Adventures of time and space told in future tense.
The National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers of astounding
science fiction, bring you Dimension X.
My name is Donald Hason, private investigator.
Have you heard about me? I cracked the Turner kidnapping back in 1946.
It wasn't very hard.
I paid off a few stool pigeons and went right to the hideout.
It hit my reputation a lot of good though.
Enough good for me to be called into the mayor's office down at City Hall to see Big Mike Flaherty
himself.
Sit down Hason, sit down.
Thanks.
You don't have to forgive me for speaking so low.
That's a bad case of laryngitis.
Yes, it is.
Hason, I've been a fool.
You wouldn't get to be mayor of a city like this by being a fool.
Well, you know Hason, when you get old you want to believe a lot of things.
You want to believe so hard that sometimes you throw your common sense right out of the
window.
You get hardening of the cranial arteries to become stupid.
What's the pitch Mr. Mayor?
You didn't call me in to discuss the philosophy of growing old gracefully.
Hason, I want you to do some investigating for me.
Naturally, it must be confidential.
This is a confidential business.
All right.
Yesterday a man came into this office and sold me a vial of radioactive water that he
called the elixir of life.
I suppose to cure you of any disease and keep you healthy enough so you live a hundred years.
That's none of my business Mr. Mayor, but how much did you drop on this gold brick?
It's about fifty thousand dollars.
You don't seem the type somehow.
Come a little closer Hason.
I'm going to tell you something my political opponents would give their right arms to know.
This isn't laryngitis.
It isn't?
It's inaccessible for surgery.
X-rays would be dangerous.
How much time I have left I don't know.
But I live like a man who's going to the chair.
And if I want a vacation I pack up and go.
If I want a drink I take one.
If somebody comes to me with a vial of liquid and says it'll keep me alive, I think twice
before I throw him out as a crackpot.
What do you want me to do, get your money back?
No, the money isn't important.
You mean if the loyal opposition got hold of the story they could use it against you?
That's part of it Hason.
However, you don't have the whole picture yet.
Shortly after I bought the stuff I received an anonymous phone call.
I was warned not to take it.
I was told it was poison and would kill me in a matter of seconds.
Ah, the plot thickens.
You can appreciate my position.
I feel like a man who can either save his life or destroy himself by taking that stuff.
Well the phone call might be a hoax.
Yes, and so might the elixir of life.
Yeah, very likely.
What do you want me to do about it?
Investigate the man who sold it to me.
Find out who's behind him, what he knows, where he goes.
Nothing else, I want that 50 grand back.
What's in it for me?
A grand.
If he's on the level, 10% if you get the dough back.
Deal?
Deal.
He's a vile.
And he's his card.
Arthur C. Lehman, longevity expert, 45 Billings course.
Okay Mr. Mayor, you got yourself a boy.
Leave your working name and phone number with my secretary.
I'll have a sentry check.
Right, I'll call you.
You were in there a long time.
How'd you make out?
Swell, I bought the outer drive for only 10 bucks and the cost of mailing.
That's kind of high.
Last week we were selling it for only five.
I'm sorry, I've been listening to too many detective programs.
It isn't polite to stare.
I was just wondering what your name was.
Sign on the desk says Katharina Cooper.
I'll call you Kathy.
Oh, I'm supposed to leave my name and phone number.
Go ahead.
The name is Donald Hason.
But then you knew that, honey.
You've been listening to the mayor call me by it for the last half hour.
You forgot to shut off the intercom switch.
Big Mike's getting kind of careless, isn't he?
A look on her face said she was feeding me to the vultures piece by piece.
I left my card and walked out.
By the time I got home it was dusk.
It was the time of early evening when every bachelor wishes he wasn't one, especially
after meeting a girl like Kathy.
The phone began to ring just as I put my key in the latch.
I made it on the fourth ring.
Hello?
Is this Mr. Donald Hason?
I live alone and don't like it.
Were you expecting someone else to answer?
This is a warning, Mr. Hason.
Don't touch your desk.
I'm sorry, but I don't like to sleep on the floor.
The joys of being a private detective.
Oh, hello, Jocko.
How's my boy?
That's a good boy.
Oh, Jocko, be glad you're not a private detective with all kinds of crackpots calling you up
and trying to get your goat.
Nice boy.
Sometimes I wish I had shaggy ears like you, so I couldn't hear them.
Come on, boy, come on.
In the bedroom for a change or something.
What's the matter, boy?
You want to go out?
Well, you just wait until I sit down here and get these shoes.
Hey, hey there.
Don't jump on that bed, Fred.
You know better.
Jocko.
Jocko.
Oh, God.
The bedspread closed on him the way a Venus fly trap closes on a fly.
When I looked more closely, I saw that the bedspread had silvery threads of fine spring
steel woven into it.
It had been set like a bear trap, the spring shut and strangled anything that touched it.
Somebody wanted to get rid of me pretty badly, somebody to whom I had suddenly become very
dangerous.
Instead, they got Jocko.
My poor little Jocko.
I decided to take a fast drive over to Billings Court to see Arthur Layman, longevity expert.
Hello, Arthur.
I'm looking for Mr. Layman's office.
I'm the janitor.
You didn't need to explain.
He isn't in.
Mr. Layman isn't in.
I just said I was looking for his office.
Oh, a detective.
Now, I'm really a vacuum cleaner salesman.
I just had these credentials printed up for fun here by your wife in Musgrat coat.
I can't take any money.
I'll just keep this.
Let's spend.
What floor is it on?
Up those steps, rear.
Thanks.
Well, let's see now.
I ought to have one that fits this.
There we are.
Now, there should be a light switch somewhere.
Let's see if I can...
Perhaps I can be of assistance, looking for someone.
Mr. Layman?
Yes.
The janitor told me you weren't in, so I...
You picked the lock.
Yes.
I hope you don't mind.
Not at all.
If you'd put down the gun...
I like to hold it.
It gives me a feeling of power.
Now, Mr...
Hason.
Mr. Hason, if you will tell me just who you are and what you're doing here.
I couldn't sleep.
My bed had a dead dog in it.
I thought I should consult a health expert.
Who sent you?
Nobody sent me.
I'm like Topsy.
I just grogued.
I'd like to keep on growing, Mr. Layman.
I don't like people trying to kill me.
And I don't like people killing my dog.
What makes you think I would try to kill you?
Just a hunch.
If I really wanted to kill you, I could do it right now, perfectly legally, since you
broke in here.
That'd be hard to prove.
Fortunately for you, Mr. Hason, I don't have the faintest interest in trying to kill you.
On the contrary, it was I who telephoned and warned you about that bed.
You know about that phone call?
I ought to.
I made it.
What's the pitch, Mr. Layman?
I can't tell you what the pitch is, Mr. Hason, but I will tell you this.
Give that vial of liquid back to Flaherty and let him cure himself.
Or poison himself.
Cure.
Look, Mr. Layman, I wasn't born yesterday.
Don't give me this elixir of life stuff.
There ain't no such thing.
And don't try to top me off this case by pretending you're on my side.
Mr. Hason, I warn you, you're playing around with something much too big for you to handle.
That vial is the only one of its kind in existence today.
The liquid it contains will cure Flaherty if he drinks it.
You know, I've seen lots of carnival men peddling fluke and ink sticks, but you're good.
You almost convinced me.
Almost, but not quite.
You're a very stubborn fool, Mr. Hason.
Give back that 50 grand and I'll become very unstubborn.
I have a suggestion.
I'll bet you do.
Why don't you siphon off the tiniest drop of that elixir and have it tested on, say,
a rabbit.
Then if it's non-poisonous, you can go back to Flaherty and have him drink it.
And while we're proving it's caramel water, you're on a fast boat to outer Mongolia with
50 Gs.
Come with me.
Where to?
A reputable biological laboratory, any one you choose.
Suppose I don't want to play?
Then I'll kill you.
You will feel my gun against your side, so don't try anything.
Shall we go?
Before we do, just one thing.
Well?
If you didn't try to kill me, who did?
Who else knew about it?
Nobody.
Nobody except Flaherty, you, me, and... and Flaherty's secretary.
Shall we go, Mr. Hissing?
Well, yes, yes, I believe I could make such a test.
Of course, we'd mean injecting a destacy into an infected guinea pig.
Then we'd have to weaken to a biopsy.
How long would it take?
24 hours at least.
Okay, how much?
$50.
My friend will pay you.
Your friend?
Yeah, the gentleman will...
Holy jumping sunfish.
Sir?
Look, you saw me come in with a guy just a minute ago, didn't you?
Yes, sir, but he left when you started talking to me.
Isn't that just dandy?
Is something wrong?
No, nothing much.
You know what Barnum said about one being born every minute?
Yes, sir.
Well, he was talking about me.
Well, I better get going.
Yes, sir.
Oh, sir, what about that test?
Okay, I suppose you might as well do it just for laughs.
Send the report on the bill to Donald Hason, private investigator, Cater Building.
Yes, sir.
I knew there wasn't much point in going back after Lehman.
He was probably well on his way by this time.
It was an all around funny story from beginning to end, but still somewhere hanging around
the edges of my brain was a funny kind of hunch.
If Lehman had wanted to kill me, then who called me up to warn me?
Lehman himself?
Why?
I didn't figure.
I stopped to look up an address in the phone book and then I invested ten cents.
Hello?
Kathy?
Yes?
This is Sherlock.
Oh, I'm glad.
Glad?
That you called.
I mean, I wanted to apologize to you for eavesdropping this afternoon.
Why don't you do it over a cup of coffee?
I have to talk to you.
It's very late.
Sleep late tomorrow, please.
All right.
Oh, I need to.
There's a coffee shop near your place.
I'll be there in 15 minutes.
She came in wearing a blue nylon dress and a short gray jacket.
It went real well with her blue eyes and soft blonde hair.
She seemed genuinely happy to see me.
It threw me for a few seconds.
Then I reminded myself I had already won the P.T. Barnum Award once that night.
Sit down, Kathy.
What is it?
Do you know a man named Arthur C. Lehman?
Am I supposed to?
I'll refresh your memory.
I had a talk with his honor about him.
I don't remember.
Look, I used to have a little Scotch Terrier named Jocko.
We liked each other.
He used to lick my hand.
All I want to know is are you mixed up in it?
What goes on?
I don't know anything about it.
Listen, Kathy, maybe I'm getting sentimental in my old age,
but for a moment there when you walked in,
I thought you seemed genuinely glad to see me.
Was it because you were glad I was still alive?
Come on, give.
Don, I liked you.
You're a nice guy.
Why don't you let it alone?
Call Flaherty and turn down the assignment.
Give him back his vial and tell him you're not interested in finding Lehman.
Would you do it?
If you want to help me so much, why not tell me what it's all about?
I can't.
I'd like to, but I can't.
I've told you too much already.
Somebody's got you real scared, honey.
Who is it?
You're too nice a girl to be mixed up in this garbage
with a guy like Lehman.
Come on, tell me.
I can't.
Just believe that, please.
Get out of it now before it's too late.
OK, honey, you can play it that way if you want,
but to me it's as thin as a bowl of restaurant soup.
Poor Jocko knew something and couldn't tell me.
You know something and you won't tell me.
Good night.
I didn't go home.
I spent the night in a local YMCA and I didn't sleep very well.
It went around and around in my brain like a squirrel in a cage,
but it didn't add up to anything when it came out.
In the morning I went straight to my office
and locked myself in with a bottle of gin.
By 10 o'clock I had decided to quit the job
but before I could call Flaherty and tell him, the phone rang.
Go ahead.
Mr. Hason?
You got it.
This is Dr. Gregory in the Bayside Biological Laboratory.
If you want the money...
It isn't about the money.
What's up?
Mr. Hason, do you have the formula for that serum you gave me?
No, I know a guy who might,
but he's in Outer Mongolia by now. Why?
Well, I've never seen anything quite like it.
I don't know if he's just a freak of fate or not.
What happened?
Well, that pig, that diseased guinea pig, Mr. Hason,
went completely recovered in 12 hours.
Not only that, Mr. Hason, but there is not a trace of the malignancy.
That pig looks healthy enough to live another hundred years.
I could feel the sweat soaking into my undershirt
as I put down the receiver.
Where do we go from here?
Was Layman on the level after all?
The next stop was Layman's office.
Maybe he wasn't in Outer Mongolia.
It was noon before I got there.
The same janitor was on duty in the same dirty lobby.
Hello there.
Hi.
You want something?
Layman.
Who?
Layman.
I heard of him.
Now, wait a minute, Junior. You remember me.
Last night, five bucks, real office, first floor.
I don't know what you're talking about, Mr. Hason.
You want another five, Junior?
Well, this time I don't buy it. Get out of my way.
Listen, Mr. Hason, I can't let you just walk into that office.
I'll try to stop you if you want to work tomorrow.
But there's nobody in that office.
We'll see about that, Junior, right now.
Holy mackerel.
I told you, Mr.
Hason, I'm sorry.
The room was bare.
There were caps on the electrical outlets.
Everything in the room was covered by a six-weeks accumulation of dust
that was undisturbed except for the footprints of the janitor and myself.
Yet yesterday, there had been a rug, telephone, desk, chairs, file cabinets.
I checked the door number.
1B, that was it, all right.
Then I checked the janitor.
He was standing there just looking stupid.
But he looked a little too stupid.
I figured I could make him talk, so I tried an old trick.
I reached inside my hat band, took out an ordinary pin,
and jabbed him hard on the arm.
Hey, how?
What's the business here, mister?
Sit down, Junior. Sit down. Over here on the window ledge.
Okay.
Well, listen, I don't know anything.
Maybe you saw something like this in the movies, Junior.
There's this guy, see, a killer.
And he sticks another guy with a needle that has a slow poison on the end of it,
like I have right in this little glass file, see it?
And only this killer has the antidote.
If the other guy doesn't talk, it's curtains in one minute.
If he does, the killer will give him the antidote.
Okay, Junior, talk.
Well, I don't believe you.
There's no poison in that pin. It's a joke.
It's up to you, Junior.
Don't you feel something different, though?
Don't you feel your heart speed up a little from the poison?
Now, listen, I don't know anything.
It makes you sweat, too.
When it reaches the brain, that's when it really begins to work.
You've got 30 seconds to spill. Otherwise...
Please.
25 seconds.
Okay. Okay.
He was here. He gave me $100 to forget it.
He rented the office only a couple of days ago,
and then last night he said he was moving out.
Said I shouldn't mention to anybody that he'd been here.
My lady was gone. Piles of footage and all.
Don't know how he moved all that stuff out so fast.
Now, that's all I know. Alice, that's all I know.
Now, for God's sake, mister, give me that stuff.
Don't let me just croak. I feel it in my back.
Relax, Junior. There was no poison. You're all right.
A trick.
Yeah, a trick. Thanks for the information.
A trick. A trick, ma'am.
He said he'd killed me, but...
I'll do it again.
There was Mr. Hason again,
right back on the horns of ye olde dilemma.
The only thing I knew for sure at this point
was that the serum was apparently not poisonous.
And since my client was most concerned with that,
I made my next stop the office of his honor,
Mayor Big Mike Flaherty.
I have the vial in my coat pocket.
Hello, beautiful.
I want to see his honor. He isn't in.
I'll go into his office and wait. You can't.
But I can. Come on in. I want to talk to you anyway.
Please. Come on.
Shut the door, huh? No?
Okay, I'll shut it. I'll sit.
Okay, baby, let's have a heart-to-heart conversation.
I see you didn't listen to my warning.
No, I didn't. What's more, I found out that this layman character
is on the level about the serum. It works.
I found that out, too. That's right.
It leads me to an interesting conclusion, Kathy.
Namely, that you're the one who tried to booby trap me.
All right. Have it your way.
What do you intend to do?
Well, first I'm going to give Flaherty that serum
and let him cure himself. You mustn't do that.
Why not? I can't tell you, but you mustn't.
Down in a few minutes, Mike Flaherty will be here.
Before he comes, I'll have to ask you to give me that serum.
Try again. I don't hear so good.
Maybe you'll hear this. It works, too, so don't try anything.
Well, well. So now it comes out.
Okay, Kathy, if you want to play that way, go ahead.
Give me that serum.
Why don't you shoot?
I warn you, I may have no choice.
Give it to me.
Pull the trigger, baby.
You're weakening.
Don, please, don't make me kill you. Please.
What is it, baby?
True love or just weak in the knees?
You better hand me that gun.
Don, what can I do? I'm so mixed up.
That's better.
What is it, Kathy? You're no killer.
Tell me what's going on here. Maybe I can help you.
You've got to trust me.
No, I can't, Don. Believe me.
I want to, but it's against the prime injunction.
The what?
You wouldn't understand.
There's no way I could make you understand.
Only believe me, Don, because I love you.
You mustn't let laymen succeed in giving that serum to Mike Flaherty.
The consequences would be unimaginable.
You know, Kathy, if you had come to me and leveled right at the start,
maybe we could have worked something out.
Maybe I'd be listening to you now.
But you're a little late, because I just heard
Big Mike come into the outer office.
He'll be here in a second.
Don't, Don, please.
Come in.
How do you do?
Laymen.
I see she's been trying to get the vial from you, Mr. Hason.
I was afraid of that. I came over to make certain
that Mr. Flaherty is permitted to drink the serum.
Well, that's very noble of you, Laymen, but I don't quite understand it.
You have your 50 grand.
What do you care whether Mike Flaherty lives or dies?
Mr. Hason, if Mike Flaherty dies,
the opposition candidate will win the next election.
That means a new political party will come into dominance in this city.
The next president will be a representative of that party.
I am most anxious to see that that does not happen.
The entire future of our country,
indeed, the history of the world, would be affected by it.
He's telling the truth, Don.
But events must be allowed to take their normal course.
Don't listen to her, Hason.
She's tried to kill you once. She'd do it again.
You know I'm telling the truth about that serum.
She wants to see Flaherty die.
Go ahead, ask her.
It's true, isn't it, Kathy?
You want Mike Flaherty to die.
You don't understand.
Listen, I'm getting pretty fed up with being told I don't understand.
Understand what?
I understand that in the past 24 hours somebody's tried to kill me.
I understand that Lehman's serum will cure a guinea pig and probably a human.
I understand that unless I'm completely insane,
the entire contents of Lehman's office vanished in a few minutes.
I understand that you too seem to be more concerned with some nonsense
that's going to take place in the future than...
Holy smokes.
Oh, no, no, it's too fantastic, just too fantastic to even think about.
Something troubling you, Mr. Heeson?
Perhaps I can help you.
Perhaps you can, Lehman.
I'm going to ask you just one question.
Very well.
When are you from?
That does it, doesn't it, Mr. Lehman?
I've guessed your game.
I'm afraid you have, Mr. Heeson.
I am, as you surmise, a traveler from the future.
And since you've stumbled upon it,
perhaps Miss Cooper here would like to fill in her part of the story.
But before she does, up your hands, both of you, higher.
Don't move, I'll take that gun, Mr. Heeson.
Now, Miss Cooper, you may enlighten our backward friend.
Go ahead, Cathy.
Both Lehman and myself are from the future, Don.
Why didn't you tell me?
I couldn't.
The prime injunction to time travelers is never to reveal their identity.
The penalty is death.
Since you've guessed it as we feared you might,
there's no point in trying to conceal anything further.
Go on.
Mr. Lehman's a fugitive from the era in which we live.
Using one of our time machines, he came back to your time.
And he sought to change things so that he'd be in a position of great power in the future.
How do you figure to do that?
If clarity lives long enough, he could dominate the political picture in America.
You're almost right, except in one detail, Miss Cooper.
Clarity will not survive.
He will live only long enough to gain a position of political dominance.
Then I will remove him, and my own ancestor will take over the reins of power,
leaving them eventually to me.
I get it now.
But there's one thing that bothers me.
Who was trying to kill me?
I was.
You see, I was sent here to track down Lehman.
I set that spring before I met you,
as soon as Flaherty hired you to help him.
I did it on orders from the council.
They were afraid you'd be successful in saving Flaherty's life.
Then, unfortunately, I...
I fell in love with you and couldn't go through with it.
I called and warned you.
You took credit for that, Lehman.
I wanted to enlist you on my side, Mr. Heason.
However, it makes little difference at this point,
since you know the entire story.
I have little choice now.
Do you think you can get away with this?
I believe I can, Mr. Heason.
There are two of us here who know your plans.
By the time Mr. Flaherty returns to his office,
there will be only one, myself.
Goodbye, Mr. Heason. It has been a pleasure.
Not without a fight, you...
Not many people know how it feels to be shot in the front.
I saw Kathy jump toward the desk and push a button I hadn't noticed before.
I remember it fuzzed as if I'd been sandbagged,
and then watching in amazement as the crimson spread down the front of my shirt.
Then there was a loud roaring noise and everything went black.
I died.
Don't try to move, Don.
Don't move yet.
It'll take a few minutes for you to feel like yourself.
What?
Only jumping sunfish.
I'm sitting in Flaherty's office.
The...
The blood...
There was blood on my shirt and it's gone now.
Here, you drink this.
I...
I don't understand it. Have I been dreaming?
Is the whole thing nothing but a nightmare?
Well, it seems so real that there was a man named Layman.
He pointed a gun at my head and shot me.
I... I felt it. I tell you, I felt it.
Don, Don, listen to me.
Listen carefully. There isn't much time.
And please, darling, please this time, believe me.
Listen.
Go ahead.
You were in this room. Layman did shoot you. He... he killed you.
You're insane.
No.
What he didn't know was that this office is a time machine.
We rigged it that way, hoping to trap him here and take him back to future time.
When I saw he was about to shoot you, I jumped through the switch that sets the machine into reverse.
We went back into the past before he killed you.
That's where you are now.
It's only a few minutes before Layman is going to knock on that door and come into the office.
It's too fantastic to believe, Kathy.
It's true.
What can I do?
Break the vial. Break it now before Layman gets here.
And then when he comes, get the jump on him.
Since you're the one who went back in time, you'll remember, but Layman won't.
What'll happen to us?
He'll appeal to the council. Perhaps they'll let us stay together.
I can't make my brain believe this, Kathy.
You must, Don.
Don, for our own sake, for the future's sake.
Break the vial now. In a moment it'll be too late.
I don't know, Kathy.
Clarity is life. It depends on this little glass bottle.
Don, please.
It's Layman.
Don, you've got to decide now.
Now, quick.
Thank God.
Come in, Mr. Layman.
We're ready for you.
You've just heard another adventure into the unknown world of the future.
The world of...
Dimension X.
Dimension X is presented each week by the National Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Street and Smith,
publishers of the magazine Astounding Science Fiction.
Today, Dimension X has presented Untitled Story from the current issue of Astounding Science Fiction.
It was written for radio by George Lefferts from the story by Frank M. Robinson.
Featured in the cast were George Petrie as Hason and Sergeant as Kathy, Bernard Lenro as Layman.
Your host was Norman Rhodes, music by Albert Thurman.
Dimension X is produced by William Welch and directed by Fred Way.
Dragnet, the story of your police force is next on NBC.