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The Strange Dr. Weird

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Good evening. Come in, won't you?

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Why, what's the matter? Surely you're not nervous. You are?

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Then perhaps a story might help calm you.

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I think I know just the one. It's about a cat, among other things.

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That's why I call the story, The Tiger Cat.

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My story, The Tiger Cat, begins in a little homemade laboratory in a great, gloomy old house in the suburbs.

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Young Professor Carl Emory is bending over a cage containing a huge rabbit when the laboratory door opens.

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Carl, have you seen Ronna, Madam Elk's cat? She's disappeared and Madam Elk is worried.

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Oh, it's you, Laura. No, I haven't seen Ronna.

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Carl, how are your experiments coming? I get so little chance to see you to ask you about that.

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I'm getting close, Laura. Look in this cage. That's a rabbit.

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Why, it's as big as a dog.

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It weighs 40 pounds and it's still growing. My vitamin injections have done that.

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Then your growth serum is a success.

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No, not quite. But I will succeed yet. If I can keep my experiments a secret from Madam Elsa,

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if she knew what I was doing, she'd throw me out of the house.

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Oh, that crazy idea of hers. When people die, their cells go into animals. It's insane.

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It's the old gauge old theory of reincarnation, but she believes it absolutely.

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Then she mustn't find out, that's all. Because once your growth serum is perfected...

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...you'll revolutionize farming. Rabbits as big as horses, chickens as big as ostriches.

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Why, think how the world's food supply will be increased and I'll be famous, rich.

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Then we can admit we're married.

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Oh, Carl, it's so hard pretending to Madam Elsa that I'm just a maid.

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That I have no interest in you, her brilliant protege.

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I know, darling. And it may take months, even years, before my experiments are finished.

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I know she's left me this house and some money and her will.

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All our problems would be solved if she'd only die.

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So that's how you repay my generosity, is it, Carl? By wishing me dead.

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Madam Elsa?

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Yes, Carl. I came in looking for Anna.

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So you've been deceiving me all these months.

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Madam Elsa, listen.

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Get out of this house at once, do you hear? Both of you. Leave this instant.

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But my animals, my experiments...

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Get out! You disobeyed me.

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Nothing here is yours. I paid for it all. So get out! Get out! Get out!

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Stop your laugh.

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My medicine...

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He's having a heart attack. Carl, get her medicine. Get her to her room.

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No, I won't do it.

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But Carl, she'll die unless you do.

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Yes, she must die.

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To solve our problems is the perfect answer.

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But let it out gently.

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All right, Carl. My medicine.

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You're trying to kill me. Your murderers. Both of you.

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Another few seconds and it'll be all over.

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Yes, yes, but you won't escape. You hear? I'll return. I'll return.

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And...

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Carl, she's dead.

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And all our problems are solved.

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What's that?

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That's Rana, her cat. She's been hiding in the cupboard there.

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She knows we killed Madam Elsa.

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Nonsense. She's nothing.

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Oh, so that's it.

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What, Carl?

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Why, the stalker just visited Rana. She's just given birth to a kitten.

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That's a peculiar coincidence, isn't it? Madam Elsa dies just as Rana's kitten is born.

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Our story will continue in a moment.

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At this part of the program, I generally have a little talk with Dr. Weird.

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But tonight, I'd like to speak with you men.

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1944 is over.

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45 is here.

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Even though the sixth war loan drive has ended, your first New Year's resolution should be to keep buying bonds.

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After that, one of the best resolutions for any man is to decide to improve his personal appearance.

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Many men are keeping that resolution by getting a new Adam hat.

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An Adam just naturally does something for a man, because its style is as up to the minute as one minute after New Year's.

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And quality. Mister, there's no beating the quality of an Adam with its genuine, all-fur-felt and careful workmanship.

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Step into one of the thousands of Adam hat stores all over the nation and ask to see the famous Adam V, handsomely styled in the smartest shades,

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expertly shaped to fit your head, and priced at only $5, the Adam V is truly a great hat value.

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Others priced from $3.45 to $10.

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But remember, no matter what the price, every Adam is right. This year for any year.

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Now, Dr. Weir.

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And now to complete my story, the Tiger Cat.

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Carl and Laura were completely exonerated of responsibility for Madam Elsa's death.

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And so he was able to continue his strange experiment, sun hampered, with Laura, his wife, assisting him.

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Oh, Carl, every serum so far has been a failure.

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The rabbits, the guinea pigs, they grow tremendously big and we think we've won.

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Then...

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Then suddenly they shrink back to their former size, as if to mock us.

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But we will succeed. We must.

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Oh, of course, Carl. I guess I'm just a little tired.

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Oh, that kitten again. Why can't we get rid of it, Carl?

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It's always behind me, always yowling like that, as if it's trying to startle me.

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And now Laura.

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Carl.

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Madam Elsa believed that when she died, her soul would go into the body of some animal just being born.

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And that kitten was born at the exact instant Madam Elsa died.

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Suppose... suppose her soul is reincarnated.

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Well, Laura, you mustn't be silly.

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Look at her eyes. They're the same peculiar green Madam Elsa's were.

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And her fur is the exact reddish-brown color of Madam Elsa's hair.

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It can't be a coincidence.

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Laura, you're being ridiculous.

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If we didn't have to take good care of Rana the second by the terms of Madam Elsa's will,

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I'd use her in one of my experiments.

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But as we can't touch her, I'm going to get hold of another kitten, the same age to experiment on.

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Then by comparing Rana's weight with the other kittens,

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I'll know how much faster than normal my serum is making the other one grow.

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No!

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We must get rid of her. I have a feeling...

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Laura, my decision is final.

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Rana the second must not be harmed.

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Laura, look.

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It's only a month since I injected my serum into this kitten, and she's already twice as big as Rana.

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I'm going to call it Tigress.

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At the rate she's growing, she'll soon be one.

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It's wonderful, Carl, but can't we get rid of Rana now? Please?

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For heaven's sake, Laura, are you still harping on Rana?

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Why, she's just a kitten, perfectly harmless.

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I tell you, she sits and watches me as if she hated me.

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As if she were just waiting for the right moment to be revenge on both of us.

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See? She knows we're talking about her.

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Laura, if your nerves don't improve soon, I'll have to send you to Bermuda for a rest.

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Oh, I'm sorry, Carl. I'll try not to be upset.

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That's better.

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I'm going to give Tigress here another injection,

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and I predict that in one more month Tigress will be bigger than any house cat ever seen before on this earth.

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Carl finally had to do as he had threatened and send Laura to Bermuda to get over her nervousness.

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Well, in her absence, he carried on his experiments alone

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and was overjoyed to see the kitten he had named Tigress

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gain in size at an astounding rate.

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In fact, when Laura returned at the end of three months,

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Carl had an astonishing sight to show off.

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Now, Laura, now be prepared for a surprise when I turn on the light.

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And you really succeeded at last, Carl.

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Succeeded? Look, look there.

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Carl, but that can't be Tigress.

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Oh, you're playing a joke on me.

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No, I'm not, Laura.

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In that special cage is the kitten we named Tigress only four months ago.

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Now she weighs 200 pounds and looks and sounds just as fierce as any wild tiger in the jungles of India.

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I can't believe it.

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Look, you see how small Rana looks standing there beside Tigress' cage?

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Oh, she's trying to get out.

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No, she's not. She's just playing with Rana.

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She and Rana have become great friends.

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Rana spends most of the time beside that cage.

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I believe that they really talk together.

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They are talking to each other.

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And Carl, look.

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Rana is pawing at the bolt that keeps the cage shut.

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So she's trying to open it.

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Oh, now Laura, Rana's just playing the way a cat will.

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Why, I've seen her pawing at that bolt dozens of times.

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But suppose she did slide it back and the cage came open.

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Tigress could kill us both.

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I tell you, Rana's just playing.

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Carl, no.

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Rana is trying to slide that bolt back.

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Laura, am I going to have to send you away?

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Carl, look. She's done it.

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Rana's pushed the bolt back. Tigress' cage is unlocked.

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Tigress is coming out.

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Quick, grab a revolver in the library. Come on.

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An instant later, Carl and Laura had slammed and locked the heavy door of the library

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and outside it Tigress roared in baffled rage.

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She's trying to get in. She's going to kill us.

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Laura deliberately opened that cage so Tigress could kill us.

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And her law.

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I'll shoot her through the door. That'll drive her away.

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Oh, you just made her more angry.

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Oh, she's getting in. She's going to kill us.

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Go.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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No.

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When Carl and Laura were found some hours later, they were quite dead.

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Ripped to pieces by the strange tiger-like animal the police found in the room

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killed by revolver bullets.

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In fact, the only living creature anywhere about was a reddish brown kitten

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with green eyes like Madam Elsa's.

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She was calmly sitting beside Carl's body and purring to herself.

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Have you been unkind to some cat lately?

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You better be careful. There's no telling.

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Oh, you're leaving?

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Drop in again soon.

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Just look for the house on the other side of the cemetery.

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The house of Dr. Weir.

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The house of Dr. Weir.