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In this captivating episode, we delve into the mysterious and haunting world of Mark Twain's Mississippi River tales. Our story begins with Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, reminiscing about his love affair with the Mississippi River and its majestic steamboats. As the narrative unfolds, we are introduced to a chilling mystery involving a ring, a dead bell, and a corpse that might not be as lifeless as it seems. The episode is a thrilling adaptation of Twain's story, "The Dead House," brought to life by the talented voices of Leon Janney and Robert Dryden.

As the story progresses, we follow Twain's journey back to the Mississippi, where he encounters a dying man with a dark past and a confession that could change everything. The tale takes us through the eerie corridors of a Munich dead house, where the dead are watched over to ensure they are truly deceased. With themes of revenge, redemption, and the supernatural, this episode is a masterful blend of fact and fiction, leaving listeners pondering the fine line between life and death. Join us for a journey into the macabre, where the Mississippi River holds secrets that are both haunting and unforgettable.

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[00:00:20] Unknown:

Come in.  

[00:00:23] Unknown:

Welcome.   I'm EG Marshall.   Samuel Clemens,   love affair with the Mississippi River   glowing with sparkling remembrance he has claimed  

[00:00:38] Unknown:

considering the missouri its main branch it is the longest river in the world 4,300 miles  

[00:00:42] Unknown:

Remember   that  

[00:00:48] Unknown:

and   listen.  

[00:00:53] Unknown:

That's  

[00:00:57] Unknown:

Remember   that and listen.  

[00:01:00] Unknown:

That is the reason for the ring on the finger.  

[00:01:03] Unknown:

The ring? So that if one should wake and twitch,   the dead bell would ring.   What a fearful bell.  

[00:01:13] Unknown:

If you were a corpse and walk back to life   in the dead house,   you might not hear it that way.  

[00:01:30] Unknown:

Our mystery drama, The Dead House,   was adapted especially for the mystery theater by Ian Martin and stars Leon Janney and Robert Dryden.   It is sponsored in part by contact,   the twelve hour cold capsule.   I'll be back shortly with act one.   In all our American history, possibly nothing has been more romantic than the sailing of a Mississippi River boat.   From an hour before sailing, they would be burning pitch and rosin, and from the double smokestacks,   columns of coal black smoke would rise   and hang in the air like the flags flying from the jack staffs.   The last bells would clang out over the end of loading.  

The gangways were snatched away.   The majestic boat moves out into the stream.   This is the world Mark Twain wrote about twenty one years   after being a riverboat pilot.   And this is one of the stories he stories he tells of that voyage.  

[00:02:43] Unknown:

Welcome aboard, sir.   I thank you, captain.  

[00:02:47] Unknown:

I have just turned over the boat to the pilot.   I'm surprised you didn't make straight for the pilot house the moment you came aboard.  

[00:02:55] Unknown:

Why, I  

[00:02:56] Unknown:

considered it closed to ordinary passengers. Thought they needed theirs, but you're not gonna try to hoodwink me and tell me that you are any ordinary passenger.  

[00:03:07] Unknown:

No. Just poor scribbler and indifferent journalist who   hopes to make a chronicle of the voyage,   which perhaps  

[00:03:15] Unknown:

might make a book. Oh, you think our voyage might provide you with enough incident for then? It is my hope. Why   don't you go on up to the pilot house where you can swap told stories with a master? I'm hoping to run this trip incognito.   Sam, it's up to you. If you want my pledge, no one should know you're aboard. You have it. I thank you for that.  

[00:03:39] Unknown:

How far will you be going with us?   All the way to New Orleans? Well, I'd like to for old time's sake, but,   no,  

[00:03:49] Unknown:

not near as far. Just tell me you port a call and we'll set you down easy.  

[00:03:54] Unknown:

I'll let you know in time to bring her to shore.   So once again, I was aboard a paddle steamer   going down the Mississippi.   But since I wanted to observe and report,   I needed to remain objective.   And then there   was my   special errand.   I suppose I might as well drift into that history now.   Toward the end of the previous year, I had been in Germany in Munich,   spending some time there with the hope of polishing my proficiency in the language.   I am an incurable   rambler.   And during one of my wanderings,   I visited the dead house,   an establishment   where the government keeps and watches corpses   until they decide that they are permanently dead and not in a trance.  

It was a grisly place   that I shared with 36 corpses   and the old lady who watched over them.  

[00:05:21] Unknown:

So we can speak English if you will. Oh, thank you. Thank you.  

[00:05:26] Unknown:

To whom do I speak? I am the proud Dalvinor,  

[00:05:29] Unknown:

now a widow.   What brings you to the Shemitig place?  

[00:05:34] Unknown:

Shemitig? That   means in English what?   Sad, melancholy?   Yeah. Melancholy.  

[00:05:43] Unknown:

Here   are the poor   on these boards.   No one mourns or cares  

[00:05:49] Unknown:

for them. They're wrapped in shrouds,   so they must be dead.  

[00:05:55] Unknown:

Perhaps. Who is dead and who is alive?   These are the doctor's choices,   and the doctor is only a man.   That is the reason for the ring on the finger.   The ring? To which the wire is attached, which mounts to the ceiling and so back into the watch room where it is attached to the dead bell.   Bell. So that if one should revive   and twitch or move,   the dead bell will ring, and we shall know that   they are not dead.  

[00:06:29] Unknown:

Oh, how strange.   What a fearful bell. Oh,  

[00:06:34] Unknown:

if you were a corpse and woke back to life in the dead house, you might not hear it that way.   It's fascinating.  

[00:06:44] Unknown:

May I ask more questions?   Your English is very good.  

[00:06:48] Unknown:

Oh, my lodger has told it to me. He is an American.   You're in Munich? Yes.   If you are staying here,   would you not like to come and see him?   He is very ill.   Perhaps you can raise his spirits.   He knows far more of this fearful place than I do.   This watchman's job was his before he took sick. I don't know.  

[00:07:15] Unknown:

I shall be leaving Munich shortly. It's such a short walk, and it would mean so much to him.  

[00:07:22] Unknown:

Surely,   a man needs some warmth from some fire   if he is about to die.  

[00:07:35] Unknown:

I had simply thought, of course, that I was making a good Samaritan's   trip.   And for my first meeting,   nothing should have changed that thought.   He was a living man,   but he did not look it.   Propped on the pillows, his face was wasted.   Talon.   As Frau Dahlweiner began her introduction,   his eyes opened slowly   and glittered   wickedly   from the twilight of their caverns.  

[00:08:14] Unknown:

Here, Rita.   Here's here, Clemens come to meet you.   Now now, here, Rita,   that is no way to treat a stranger in our country, an American besides.  

[00:08:28] Unknown:

American, is it?   That's right. What brings you to see me?   The gentleman   came to see you at at my request.   I thought to talk to an American again would lift your spirits. There's no can do that, an American.   From where in America?  

[00:08:46] Unknown:

Well, I was brought up in Hannibal, Missouri. Missouri?  

[00:08:50] Unknown:

State next to Arkansas.   You wouldn't know Mariana,   I do for a fact.   Then that would make us neighbors.  

[00:09:00] Unknown:

I I think I should leave you two gentlemen alone. I'll make some coffee   while you get acquainted. Oh, Donka. Never mind the coffee.  

[00:09:11] Unknown:

Would you say we were neighbors?  

[00:09:13] Unknown:

Well, not quite.   Hannibal is north of Saint Lou. Mariana, a piece far south.   Every   450   miles, the crow flies from Hannibal to Mariana.   But near twice that far by the river.  

[00:09:30] Unknown:

The Mississippi.   The Mississippi.   You know that river?   Yes. I know it.  

[00:09:37] Unknown:

Once upon a time,   like the palm of my hand and better. How come?   Up to twenty one years ago, I was a riverboat pilot,  

[00:09:49] Unknown:

but I left the river. You don't make your home there anymore?  

[00:09:53] Unknown:

No.   My home now is in Hartford, Connecticut.  

[00:09:57] Unknown:

So you don't ever expect to go back west.  

[00:10:01] Unknown:

Oh, sure I do.   When I return to The States, the first thing I plan to do is to go back and take a journey down the Mississippi,   see if I even recognize her anymore. What do you mean?   Mister Ritter,   there never was a woman as fickle, as flighty   as Mississippi.   Well, that river can make prodigious jumps almost by night and by cutting through narrow necks of land,   straighten, and shorten itself and change the shape of the country.   A man could go to sleep one night in the state of Mississippi and wake up to find himself in Louisiana the next morning. I know   Well, you  

[00:10:45] Unknown:

worked on the river. No. But I sure made use of it.  

[00:10:50] Unknown:

How's that?  

[00:10:51] Unknown:

When I was young, I was a hell of a fighting, drinking, gambling man. And then when I had a little money and a rage to settle down at last, I I bought me some land in Arkansas.   See that it settled in to make a homestead.   And I was too far from the river for it to pay, so I   so   you   made a cut.   I guess I I can afford to admit it now. No human law is gonna catch up with me anymore. It's,   on dark night when the river was rising fast, I cut me a little gutter across the neck of land. I had to tell you what happened.  

[00:11:33] Unknown:

In no time at all, old lady Mississippi   wrote a miracle.   The   whole river took possession of that little ditch and put your your plantation flat on its bank.   While the other party's property became an island that shoaled up so no boat could get within 10 miles of it. And by as much as his property went down, mine went up.   If you've been caught cutting that ditch, they'd have tarred and feathered you and strung you from a tree. In a lot of ways, I might have been better off.   Well, why'd you do it?   Was money all that important to you? It was.  

[00:12:13] Unknown:

And it wasn't.   Well, that's a little cryptic. I don't quite follow that. I sold the land  

[00:12:21] Unknown:

for a handsome profit. $25,000.  

[00:12:26] Unknown:

Okay.   That's a fortune. I know.   The problem was that you and I are not alone in recognizing it.   What do you mean by that? I never told this to another living soul.   I never thought I would.   But now I must if you will help me.   But for today, I   I'm too worried to tell you the story, and I I still must think on whether I can trust a stranger. Could you how about could you come back tomorrow?   Well, I I I'm not sure. You must  

[00:12:59] Unknown:

you have to hear my story. You can let it appear to the request of a dying man. You you were a miracle sent by God, the only man who can bring me salvation, who can save my soul.  

[00:13:17] Unknown:

And with these words, according to Mark Twain's story, the dying man fell back on the bed, asleep,   or in some sort of coma. In haste,   Mark Twain fetched the   widow and left the man in her care,   troubled in his mind as to whether it would be in Ritter's best interest or his own   to return.   I shall be back with his decision   shortly.   If no one has said it, someone should have. Words to this effect.   Unless you are a priest or a doctor, avoid the confession of a dying man.   He is only trying to transfer the cross from his shoulders   to yours.  

In that early winter of eighteen eighty three, Mark Twain, living in Munich, Germany, or as it was then, Bavaria,   fell into this trap.  

[00:14:19] Unknown:

I could have taken to my heels and run.   Then again, the   incurable   curiosity of the author begged me to stay.   I could not resist.   I   had to hear the dying man's confession.  

[00:14:38] Unknown:

I have never given up before, but last night I did.   I know I'm going to die. You say you are going to revisit your river. If you do,   you will see Napoleon, Arkansas. And I ask you when you are there to do a certain thing for me. I can make no promises. I ask none. Only the dictates of your conscience.   Now come back with me all those years towards the end of the war between the states   is what happened.   And I guess the way you'd have to understand it best is to meet   Nell. How do you like it, missus Ritter? It's heaven.  

[00:15:20] Unknown:

I just wanted to go on and on and never end. That's the way I hope to make life for you, Nell.   How soon do we get to Napoleon,  

[00:15:31] Unknown:

Carl? Soon would you like to?  

[00:15:34] Unknown:

You know the answer to that.   I wanna be home.  

[00:15:38] Unknown:

I don't want you to get two grand expectations. It's just a place I built myself. But it's good enough for   mansion or   hey, wait a minute.   What do you mean it won't be for long?  

[00:15:58] Unknown:

Can't you guess?   You mean you you   you're expecting Well, it'll take a doctor to know for sure, but  

[00:16:07] Unknown:

I don't have any doubts. Why, honey? We only got married a little over two months ago.  

[00:16:13] Unknown:

It don't take that long, Carm, when a woman's got herself a man like you   and has a strong desire to make him a family. Oh, Nell.  

[00:16:23] Unknown:

Nell, I love you. And like I love you. Just give me the chance and I'll make a home big enough for you to be proud of and big enough to bring up as many young ends as you could want.   If the war don't interfere.   Coming. We   We best get ready to land.   Is it very far to Mariana from there? Why no? Just to be south and inland.  

[00:17:03] Unknown:

It's not   on the river?  

[00:17:06] Unknown:

You wanna be on the river, honey? That's where you'll be   by the time you have your firstborn.   And I started digging my ditch within a month after we settled in.   And the first thing in early spring when the waters began to rise, I opened up the end of it to the river.   So by the time my daughter was born, I was able to give her the best present in the world.   Come.  

[00:17:37] Unknown:

Come. I  

[00:17:39] Unknown:

I'm coming now.  

[00:17:41] Unknown:

You alright?   Where's the midwife? Oh, which   she's gone. I left you alone?   Oh, I'm fine.   Thanks so much. Me?  

[00:18:06] Unknown:

When she was born? I couldn't bear to see you hurting, Nell.  

[00:18:11] Unknown:

Oh, silly.   That's a woman's lot.   And isn't it worth it to bring something like this into the world?  

[00:18:21] Unknown:

You know what we're gonna call her? Missy.  

[00:18:25] Unknown:

Missy.  

[00:18:27] Unknown:

Missy. Oh, boy. Where did you get it from? From the present I promised you with your firstborn.   Right almost in your front yard.   Here.   Let me help you sit up now.   Look.   Well,  

[00:18:43] Unknown:

what's happened down there at the end of this slope?   The fields are all gone   and it looks   like like water.  

[00:18:52] Unknown:

That's not just any water, Nell Girl.   That's the Mississippi   flowing right through our front yard. Oh,   oh, you,  

[00:19:04] Unknown:

you promised me a river  

[00:19:06] Unknown:

and you brought it to me. That's not the only thing Nell.   It's gonna make us rich.   And in the next two years, mister Clemens, it did make us rich.   In money,   but not all the way in happiness.   It was a lonely place and except except for the river isolated from people.   It was a bad time.   The war was over and renegade soldiers dressed as tramps and such were plundering the land.   They all were scared of them.   I should have listened to her sooner than I did, but I moved too late.   I sold the property and there was over 25,000   in cash gold   the night they came.  

I moved from a deep sleep to find myself bound and gagged in the air tainted with chloroform.   It is black as a witch's pocket.  

[00:20:03] Unknown:

Somewhere far off, I  

[00:20:06] Unknown:

heard the baby crying in my wife's voice. Don't harm her, please.  

[00:20:10] Unknown:

Oh, my baby.  

[00:20:12] Unknown:

I told you where the money is. So you have, lady. Now all that's left is to shut your mouth forever.   Shut that kid up. No. Please. You said no violence. Oops. He is moving   You said no violence.   You said   we'd only gag them,   not hurt them, or I would not have come. Shut up. They had to change our plan when they wake up. You've done all you could to protect them. Did that satisfy you? You relieved   the woman and the baby alone now? Of course.   And,   what about him?   He might be playing possum.   We should club him.   No. No more clubbing. Suppose he could recognize us? He can't. We put him to sleep with a claw form. Besides, it is pitch black in here. Okay, trooper. Okay.  



[00:21:26] Unknown:

We would take the chance.   We have got some money,   so strike it out so we can see to get out of here.  

[00:21:34] Unknown:

I  

[00:21:36] Unknown:

had no idea. Stop them.   I couldn't move.   The gag was so stifling that when I tried to speak, I could make no sound.   It was dawn before I managed to rig her free.   And staggering to the other side of the room,   I found my wife and daughter. I'm a little bit   Alive?   No, mister Clemons.   Dead.   There they lay the poor unoffending   ones. Their troubles ended.   My mind had just   begun. Did you go to the law?   No law of gallows could pay the debt that was owing me.  

[00:22:17] Unknown:

Well, how could you expect to take matters into your own hands   If it was so dark, you couldn't identify a man. I had some clues, mister Clemons.  

[00:22:28] Unknown:

I heard their voices.   And when they met the match to see their way out, the hand that held it was missing a thumb.   And when I went to the place my money had been hidden among the papers, tossed around was one containing a bloody thumbprint.   For what use could the last piece of information be   to you? The man without the thumb was the one who had begged his companion   should not hurt us.   If the print on the paper belonged to the other man,   I could identify   him definitely   enough to kill him.   A man's thumbprint is the one sure proof of his identity.   Well, still in all, grant that to be true.  



[00:23:17] Unknown:

How could you go about a search for these passing traps?  

[00:23:21] Unknown:

Remember my story.   The one I knew I must kill someday had said,   troop   C is moving out.   We can't be caught.   And also he called his companion trooper.   Then you think they were soldiers?   A few miles away,   two companies of US cavalry were billeted.   Company a was stationary, but company c had been ordered 50 miles North to Napoleon.  

[00:23:53] Unknown:

And you followed them? Yeah.  

[00:23:55] Unknown:

With what money I had left, I made a disguise for myself out of odds and ends of clothing after   I   buried my wife and daughter.   By the time I reached Napoleon, I had a new trade.   I had become a fortune teller.   Did you find your men? It didn't take me long to find the one who lacked the thumb.   His name was Kruger.  

[00:24:21] Unknown:

He was a German, one of nine in the company. And the only one who had suffered such a wound. The only one.  

[00:24:29] Unknown:

Besides, I recognize that whining voice.   But he was not my prey.   He was the other.   So how did you locate the other?   As a fortune teller, I would pass each plant a sheet of paper   toward his thumb with red paint and take a print.   It wasn't until the forty third member of the troop visited me for a reading that I found my man.   How?   I poured over the print of the ball of his thumb with a magnifying glass one whole night.   It matched the bloody print left on the paper rifled from secret   cash exactly.  

[00:25:13] Unknown:

So you   took the law into your own hands? Not yet.  

[00:25:18] Unknown:

I had to be totally sure.   So I went to Kroger. He was the weak link.   He was a superstitious little   coward.   If I broke him,   then I could be sure.   Why did you have to drag me down here by the river to this Lord forsaken spot for?   I have been   rereading   your fortune   and a part of it is so grave   it can't be said in public.   Well,   what part? What what?   You and another man   whose fortune I also was studying last night   have murdered a woman and a child.   No.   The palm does not lie.   The truth is not to be hidden.   Your companion's   name was Franz Adler.  



[00:26:18] Unknown:

How did you know that?  

[00:26:21] Unknown:

Who are you?   What's the matter, Kruger?  

[00:26:25] Unknown:

Was it too dark in that cabin for you to remember the man whose wife and child you slaughtered? Wait. Wait. It was pitch black. We were all in shadows. If I don't remember you, how can I could feel you were missing a thumb? Well, I   I didn't do it.   Franz did. I tried to stop him, but I was too late for your wife and   the baby.   But I made him leave you alone. I saved your life. Now please please don't don't don't kill me. I have no intention of killing you. Well, but is it that you want the money? Yes.   Why? I don't have it.  

He took it from me. He   has it hidden away.  

[00:27:07] Unknown:

Then let him find it and bring it to me. Not you. Him.   At this spot tonight at the stroke of twelve. Yeah. But how can I be sure You had better be sure?   But the centuries   If I can avoid them, so can he.   If not, I promise you, you will die.  

[00:27:29] Unknown:

I have read it in your palm. Oh, no. No. No. No. No. No. No. Please.  

[00:27:33] Unknown:

I don't want to die. Then have him meet me here at midnight. Tell him to come by horse and bring the money in the saddle bags.   Otherwise, I shall go to the authorities and see you bolt hung.   The man was a coward, mister Twain and superstitious   to his roots.   I knew my revenge was near at last and I could taste the sweetness of it.   I settled down by the riverbank to wait for the murderer.  

[00:28:11] Unknown:

At this moment in his story, Mark Twain reports that the dying man sagged back against his pillows,   gasping for breath   as though in his last throes.   Was he going to be able to finish his story?   I'm afraid, like Mark Twain, we're going to have to wait until I return with Act three.   We left Samuel Clemens,   better known as Mark Twain,   by the bedside of a dying man whose story he later penned and made immortal.   Exhausted by his narrative and the reliving of his tragic life, the man had sunk back against his pillows fighting for breath.   Aware that every breath may well be the man's last, Mark Twain leans over him anxiously.  

Mister Ritter.  

[00:29:07] Unknown:

Mister Ritter. I'm not done yet.   I have to tell you the rest so I can make my request.  

[00:29:14] Unknown:

It might be better if I fetch a doctor.  

[00:29:17] Unknown:

No doctor can do anything for me now. I don't know if you should tax your strength. What other use   have I for it?   It won't keep me alive anymore   than I had determined Franz Adler would live beyond the moment I saw him.   I wanted to watch his face to gloat as he struggled in a death agony   to save him my revenge for my wife and child that he had killed,   but that was to be denied me.  

[00:29:49] Unknown:

He   didn't meet the appointment? Oh, yes.  

[00:29:53] Unknown:

He came.   But before midnight,   the moon had gone behind heavy clouds.   And the night was as pitch black as the night he had come to my cabin.   I lay hidden in the mangrove and watched him come on horseback.   All I could see was a silhouette   and the bulging saddlebags.   My knife was in my hand.   As he passed me with one leap, I was on him and had him dragged off his horse.   And then all the plans went wrong.   Instead of being the ambusher, I was ambushed.   I drove my knife straight up through his belly under the rib cage and into his heart.   He was dead before he could cry out.  

And I had my own life to think of.   I mounted the plunging horse.   When the shots rang out, I clapped my heels to him and fled.  

[00:30:54] Unknown:

So   you had your revenge.  

[00:30:57] Unknown:

I thought so.   So I was cheated out of the money.   Oh, how so? By dawn, I had to rest the horse and myself, but when I stripped the saddle and looked in the bags,   there wasn't any money.   They were stuffed with sage grass and the like.   Did you go back for it? I put my neck in the noose.   No. Besides, I didn't care all that much.   About $25,000?   That was blood money.   If I hadn't cheated to get it in the first place, my wife and child might be alive today.   Besides, the first man, Kruger,   at Double Crossbury,   you could be sure he had picked up the money, deserted, and faded out of sight as I did.  

[00:31:45] Unknown:

Well, how did you fade out of sight? Out of Kruger.  

[00:31:49] Unknown:

That's one part of the story.   For the moment, the way I did was to beat my way to New Orleans.   Ship on board as a hand before the masts   stagger   across the world waiting only for death.   Two years ago, my health began to fail.   And in my purposeless way, I had wandered here into Munich.   I had no money,   sought work,   and desired to be the night watchman in the dead house you have just visited.   I liked it.   I felt I belonged among the dead.   Then one night alone in the watchroom,   cold,   non comfortless,   the incredible   happened.   Over my head,   the dead   bell rang.  

It was the first time I had ever heard it.   For a moment, I was almost paralyzed and   I pulled myself together and ran to the corpse room.   On the board table, one of the shrouded corpses wagging its head from side to side was sitting upright.   Help me. Help me. It's alright. I'm   I'm   here. Are you really alive? What else?  

[00:33:18] Unknown:

But I am bound.   I can't move. I can't can't talk.   Get the hate of this. Who who are you? What stuff is better than  

[00:33:31] Unknown:

from other   you must be? Franz oddly.   Listen, you can't be.  

[00:33:37] Unknown:

You are dead.   Not dead   yet as you can see. After seventeen years What are you talking about? I was only nice last night.   Take me out of this ball. Yes. Yes.   First, let me strip the winding claws from your face.  

[00:33:59] Unknown:

Yes.   Yeah. That is good.  

[00:34:03] Unknown:

Good. No.  

[00:34:05] Unknown:

It is you.   The same Franz   Adler.  

[00:34:10] Unknown:

What is the matter with your food?   Unwind the rest of these bandages so I can move. I am dying.  

[00:34:17] Unknown:

Have mercy.   Did you have mercy twenty years or so ago when you murdered my wife and my baby? What what are what are you talking about? Napoleon, do you remember the   town in America   where you and Kruger were stationed as you served your time in the US cavalry? How how could you know about that?   You murdered   my wife and baby.   You?   Oh,   the false undead,   the one who drove poor Kroger out of his mind. I had a rendezvous with you by the Mississippi River.   Do you remember that?  

[00:34:54] Unknown:

Yes. Yes. I remember.  

[00:34:56] Unknown:

I thought I killed you there. I've lived.   No man could have lived after the way I sank my knife. You are right.   And why are you here and still alive?  

[00:35:08] Unknown:

Because   you killed the wrong man.   It was Kruger you drove your knife   into.  

[00:35:18] Unknown:

I was stunned. My whole life fell away from under me.   I looked at the ghastly specter in front of me. His whole body swathed in bandages. Helpless. My prisoner,   Please, please,  

[00:35:43] Unknown:

what what do you want me to do? I'm not gonna do  

[00:35:45] Unknown:

time. Please.   Please.   What what do you want of me? I don't know how you're still alive  

[00:35:52] Unknown:

when I killed you all those years ago. You you talk to that fool, Kruger. You scared him half to death.   He he came to me say that I had to meet you by the river with money.  

[00:36:04] Unknown:

But you sent him instead?   He had no choice.   He knew I won't kill him unless he obeyed.  

[00:36:12] Unknown:

Poor silly little man caught between forces he could not handle.   So you double crossed him too and allowed me to kill him first.   What do you mean   first?   Before you started shooting and trying to kill me. No. No. No. That that was the watch patrol of the galaxy.   Only one person was firing.   You would have killed me with as little compunction as you killed my wife and my baby. No. No. That was an accident. Look.  

[00:36:42] Unknown:

Please help me out of here. I I I   I can make you rich again. Oh. The money.   The the $25,000.   Your money.  

[00:36:53] Unknown:

It isn't all spent by now? No. No. No. It is still hidden where it was seventeen years ago. You didn't take it and spend it? When Kruger was found dead, I was arrested for his murder.   I I managed to escape from the army's stockade and flee America back to Germany.  

[00:37:11] Unknown:

I never   had a a chance to pick up the money. The money poor Kruger thought he was bringing me in the saddlebags. I guess he he was a a fool.   But we we we have   not. We we are men. We we can make a bargain. What bargain? Yeah. Yeah. Unboost me from these bandages.  

[00:37:30] Unknown:

Set me free   and I will tell you where to find some money. How can I trust you? You can trust me? As much as you trust me? Yes. Yes.  

[00:37:42] Unknown:

Alright.  

[00:37:43] Unknown:

First, where's the money? It is in in the town of Napoleon as a corner Wait. Wait. Not so fast. Let me  

[00:37:50] Unknown:

let me write this down.   Napoleon. Yes.   Corner of,  

[00:37:57] Unknown:

the corner of Orleans   And Market. Mhmm. A bleak,   liveries table. Yes. I could cut a corner from the courthouse.   Third stone,   fourth   fourth row   behind the the whole huge garden.   Why?  

[00:38:19] Unknown:

I need the   doctor. Or I   will die.  

[00:38:24] Unknown:

But you are here in the dead house.  

[00:38:27] Unknown:

You are already dead. No. No. I ran the dead bed.  

[00:38:32] Unknown:

In all the years in this dead house,   the dead bell has never rung.   I didn't hear it ring.  

[00:38:40] Unknown:

You you came an answer to it.   Did I? Yeah. And we we made the mark and we I I told you where the money is. You you can have it  

[00:38:50] Unknown:

back. Can I have my wife back  

[00:38:53] Unknown:

or my baby daughter? You've you've got to hurt me. I will.  

[00:38:58] Unknown:

I caught you escaping from the grave.   This time I intend to make sure that you will be thrust into it forever.   He had a long, hard death of it.   I sat and watched him on the turn.   It was all three hours and six minutes from the time he rang the bell.   That's a   terrible story.  

[00:39:29] Unknown:

I'm   sorry you told me all this. I had to  

[00:39:35] Unknown:

to be sure you would do me this last favor.   And what is that?   Take this,   please.   What is it?   It? It's the directions where to find the money.   In Napoleon, mister Clemons.   You expect to be there in the next year.   I want you to find it   and send it  

[00:40:06] Unknown:

send it to you? No.  

[00:40:08] Unknown:

I shall be gone by then.   After   I died, I spent some months making inquiries.   Kruger's death was very much on my mind.   I found he had a son, a shoemaker, at Number 14, Kinichstrasse   Manheim.   A widower with some young children.   I want   the money to go to him as some amends.   I meant to try to save my wife and child's life.   It was a poor recompense   for me to,   even in accidents,   take his life.   This tortured man was dead,  

[00:41:04] Unknown:

and he had laid on me a heavy burden.   Within the next year, here I was on Mississippi,   nearing   Napoleon with my scribbled directions of how to find a foot.   I was far from morally sure anyone should own.   But   willy nilly,   I was cursed with having to make that decision.   Well, miss Clemens,   you've been a stranger during the voyage.   We're approaching a landfall I must make.   I don't know if it's a regular port of call for you. Oh, where might that be?  

[00:41:47] Unknown:

Napoleon.   Nap Napoleon.  

[00:41:51] Unknown:

Yeah. That's right. You   you you wish me to land you there?   Have you any objection? Me? For myself? No.  

[00:41:59] Unknown:

But I just don't hardly know how I could go about it.  

[00:42:03] Unknown:

What do you mean? Well,  

[00:42:05] Unknown:

about seven years ago, the Arkansas River crested and bust right through Napoleon,   tore it all to rags, and emptied it into the Mississippi.   Why, right this moment, the boat is paddling dead center over where the town used to be.   There just isn't that a Napoleon anymore.  

[00:42:27] Unknown:

No   secret   cash of soil money   and a way out from under a promise I never should have made.   I've always loved Mississippi,   and I love her still.   Among all her other virtues,   the lady knows how   to bury her dead.  

[00:43:01] Unknown:

A complex story   related by a master storyteller,   sandwiched among fact and fiction in Mark Twain's account of his return to the Mississippi.   Is it true?   I can only quote mister Twain himself.   I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did.   I said, I didn't know.   I'll be back shortly.   Mark Twain.   Samuel Langhorne Clemens.   Under either name, he is one of America's immortals.   Changing times may make succeeding generations   less aware of him, but somewhere always   there will be those to rediscover him and not allow him to die,   as he himself was unwilling to when in reply to a false news story he sent the famous cable to the new york press   the reports of my death are greatly   exaggerated   our cast included leon janney briner rayburn robert Dryden, and Ian Martin.  

The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown.   This is EG Marshall inviting you to return to our mystery theater   for another adventure in the macabre.   Until next   time. Pleasant   dreams.