.
Dark fantasy.
Dead hands reaching.
Alan. Alan. Alan Blaine.
Huh? I thought I heard someone.
Listen to me, Alan.
Someone did speak.
I spoke to you, Alan.
Who's that?
Don't be alarmed.
There's no one here. No one in this office but myself.
I am here.
Am I losing my mind?
There's no one.
Listen to me, Alan.
I hear you, but where are you?
I am here, but you can't see me.
Who are you?
Listen to me, Alan.
Yes?
How much money are you making?
Not much.
How much?
Twenty-five dollars a week.
You're worth more.
I know I am.
Then why haven't you done something about it?
Well, there are hundreds of men who could do my work.
I can't afford to lose my job.
You won't lose your job, but you will get a better one.
What do you mean?
Go talk to your employer today, Alan.
Today, you hear?
Yes.
There's a position open.
Assistant manager?
Exactly.
That's too big a position for me.
You're capable of handling it.
Go in.
Ask for it.
Ask for a job of assistant manager?
Yes.
You'll never get it unless you ask for it.
Look here. Who are you? Where are you?
You cannot see me, Alan, because I am not of your world.
Are you some devil? Some evil spirit?
I assure you, I am not.
Then why don't you show yourself to me?
I am not permitted to do that.
Be thankful that I am able to advise you.
Why do you advise me?
Because there is much I can do for you.
I don't understand. Your voice, out of nowhere.
That must not worry you, Alan.
Do as I say. Go now.
Ask for assistant manager.
Go, Alan. Ask for it now.
Wait.
Don't wait, Alan.
Wait, I want to talk to you some more.
Don't wait until it's too late. I warn you.
Come back. Come back.
Look here. What's all the commotion about?
Sit down, Mrs. Evans.
What?
I said sit down, ma'am. Here, I have something to talk to you about.
I want to know what the shouting out here was about.
Never mind that, Mrs. Evans.
I have something much more important to discuss with you.
And just what's that, Mr. Blaine?
It's about the assistant manager ship.
Well?
Well, you see, I was just thinking.
Go on.
No, I was just thinking that perhaps I...
Go ahead. Go ahead, Alan. Tell her you want the job.
Did you hear something, Mrs. Evans?
I'm waiting to hear who you have in mind for the job that's open.
I'll take that job, Mrs. Evans.
What? What did you say?
I said I'll take that job.
Why, I hadn't thought of that.
You might handle the job all right.
Yes. Yes, you might.
Come on in the office, Blaine. Let's talk this thing over.
Assistant manager's office?
Oh, Judith, darling. How are you?
Hey, you coming down to see my new office?
Oh, I thought you said you'd try to make it today.
Well, I've had my new job for two weeks now, and I...
All right, dear. Yes, goodbye.
I can't understand Judith lately.
Seems like she's avoiding me.
Don't trust her, Alan.
You again.
Don't trust her, Alan. Don't trust her.
What?
Don't trust her.
Don't trust her, Alan.
I warn you, she is not to be trusted.
Oh, it's you, Alan.
Hello, darling. May I come in?
Yes, I suppose so.
My, you are beautiful tonight.
Am I?
Oh, that dress looks wonderful on you.
I'm glad you're all dressed up.
Honey, we're going to the
celebration.
Alan.
I've just been promoted, darling.
Now I'm making enough for us to live on.
Come on, let's paint the town.
And when we find just the right spot, I'm going to ask you to marry me again.
Aren't you going to say something, Judith?
I have an engagement tonight, Alan.
Oh, but you can call it off.
No, I'm afraid I can't.
Think what's happened to us.
Now I'm making the money you always wanted me to make.
You'll have to go now, Alan.
What?
I've just a few minutes to finish with my makeup.
You'll have to go now.
But Judith.
Please, Alan.
Now wait a minute.
Alan, really.
I've asked you to go.
I haven't much time.
Oh.
So you haven't much time.
Well, let me tell you something, Judith West.
No, Alan.
Yes, Alan?
Let you tell me what?
Don't say it, Alan.
Don't.
Well, Alan?
Don't say it, Alan.
I warn you.
There'll be a quarrel.
You'll kill her this time if you quarrel.
I'm waiting, Alan.
Never mind.
Just forget it.
Good evening, my dear.
Alan.
Perhaps I should have told you last night.
I didn't.
So I'm writing to you now.
You've made quite a fool of yourself over me for some time now.
I've only permitted you to believe I loved you because I've always felt sorry for you.
Now you're successful.
And so I write you the truth.
I'm being married tomorrow to a man from South America.
I've never loved you.
I know that I never can.
And so I'm writing to you.
Miss Adams, will you please call me at 11.30?
I have a 12 o'clock luncheon date.
Hmm.
A letter from Judith.
It's probably an apology for last night.
I wonder what she said.
Hmm.
Alan.
Perhaps I should have told you.
Writing to you now.
Quite a fool of yourself.
Always felt sorry for you.
And being married tomorrow.
I have never loved you.
Ever loved me.
Oh, she can't mean that.
Yet she wrote it.
Yes, she wrote it.
Oh, so she's been playing ball with me all these years.
Felt sorry for me, did she? Sorry.
Well, I'll make her sorry. I'll show her. I'll kill her.
No, Alan.
Yes, I'll kill her.
Don't go to her, Alan.
I'll show her. I'll show her.
She can't toss me off like an old glove.
Put that gun back, Alan.
No.
Put it back in the drawer, I say.
No, no.
I warn you.
You'll be sorry if you don't put the gun away and calm yourself.
I won't, and you can't stop me.
No, I can't stop you.
Nothing can stop me. Nobody. Not now.
So she feels sorry for me.
Well, I wonder if she'll feel sorry for herself
with a bullet in her cheating heart.
All right, darling. I'll meet you at eight.
Yes, I've written a note to Alan.
I've broken things off completely.
All right, dearie. Goodbye.
Yes? Who's there? Who's there?
Who is it?
Alan.
What do you want?
Alan.
Alan.
Alan.
Alan, listen to me.
Go sober yourself up, Alan.
Oh, go away.
You've lost your job, spent all your money.
This is no way out.
Leave me alone.
I want to help you.
Help me?
Why didn't you leave me alone again with?
I warned you not to go to her apartment.
You're a murderer now, Alan.
You're wanted by the police.
Oh, go away. Go away.
You should have listened to me.
I was trying to guide you.
Leave me alone.
Oh, leave me alone.
I know what you're thinking.
You're tired.
The spirits aren't enough for you now.
You want something else.
Yes.
Don't do it, Alan.
Stay away from it.
No.
I'm not listening to you anymore.
I'm not listening. Do you hear me?
Go away.
I'm not listening to a thing you say.
Please, don't come in.
A friend of mine sent me.
Jake Mullins.
Oh, Honorable Mr. Mullins.
So, young C.Fool, glad to help any plan.
Honorable Mr. Mullins.
He said I could forget my troubles here.
Flubble? You have flubble, please?
Maybe.
You want maybe to sleep sleep?
Anything.
Anything to stop this awful burning in my mind.
You smoke, maybe?
Me fixpell your sleep.
Yes, sleep.
You lie here, please.
Stretch out.
Make comfortable.
Yes.
Here.
You smoke this.
Take pipe.
You sleep.
Yes.
So, you feel better by and by.
No, no, no, no. Please, do lie down.
You smoke.
Pretty soon, sleep sleep.
Don't, Alan.
I beg you.
Don't smoke that.
Go away.
Please, not to shout.
Tell him to go away.
There is no one.
Don't do it, Alan.
You hear him?
I hear no one.
Now, please, to be quiet.
Just smoke.
Pretty soon, sleep sleep.
It's too late now, Alan.
I tried to warn you.
But it's too late now.
Where, where am I?
So strange.
Quiet, peaceful.
What's this?
Book.
Old, rotting.
Why, a diary.
Aaron Blaine.
Aaron Blaine.
That was my great grandfather's name.
This was his diary.
Where am I?
Seems like a cave.
Yes.
It is a cave.
My clothes.
So neat and so clean.
Yesterday, yes, even today, I was almost ragged.
I remember too, I was tired.
Worn.
Now, now I feel refreshed.
How did I get here in this cave?
That light, from a fire.
I can read the book by the fire.
Yes.
We are now in the midst of a dreadful civil war.
I fear everything I own is lost.
I have only managed to save my gold.
Gold.
I figure its value at more than eighty thousand dollars.
I have buried it today beneath the horse stall
at the east end of the barn.
It will never be found there.
Gold.
Buried beneath the horse stall in the barn.
But what barn?
Tonight, perhaps if I get out of this cave.
Yes.
There's the opening.
Yes, it is daylight.
And there's the farm over there.
It's an old farm.
Maybe if I go over there, I'll find what I want.
You say this farm did belong to Owen Blaine.
That's right, boss man.
By the time of the civil war, I reckon my papi done work for him.
Who owns the place now?
I reckon Uncle Sam do now, boss man.
I pay the taxes when I can and then let me live here.
Got myself a horse out there in the barn here.
Good old racing horse he is.
That barn is about to fall down.
Yes, I see it is.
Over this way, boss man.
Are you sure this barn's been standing since the civil war?
Sure has, boss man.
I used to prop it up here and there once in a while.
Won't go to pieces any day now.
There's old Sunday books.
Oh, that old Sunday books.
You was asking about a spade here, mister.
There's one right over here.
Yeah, I'll set the lantern down right there.
Keep that animal back.
I'm going to start digging.
Digging, boss man?
Yes, and if I find what I'm looking for, you and I are going to be rich.
There it is.
Lord have mercy, boss man.
Something bad there?
Yeah, a metal box.
Come on, help me get it out of there.
Okay, boss man.
Did you get a hold of that corner?
I think so.
The pool's hard in there.
All right, there.
Good work.
That was heavy.
Got a lock on it.
You'll fix that.
Now that's heavy.
There we are.
Lord have mercy, boss man.
Look at that gold.
Yeah, gold.
$80,000 worth of gold.
What's that?
Must be the Pearson boys.
Who?
The Pearson boys, boss man.
Who are they?
They've been trying to get this farm
but they ain't got enough money to pay the back taxes.
Folks around here always said they know there was gold.
Bad here someplace.
They must have seen you nowadays trying to scare y'all.
It's a good thing it's night.
I was going to come down here this afternoon
but I decided to stay in the cave till dark.
Cave, you say, boss man?
Yeah, over toward the hills.
We better get ourselves over there, boss.
Who's going to keep us here gold?
Damn Pearson boys been looking for it for ten years.
If they catch us with it, they want to take it away from us.
Boss, I reckon I can't stay much longer.
Yeah, we've got to stay here.
I was hungry.
So am I.
We can't leave this cave until those murdering thieves out there go away.
Boss, we done been here two nights and a day.
They've gone now, Allen.
You again.
Who, boss? Me?
It's safe now, Allen.
Boss man, what you looking so funny about?
You look like you done hear the spook or something talking.
You can go out now, Allen.
They've gone away.
Come along, Sam.
Are we going to leave here, boss man?
Yeah, help me carry this box.
How come you didn't change your mind?
I didn't.
It was changed for me.
Come along.
Careful, Allen.
Sure will be good to wrap this old boy around a good thick old steak
or maybe a fat old chicken.
Easy now, careful.
Let's scout around behind this tall grass.
All right, boss man.
Now you ought to watch your step out here.
There's lots of snakes over here.
Snakes?
Yes, big ones too, boss man, and pies and...
Come on, over this way.
Wait a minute.
Look, over there.
Lordy, boss man, that's an old grave.
Yeah, come on.
Good Lord, look.
Boss man, looky over there.
A bony, fleshless hand
reaching up out of the grave.
Boss man, how come that hand over there?
Whoever that was, they buried him alive.
Come on, boss man.
I don't feel none too comfortable around here.
Wait a minute.
Something scratched into this tombstone.
I can't quite make out what it says.
That's better.
What do you say, boss?
I can't read.
It says Aaron Blaine.
Aaron Blaine.
Died August 16, 1861.
August 16, 1861.
My great-grandfather buried alive.
Lord have mercy, your grand-pappy.
I didn't die then.
I was only unconscious from exhaustion.
They thought I was dead, so they brought me here.
Where are you?
I brought you here to show you this.
How did I get here?
The opium.
Removed the spirit from your body.
I brought it here.
Oh, take me back.
You can never return.
Yes, take me back.
I have the gold now.
I'll be rich.
No.
Yes, take me back.
Take me back, I say.
Boss man, look at that ass of me.
No.
Run, boss man.
He done bit you, idiot.
Poison.
I've been poisoned by that snake.
I can't.
Help me.
Help me.
I can't get back.
No, Alan.
I warned you.
Now you'll never get back.
Dark fantasy.
You have heard Dead Hands Reaching, tonight's original tale of dark fantasy by Scott Bishop, originating in the studios of WKY.
The picturization story of Dead Hands Reaching appears in the May 16th issue of Movie Radio Guide.
Ben Morris was heard as Alan Blaine, Eleanor Naylor Corran played Judith West, Muir Height was Jung Si Fu, Georgiana Cook played Mrs. Evans, and Daryl McAllister was Aaron Blaine, the voice from beyond.
Next Friday listen to Dark Fantasy, 35 minutes earlier, at 11.30 p.m. Eastern wartime, 10.30 Central wartime.
Listen for Rendezvous with Satan, Another Unusual Adventure by Scott Bishop.
Tom Paxton speaking, Dark Fantasy comes to you each Friday night from Oklahoma City.
This is the National Broadcasting Company.