's doctor. The doctor says he'll be alright.
[00:37:48] Unknown:
Well, you made us so worried there for a while, Sam, but we're glad you're back. You have no idea how glad I am to be back, Doctor. Weybridge, for what happened. Let's say let's say we had a couple of anxious moments. The main thing is you're here. Whatever it was, you're very lucky. The doctor says that you'll both be back to your normal selves in a couple of days. Where did we surface, doctor? I I blacked out before I could tell. The Poseidon shot up out of the water not more than a quarter of a mile from where we were waiting. We unscrewed the hatch and found the two of you lying crumpled up on the bottom. They couldn't tell whether you were dead or alive.
[00:38:26] Unknown:
What really made us swallow hard was the fact that you had only six minutes of oxygen left.
[00:38:32] Unknown:
Six minutes? At all. What's that you're holding in your hand, doctor? Well, I thought after you were arrested, you might be able to tell me. What is it? Well, in going over the outside of the sphere, one of the boys found these two little things jammed into the clockwork mechanism. May I see them, please? Handle them carefully, Doris. They're a specimen of sea animal I've never seen in my entire professional experience.
[00:39:01] Unknown:
About five inches long. Mhmm. Heads like a lizard of some kind. Strong legs,
[00:39:08] Unknown:
wide flat tail. Look at the petrel fins, if you can call them that. Like little human hands. Their faces in some
[00:39:17] Unknown:
peculiar way look pretty human too.
[00:39:20] Unknown:
Did you come across any of them down there, Sam? Oh, we we saw something like them, but what we saw was longer than five inches. I remind you that seen through the three inch thick glass of your portholes, they would have been magnified. Magnified? Of course. Yes. At least 12 or 15 times. From where you sat, one of these fellows, if you had seen them, would have appeared to have been almost as big as a man. As big as a man? What what do you think it is, doctor? I can't be sure. But what you brought up may will be a kind of prehistoric cross between some kind of fish, a hangover from a long forgotten past, and what millions of years later was to evolve into a man?
If I told you we've seen thousands of them, that they attacked us and that their top lady tried to make gods of us, would you say that we had gone out of our minds? No. Not out of your minds, but definitely out of this world. Some scientists have stated without equivocation that they see no reason why under certain conditions intelligent water breathing vertebrates could not live at the bottom of the deepest sea. Of course, you're entirely free to disagree with the scientists and say that Elstad and Norton, suffering from a lack of oxygen, may have dreamed the whole thing up. The choice is entirely yours. I shall be back shortly.
In February 1976, '3 men in a craft called the Alvin actually made a to what HG Wells created out of his imagination over eighty years ago in the story you have just heard. Our cast included Christopher Tabory, Earl Hammond, Cork Benson, and Katherine Byers. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown. Radio Mystery Theater was sponsored in part by Contact, the twelve hour cold capsule, and Buick Motor Division. This is E. G. Marshall inviting you to return to our Mystery Theater for another adventure. Dream.
Introduction to the Mysteries of the Sea
The Adventurous Mission Briefing
The Descent into the Abyss
The Journey Begins
Discovering the Unknown
Encounter with Prehistoric Life
The Strange Creatures of the Deep
Captured by the Sea People
The Underwater City
The Escape to the Surface
