Billy Lee Baxter

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EG Marshall

radio Mystery Theater presents.

Professor Micah

Men.

EG Marshall

Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. Do you believe in monsters? They exist, you know. The Irish giant in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin. Dwarfs which are stronger and live longer and usually have strong passions and acute intellect. The fabulous monsters again are near Lake pariba, sketched in 1663 by Jost segment in his collection of voyages. Those are just a few examples which will lend credence to the story we're about to hear.

Johnny Reed

I saw it, Billy Lee. I saw it. I saw the thing.

Professor Micah

Take it easy. You're shaking like an aspen leaf. How come you even went near Dead Lake? You know better.

Billy Lee Baxter

Things disappear there.

Professor Micah

Cut into you.

Johnny Reed

One of my heifers wandered away. I saw him grazing down toward the lake. I just plumb forgot about the stories and went after him. When I got within 100 yards of him, the heifer was on the shore drinking. And that's when came out of the water and grabbed him.

Billy Lee Baxter

The heifer disappeared.

Johnny Reed

He bellowed, billy Lee.

Billy Lee Baxter

It was horrib.

EG Marshall

Our mystery drama, the Horror of Dead Lake was written especially for the Mystery Theater by Roy Windsor and stars William Prince and Gordon Gould. It is sponsored in part by Buick Motor Division and Pineheuser Busch Incorporated, brewers of Budweiser.

Billy Lee Baxter

I'll be back shortly with Act One.

EG Marshall

Since the earliest times, monstrosities have attracted attention and have engendered the cloying fear we experience in the presence of the unnatural. The Loch Ness Monster, for example. Is it fact or fiction? The search for it still goes on. Cyclops, the monster with one eye. Oh, there undoubtedly was such a creature, because there still are. Really? At a point where the nose sticks out from the forehead, there's a single orbital cavity with an eye in it. Well, in this tale, we encounter another deviant from nature when we discover the hideous thing that inhabits the Dead Lake.

Polly Baxter

Claude?

Billy Lee Baxter

Yes?

Polly Baxter

Was it all right? Not too grim?

Billy Lee Baxter

No, it was all right.

Polly Baxter

I know how much you loved your father.

Billy Lee Baxter

He lived a long life and he didn't suffer. The lawyer went over things and assigned them to me. The savings, the old house, that kind of thing. It was sad, come to think of it. But it's over now. You know, Polly, there's something I never told you because I'd forgotten about it. So had my dad, for that matter.

Polly Baxter

Oh? A castle in Spain. A map where the treasure is buried.

Billy Lee Baxter

You know, you're not so far off at that. My dad left me 50 acres of land near a small town In Florida, Horaceville.

Polly Baxter

50 acres? And with land down there selling for a fortune.

Billy Lee Baxter

Not this land. There's something funny about it. A long time ago, back in the early part of the 18th century, a certain Silas Baxter, an ancestor of mine, was, I kid you not, a pirate, Claude. He must have run a pretty good ship, because when he left the sea, he bought those 50 acres and built himself a castle. He called it the Captain's Doubloon.

Polly Baxter

A captain?

Billy Lee Baxter

No, not a great big one, but big enough. The history of the Captain's Doubloon has been handed down from one Baxter to another. It was among my father's papers.

Polly Baxter

I see.

Billy Lee Baxter

What I've been left is the Captain's Doubloon in a state of ruin. The acreage and something named Dead Lake.

Polly Baxter

Why?

Billy Lee Baxter

Because nothing lives in it.

Polly Baxter

That's creepy.

Billy Lee Baxter

My father never had any interest in the property. I don't know if he ever saw it. But we do own a ruined castle and 50 acres of land.

Polly Baxter

With a dead lake where nothing lives.

Billy Lee Baxter

That's right, Claude.

Polly Baxter

We ought to sell it.

Billy Lee Baxter

I think so, too.

Polly Baxter

You know, it's funny. Nobody has ever wanted to buy it.

Billy Lee Baxter

Maybe they did, but my father never said anything about it to me.

Polly Baxter

Lane. Claude.

Professor Micah

Yeah?

Polly Baxter

Let's go see it.

Billy Lee Baxter

You mean it?

Polly Baxter

Sure. Florida is no big trip from Philadelphia. Can you get time off from your job?

Professor Micah

I think so.

Billy Lee Baxter

I could take off Friday and we could have most of Friday and the weekend. I can't promise anything, Polly. The Captain's Doubloon is a ruin. Maybe the acreage is worthless, but what about Dead Link?

Polly Baxter

I'd like to know why it's dead, wouldn't you? Yes.

Billy Lee Baxter

Tell you what I'll do. I'll telephone the lawyer who settled my file. Maybe he can give me the name of someone to see when we reach Orrisville. I don't think Orrisville is much more than a widening in the road.

Polly Baxter

I'm so excited. A deserted old castle, a dead lake. Makes chills run up and down my back.

Dr. Joe Petty

Well, that's a Micah.

Johnny Reed

And the.

EG Marshall

How are you, sir?

Professor Micah

Quite well, I thank you.

Billy Lee Baxter

Here is my food list.

Professor Micah

Can you also obtain the chemicals I've written down here?

Dr. Joe Petty

Oh, yes or no? No problem. Have one of the boys drive over to Black. Kind of pay him. Of course.

Professor Micah

I understand.

Billy Lee Baxter

I will give you these I have before.

Dr. Joe Petty

Yes, sir.

Billy Lee Baxter

You sure have the bones. My goodness, what pretty coins.

Professor Micah

Solid gold.

Billy Lee Baxter

Mind if I ask you something, Professor? Johnny Reed was in here yesterday and he's scared, wife. A heifer of his wandered down to the shore of Dead Lake. And Johnny said some kind of thing grabbed it, dragged it under the water. Johnny said it. Bell.

Professor Micah

That's up.

Billy Lee Baxter

Terrible. Did you hear it?

Dr. Joe Petty

You know anything about it?

Professor Micah

It is wise to stay away from the lake. I do not go near it. I remain in the castle and do my work.

Billy Lee Baxter

Well, maybe not for long, Professor. You've been squatting there so long, I guess you feel you own the place. But the real owners of Doorsville Friday afternoon tomorrow fell behind backstage. Same as Captain Silas Baxter. Stole all them doubloons from the Spanish. Like these you just gave me.

Professor Micah

I have found a few.

Dr. Joe Petty

Where'd you go? Baxter tells you to get out?

Professor Micah

I would have no choice. I would leave. He will discover that the property is worthless. When he goes home, I will return.

Billy Lee Baxter

Maybe he got this idea of developing the land and selling it for home sites.

Professor Micah

You have tried to do that before, Mr. Billy Lee?

Billy Lee Baxter

I sure did. Those persons I drove over to look at the land never did find their child.

Professor Micah

Quicksand?

Billy Lee Baxter

Not according to the sheriff and his men. They scoured and dredged the lake. All they found is some of the child's cross.

Professor Micah

Yes.

Billy Lee Baxter

Regrettable.

Professor Micah

The lake is dangerous.

Billy Lee Baxter

Why?

Professor Micah

There are unknown things in nature. It is better to let them remain unknown. I will return tonight for my supplies.

Johnny Reed

Oh, hello there, Professor.

Professor Micah

Good morning.

Johnny Reed

I tell you, Billy, he gives me the creeps.

Dr. Joe Petty

He may be gone soon, Johnny.

Johnny Reed

Yeah? How come?

Billy Lee Baxter

New owners arriving tomorrow, named Baxter.

Johnny Reed

I can't say I'll be sorry to see Professor Micah go. He's in league with the devil. You remember that parrot?

Billy Lee Baxter

Oh, I sure do. To have a wingspan of 10ft. Vicious thing. I remember we all went out and gunned it down.

Professor Micah

A horrible thing.

Johnny Reed

Where did it come from? His experiments. That was just an ordinary little old parrot, no bigger than a crow. You saw what it became. Micah did that. He's always experimenting with something.

Billy Lee Baxter

Look here.

Johnny Reed

More doubloons. Wonder how many he's got.

Billy Lee Baxter

Just a few, he says.

Johnny Reed

Old Silas Back is supposed to have had thousands of them. But even if that old room's full of them, I wouldn't go near it with an army.

Billy Lee Baxter

You got over.

Dr. Joe Petty

You scared?

Johnny Reed

No, and I never will. That was the awfulest thing I ever saw. That poor hemp pulled under the water by some thing.

Professor Micah

Now, what does it look like?

Johnny Reed

What I saw, it was a kind of red color, round and fat. And it had horns kind of sticking out front like feelers.

Billy Lee Baxter

There ain't no Such thing.

Johnny Reed

Johnny, back up on that dillylee. I saw the thing. Oh, you say the new owner's showing up tomorrow?

Billy Lee Baxter

That's right. His wife staying home on. My room's upstairs.

Johnny Reed

You taking them over to their property?

Dr. Joe Petty

Well, expect so.

Johnny Reed

Let me tell you, stay away from the lake and keep them away from it too.

Polly Baxter

Good room.

Professor Micah

Lovely.

Polly Baxter

Mr. Harrison.

Billy Lee Baxter

Billy Lee.

Dr. Joe Petty

I'm pleased you like it, Mr. Baxter.

Billy Lee Baxter

It's fine. I like your store too.

Dr. Joe Petty

Oh, really much.

Billy Lee Baxter

Just a general store. Got just about everything in it that poked around your teeth. Well, it's very nice.

Dr. Joe Petty

Not bad for a one horse town.

Billy Lee Baxter

Horseville isn't much, but those of us who've been here all our lives, we like it. You want excitement last you close by. St. Augustine's only 40 miles away. Nice country. We landed at St. Augustine and drove down. I enjoyed it.

Polly Baxter

There's lots of pine, isn't there?

Billy Lee Baxter

Oh, sure is. Paper pub, big business and cattle.

Dr. Joe Petty

He's a rancher now. Hi, Johnny. Meet Mr. Mrs. Baxter.

Johnny Reed

Hello.

Billy Lee Baxter

Johnny Reed.

Polly Baxter

Howdy.

Johnny Reed

You are really interested in the captain's doubloon, Mr. Fax Do?

Billy Lee Baxter

Well, I don't know. It's my property. I might want to sell it off or interest some developer. I should think it'd be worth quite a fair amount of money.

Polly Baxter

You look skeptical, Mr. Harrison. Why are you shaking your head?

Billy Lee Baxter

Now don't go scaring him, Johnny.

Johnny Reed

That's just what I'm going to do. It's not fair to keep him ignorant.

Polly Baxter

Is it? Is it Dead Lake?

Johnny Reed

Now how did you guess that, ma'?

Billy Lee Baxter

Am?

Polly Baxter

Well, the name. There's nothing spooky about a lake that's dead.

Johnny Reed

It's dead all right, except for one thing. There's something in it. Something I saw with my own eyes. And it's really something terrible.

Billy Lee Baxter

Oh, come on, Mr. Reed.

Johnny Reed

I don't blame you, Mr. Baxter, for looking at me as if I'm escaped from the mental home. But a few evenings ago, one of our herd, a nice little heifer, went to the edge of the Water of Deadly, had some awful thing, grabbed it and dragged it under.

Billy Lee Baxter

A thing. What's a thing?

Dr. Joe Petty

Nobody knows, Mr. Baxter. But Johnny saw something. And strange things have happened down there before. Oh, and another thing, Mr. Baxter.

Billy Lee Baxter

For over 30 years a squatter has

EG Marshall

been living in the ruins of the castle.

Billy Lee Baxter

Man named Micah. He was a professor. I'll tell you about him when we drive out. Spoke to him yesterday morning and said he'd probably have to clear out. He agreed, but new meeting a professor

Polly Baxter

and he's a squatter. What does he do?

Johnny Reed

You'll excuse me for saying it, Ms. Baxter, but I think he consorts with the devil.

Billy Lee Baxter

Oh, that's a little hard to believe in this day, Mr. Harrison.

Dr. Joe Petty

He's some kind of scientist. Always sending for chemicals to play latke to St. Augustine, he said.

Billy Lee Baxter

Now, what did he call himself? An embry. Embry something or other. Embryologist.

Polly Baxter

What's that called?

Billy Lee Baxter

It's a branch of science concerned with the formation and development of the embryo. Teratology is the study of deviations from the normal.

Johnny Reed

By golly, that explains the parrot with the ten foot wingspread.

Professor Micah

What?

EG Marshall

It's the truth.

Billy Lee Baxter

I can swear to that, Mr. Baxter. Half the village went gunning for it. We shot it down.

Professor Micah

It's not possible.

Johnny Reed

Neither is that thing that lives in Dead Lake.

EG Marshall

What do we know about what exists at the bottom of the oceans? What prehistoric creatures live there, concealed from our sight and knowledge? Monsters, probably. There still are phenomena which we have not fathomed. What is that thing at the bottom of Dead Lake? We will encounter it when I return with act. The subject is monsters. We seldom think about them, if we ever do. But there are monsters all the same. They are in fact studied in zoology under a special branch named tetrology, concerned with deviations from the normal in the embryo. When deviations occur, the result can be a monster. Primitive man believed that a monster was the result of a woman's act with Satan. Nonsense, of course. But the fact of the monster remains.

Professor Micah

What beautiful little bird you are. Which one of you will it be today? I have grown attached to all of you. But it must be an immutable law of nature. One feeds upon another. And that is how I learn. And that is what I live for. To learn, the great plant must live. And it is a carnivore.

Billy Lee Baxter

Clock ruin is right. The Captain's doubloon isn't a castle. It's a heap of rubble. One turret sort of standing. The rest caved in, professor said.

Professor Micah

Oh.

Billy Lee Baxter

Smoke rising from the chimney.

Polly Baxter

Strange smell.

Professor Micah

Acridness and chemicals. He's always experimenting with something.

Billy Lee Baxter

You've been here before, Billy Lee. Oh, not to go inside.

Dr. Joe Petty

I've been around the ground like the

Billy Lee Baxter

rest of us in Orisville. I don't feel comfortable here. Well, we've seen it, Polly. You should forget it and go home. That's what the dog thinks. Don't you Bink.

Polly Baxter

But we've come all the way from Philadelphia, Claude. We ought to meet this professor and see what it's like. Inside and ask him about those doubloons he brings to Billy Lee for food.

Billy Lee Baxter

What do you say, Billy Lee?

Dr. Joe Petty

Well, I guess I don't have say anything.

Billy Lee Baxter

There.

Dr. Joe Petty

There's the professor now. Afternoon, Professor. Good afternoon.

Professor Micah

Is this is Mr. Baxter?

Dr. Joe Petty

That's right. This is Baxter. Her dog, Binks.

Polly Baxter

How do you do?

Professor Micah

Yes, the dog.

Billy Lee Baxter

I'm the legal owner of all this property, Professor Micah.

Professor Micah

I do not question it, Mr. Baxter. And I am an interloper.

Billy Lee Baxter

If you want to put it that way, yes. So when it's convenient to you, of

Professor Micah

course, I will gather my few positions and leave.

Polly Baxter

You've been here 30 years?

Professor Micah

Or longer than that. It is an isolated place. I do my work here by experiments.

Billy Lee Baxter

Like that that monster parrot.

Dr. Joe Petty

I told him about that.

Billy Lee Baxter

Professor, you remember how some of us in the village had to gun it down?

Professor Micah

Yes, I have not forgotten.

Billy Lee Baxter

A pity. Well, I don't know about that. Killing sheep and almost dragging off a child.

Professor Micah

The destruction of master's scientific achievement is a phenomenon. Proof that experiments in tetralogy can produce new breeds of animals that could change the face of the earth.

Billy Lee Baxter

I wonder if we might see the inside of the castle.

Professor Micah

You are the owner.

Billy Lee Baxter

I don't want to hint him.

Professor Micah

It is no inconvenience. But I caution you, do not wander away alone. I have experiments in many stages of development. Some of them are dangerous. At Venus fly trap is one of them.

Polly Baxter

Do I know about them? They flies. Interesting little plants. Carnivorous.

Professor Micah

Follow me. It would be wise not to green the dog.

Billy Lee Baxter

I'll take him back to the car.

Dr. Joe Petty

No, no, let me come up.

Professor Micah

B.

Billy Lee Baxter

You both get your pillow.

Professor Micah

I'll be outside. Come on. Come on.

Dr. Joe Petty

B.

Polly Baxter

Oh, my goodness.

Professor Micah

What's that thing?

Polly Baxter

Close.

Professor Micah

It looks like a huge sunflower plant.

Billy Lee Baxter

And look at those pouches at the end of its leaves. They're bigger than a pelican's bird pouch.

Professor Micah

Much bigger and much more dangerous. It is a Venus fly trap.

Polly Baxter

It can't be there more.

Professor Micah

But by controlling its growth from a seedling, I have created a new species. It is very powerful.

Billy Lee Baxter

Look, Molly, it's leaning towards me.

Polly Baxter

And it's opening up.

Professor Micah

Do not approach it, Mr. Baxter. If it should seize your arm.

Polly Baxter

Oh, that's horrible. Claude, stay back.

Billy Lee Baxter

Well, that's the first thing that will go. I'll take an axe to it.

Polly Baxter

Let's get out of here. Cloth.

Billy Lee Baxter

You. You live here, Professor?

Professor Micah

Yes, in the ruined tower. This is my plant room.

Billy Lee Baxter

Is there a basement?

Professor Micah

Yes, but except for me, the dungeon is unsafe.

Billy Lee Baxter

You've got more Things like this down there.

Professor Micah

My experiments are varied.

Billy Lee Baxter

Professor, please clear out a super as you can and destroy these experiments of yours.

Polly Baxter

That's B. That's B. He sounds like he's being killed,

Dr. Joe Petty

Misses Baxter. All right.

Billy Lee Baxter

Yes, yes, Billy Lee. Thank you.

Johnny Reed

Glad you're still open.

Professor Micah

What happened?

Johnny Reed

I can see by your face, their dog. What?

Billy Lee Baxter

It wasn't anyone's fault. Billy Lee Binks slipped his collar.

Dr. Joe Petty

Oh, and Ryan Loose got him to Dead Lake. I ran after him, but not in time. I saw it myself this time, Johnny. It rose up out of the water,

Billy Lee Baxter

a round, huge, slimy thing, and it dragged the dog into the lake.

Johnny Reed

What is it? What is the thing?

Dr. Joe Petty

I never saw anything like it in my life. I don't know what it is, but it's probably one of Micah's experiments.

Billy Lee Baxter

We went there this afternoon. My wife and I went into Micah's room in the castle and Johnny, it made my hair stand on end. Bink said the dog whined and wouldn't go with us. The release said he'd wait outside for the.

Dr. Joe Petty

I was taking him back to the car. He fought the leash so hard he slipped his collar and he flew toward Dead Lake. Ran after him. But by the time I got within 50 yards of the shore, something caught

Billy Lee Baxter

the dog and was dragging him under.

Johnny Reed

If I was you, Claude, I'd cut my losses. I'd forget my place.

Billy Lee Baxter

No, sir. I'm going to get rid of Micah. I know out just what makes Dead Lake dead. There's something in it. You caught a glimpse of it. So did Billy Lee. A big, fat, slimy thing with horns. What is it? I know a man who might know a friend who's a zoologist at the University of Pennsylvania. I've telephoned him for help. He'll be here late tomorrow. Then we're going out and solve this Milk beef hideous mystery. Now that you've met Dr. Petty, let's hear what he had to say. You're on, Joe.

Dr. Joe Petty

I see everyone's well armed. Well, there's something in Dead Lake, Dr.

Johnny Reed

Petty, and if we catch sight of it, we're going to blow it to bits.

Polly Baxter

Bin was my dog. I'm going along. I'm not afraid and I can handle a gun.

Dr. Joe Petty

Well, all right.

Billy Lee Baxter

My plan, for what it's worth, Joe, is for all of us to go out there now. It's five o'.

Professor Micah

Clock.

Billy Lee Baxter

You ought to get there in half an hour. Then you and I will go inside and find out if Professor Micah has cleared out. If he has, I'll throw him out. Then we'll destroy that awful plant. Once Micah's gone, all of us will explore that dungeon. Maybe that's where he's got the thing you got him. Any idea of what it might be?

Dr. Joe Petty

You described it as about 6ft long, fat and slimy, with horns colored a

Billy Lee Baxter

reddish kind of color.

Johnny Reed

Know what it makes me think of? Giant snail.

Dr. Joe Petty

But they don't eat flesh, Johnny.

Billy Lee Baxter

Could it be a giant slug?

Dr. Joe Petty

I don't think so. I don't like to speculate, Claude, but since you telephoned me yesterday, I've been doing some research. Although I don't believe it's true. Dr. Betty, as a scientist, it's hard for me to believe, but I accept what you've told me.

Polly Baxter

Why, Joe, what do you think?

Professor Micah

It could be a member of the

Dr. Joe Petty

Hirudenai, which is a branch of the Kaitobod.

Johnny Reed

Worms One. It's a worm.

Dr. Joe Petty

Oh, Johnny. But it could be a monster leech.

Billy Lee Baxter

One of those things that attaches itself to the skin.

Johnny Reed

Yes.

Dr. Joe Petty

In Egypt and in the near east, there's an aquatic leech that lives in streams and ponds and does extensive damage to horses and other baggage animals.

Polly Baxter

Leech make my skin crawl, Joe.

Dr. Joe Petty

They've been used extensively in medicine. In 1832, France alone imported over 50 million of them for bloodletting.

EG Marshall

And you think that's what the thing

Billy Lee Baxter

is that's in Dead Leak?

Dr. Joe Petty

It's hard to say, Billy Lee, but you've described a leech. Red colored body, bloated appearance, slimy.

Professor Micah

Look.

Dr. Joe Petty

Of course, all of a leech five or six feet long. Boggles my mind. I simply can't imagine it. But if that's what the thing is, it could kill anything. Unless those enormous suckers have attached themselves to any blood animal, the animal would be dead in minutes.

Billy Lee Baxter

Now let's get started.

Dr. Joe Petty

We'll take my pickup, Chuck. We've got an arsenal.

Johnny Reed

Hey, dynamite.

Dr. Joe Petty

Dynamite?

Johnny Reed

Sure. If we don't see the leech, maybe we can find where it lives. And that's I blow off this ca. People around here have a score to settle with that monster.

Billy Lee Baxter

I told you to get out, Professor Micah.

Professor Micah

So you did. And I will leave now. I have not had time.

Dr. Joe Petty

Out.

Professor Micah

You have a rifle and a shotgun. Why?

Billy Lee Baxter

We think there's a monster leech in Dead Lake and we intend to destroy it.

Professor Micah

Fantastic.

Billy Lee Baxter

I want you out of here.

Professor Micah

I can carry the rest. I leave to you in the name of science.

Billy Lee Baxter

Get out, Professor.

Dr. Joe Petty

I never saw anything like it. Claude.

Billy Lee Baxter

Look at those traps, undulating and stretching toward us. He Said it's powerful. That's the first thing we take care of. You have the shotgun. Joe.

Professor Micah

Look at us, inching toward us.

Billy Lee Baxter

I'll release the birds. They're what he fed to the plant.

Professor Micah

Look at them go.

Billy Lee Baxter

Joe, call the others and you'll try the.

Professor Micah

Done.

Dr. Joe Petty

Come with me. We don't want to be separated.

Billy Lee Baxter

You've got a point. What a devil's hole this is. Joe, let's get the others.

Johnny Reed

Glad I brought the axe. You see that thing? Try to wind itself around me. Some kind of vine, strongest wire.

Polly Baxter

It's awful down here.

Professor Micah

What's that over there? Claude, shine your light.

Billy Lee Baxter

A huge door, hinged with a drop lock.

EG Marshall

Do you think?

Polly Baxter

Don't open it, Claude.

Billy Lee Baxter

Mister, what's that? Sounds like something breathing underwater.

Professor Micah

Wet, bubbly kind of breathing.

Billy Lee Baxter

There's one way to stop that.

Dr. Joe Petty

Oh, Claude, don't shoot. I've got a better idea. There is something behind that door.

Professor Micah

It.

Dr. Joe Petty

It's the thing, the giant leech. You won't kill it with one shot.

Billy Lee Baxter

What's your idea, Dutchman?

Dr. Joe Petty

That door must open into a tunnel. And the tunnel probably leads to the lake.

Billy Lee Baxter

Now, if we can trace the tunnel

Dr. Joe Petty

from above on the ground and see where it leads to, Johnny here can

Billy Lee Baxter

dynamite the entrance and block the thing in. That's when we'll have it trapped.

Professor Micah

And that's when we'll kill it.

Johnny Reed

Good idea.

Billy Lee Baxter

Everyone stick together. We'll go back upstairs and out.

Polly Baxter

I never want to see this place again.

Billy Lee Baxter

You'll be all right, Molly, when we get out into the air. Come on. Walk between Joe and me.

EG Marshall

Is it possible? In nature, most things are. And nature, with a prod from an experimental scientist, has created a monster. A giant, predatory, hideous monster leech. I'll be back shortly with Act 3. Have you ever had a leech attach itself to your skin? It happens, not infrequently, in many freshwater lakes. They are small and they can be flipped off with a finger. But the experience makes one shudder. Imagine the horror then of speculating that what Professor Micah has written the. The thing that has made the dead lake dead is a gargantuan leech.

Johnny Reed

I'll get the dynamite.

Billy Lee Baxter

Hand me the rifle, Billy Lee.

Dr. Joe Petty

Sure. I'll grab the shotgun.

Professor Micah

Morton, here's the other one for you, Dr.

Dr. Joe Petty

Petty. Right, Joe.

Billy Lee Baxter

Let me carry it for John. I'd appreciate it if you'd stay with Polly.

Polly Baxter

I'm all right, Claude, just being in that filthy basement.

Billy Lee Baxter

No way. Polly, you're going to stay by the truck and Joe come.

Professor Micah

No, Absolutely not. I mean, if all. They think.

Billy Lee Baxter

He's right, Miss Baxter.

Professor Micah

I tell you what. Why don't you swing the truck around and turn on the lights and shine them on the north side of the castle.

Billy Lee Baxter

The lock facement doors on that side.

Johnny Reed

Give us some light down to the shore, too. All right, Polly.

Dr. Joe Petty

Come on, hop in.

Billy Lee Baxter

No, please. Don't argue. You stay with Joe. Ready, Johnny?

Johnny Reed

I'll lead the way. Keep your guns up. I'll be ready for anything.

Polly Baxter

Terry, I feel sick. If the thing is what you think it is.

Dr. Joe Petty

Yeah, me too. Let me get the truck turned around.

Polly Baxter

Black as a tunnel.

Dr. Joe Petty

I'll switch on the lights.

Polly Baxter

I see them. Claude and the others. The car lights do run down to Dead Lake. It's got an awful name for it.

Dr. Joe Petty

It's dead, all right. If there's a giant leech in it.

Polly Baxter

Yo. Look,

Professor Micah

Mr. Professor.

Johnny Reed

Now.

Professor Micah

What the.

Polly Baxter

He's returning to the castle. Not through the front, but through the north side of it.

Professor Micah

I wonder what he's up to.

Polly Baxter

He disappeared now. Must be another entrance to the place.

Dr. Joe Petty

If Johnny does blow up the tunnel and the professors in that basement.

Polly Baxter

Claude ordered him out.

Billy Lee Baxter

I know that.

Professor Micah

All the same, he is a human being.

Polly Baxter

I don't think he's a human being at all.

Billy Lee Baxter

Shine your big torch over the lake, Johnny.

Johnny Reed

Shore cuts through the blackness all the way to the other side.

Professor Micah

Johnny, look. Something's moving just under the surface of the water. It's moving to the other side. Follow it. The torch.

Johnny Reed

Look at it. Just a little of its back is out of the water. Like a whale.

Billy Lee Baxter

Keep following it. I can hit it from here.

Johnny Reed

No, Claude, no.

Billy Lee Baxter

Let it go.

Johnny Reed

When it returns from the other side of the lake.

Professor Micah

Oh, no. That's a small deer over there. See? Thing is coming out of the water. We'll fire a shot. Claude, it scared the deer. Look at that thing. It's half out of the water.

Billy Lee Baxter

The deer got away.

Professor Micah

Johnny, follow where the thing swims.

Billy Lee Baxter

It's coming toward this side of the lake. A few hundred feet north of us.

Professor Micah

Come on.

Johnny Reed

No, no, no.

Dr. Joe Petty

The whole.

Johnny Reed

Hold it. If it does have a cave or a tunnel to a cave, we don't want to scare it off.

Billy Lee Baxter

Just watch it hit the surface and it's disappeared.

Professor Micah

Now let's move.

Billy Lee Baxter

All set, Johnny?

Johnny Reed

Yeah. Here.

Professor Micah

Back towards the castle. That's it, Rock. Yeah.

Billy Lee Baxter

The force of the explosion in the tunnel lifted the ground above the tunnel.

Professor Micah

And now we can see its path.

Billy Lee Baxter

It does go to the castle.

Johnny Reed

It goes to that barred door in the basement. We've got the Thing trapped.

Professor Micah

Maybe it did.

Billy Lee Baxter

That was a terrific blast. We gotta make sure, Claude.

Johnny Reed

There's only one way to do that. We have to open that big bar door.

Polly Baxter

Now what, Joe?

Dr. Joe Petty

I don't know. There was a big charge of dynamite. They must have found the tunnel.

Polly Baxter

What about the thing?

Dr. Joe Petty

Yeah, probably just the force of the detonation could kill it. But I don't know.

Billy Lee Baxter

Look, they're coming back.

Polly Baxter

Maybe they'll tell us.

Dr. Joe Petty

I got their attention.

Polly Baxter

Is it dead? Claude, is it dead?

Billy Lee Baxter

I don't know. We hope the explosion caved in on the thing and killed it, but we don't know.

Dr. Joe Petty

There's only one way to find out. We have to go back into the castle.

Polly Baxter

Oh, no.

Billy Lee Baxter

We have to.

Professor Micah

Polly.

Dr. Joe Petty

You. You saw it.

Billy Lee Baxter

Enough of it, Joe. It's a leech, all right. A monster leech.

Professor Micah

How? They come at least six feet long,

Billy Lee Baxter

round as a hippo and reddish in color. When it came out of the water, it rised like a snake and it. Blood sucking cups or whatever you want to call them, were bigger than half dollars. It's the most revolting creature I've ever seen. How in heaven's name did it ever come about?

Dr. Joe Petty

Experimental breeding and cross breeding, Professor. Micah developed gigantism in some strain of leech until he achieved one with monster size.

Professor Micah

Why would he want to do something like that?

Dr. Joe Petty

All scientists, Billy Lee, are found fascinated by the subject of life, how it can be controlled and developed.

Polly Baxter

He's in there, Claude. In the castle.

Professor Micah

Micah?

Dr. Joe Petty

That's right. The headlights from the truck picked him out just as he disappeared through some of those big stones on the north side.

Billy Lee Baxter

Well, then we may have killed him.

Professor Micah

The glass.

Johnny Reed

If that blast blew open that hinge door.

Billy Lee Baxter

Come on, let's see where he went in. We'll follow him.

Dr. Joe Petty

Leave the dynamite detonate box here.

Professor Micah

Tommy, grab the shotgun.

Johnny Reed

You told him to get out, Claude. Why would he want to come back?

Polly Baxter

Joe, I'm afraid.

Billy Lee Baxter

You stay here with me.

EG Marshall

There's nothing we can do to help.

Polly Baxter

But if something. If something should happen to Claude, then it was my idea to come down here. He didn't want to. And now if something should happen,

Johnny Reed

That could be it. See where I'm shining the torch?

Billy Lee Baxter

It could be just about wide enough for a man to squeeze through. All right, follow me.

Johnny Reed

Hold it. Claude, you bring out the rear.

Billy Lee Baxter

Now wait a minute. I'm not going to have you risk your lives any more than you already have.

Johnny Reed

Billy and me have the shotguns. Much more effective close range. You bring up the rear with your rifle. Right, Billy Lee?

Dr. Joe Petty

Right. I don't know what to expect, but whatever we find, it's bound to be close range.

Billy Lee Baxter

And let's go, Johnny.

Johnny Reed

This place is a house of horrors. Ought to be burned to the ground.

Billy Lee Baxter

Will be once we know that the monster leech is dead.

Professor Micah

It's Micah from that big room in the dungeon. Have your gun cut Johnny, and go close. Look. Oh, good Lord. It's all over him. Pull back, Johnny. Mike is dead. The leech is all over him. True, Johnny. All over dead. Don't go near it, Claude.

Johnny Reed

Some of the suckers are still working away.

Professor Micah

We have to get Mike out from under dead rod. Let's get out of here. You can come back when it's daylight. Get Micah. Hack that thing to pieces,

Polly Baxter

Joe. I can't stand it.

Dr. Joe Petty

You just have to, Polly. We're not leaving this truck.

Polly Baxter

But those gunshots. What if they run into.

Dr. Joe Petty

I can't guess.

Polly Baxter

You can, but you won't. What if that blast of dynamite blew out that hinge door? If the thing wasn't killed in the country.

Dr. Joe Petty

Hold it. They're coming out of the front of the castle. See the flashlights?

Polly Baxter

They're safe. Oh, Joe, they're safe.

Billy Lee Baxter

Are you all right, Polly?

Polly Baxter

Still feel a little faint?

Dr. Joe Petty

When you saw Claude safe returning to

Billy Lee Baxter

the truck, you passed out.

Polly Baxter

I remember.

Billy Lee Baxter

Joe was right, Professor. Micah had developed a giant leech. It lived in a tunnel which ran from the shore of Dead Lake up to a cave near the castle. When Johnny set off that blast of dynamite, the tremendous repercussion broke the hinges of the door into the cave and

Professor Micah

the leech got out.

Billy Lee Baxter

Micah was there in the room. He was probably stunned by the blast. That's when the leech grabbed him. There was nothing we could do to save him.

Polly Baxter

It must have been awful.

Billy Lee Baxter

It was a nightmare, Polly. We're returning there in the morning. So am I, Holly.

Polly Baxter

No, Claude. I got a sense of this, and I'm going to see what's in that room.

Billy Lee Baxter

Listen to the bird. Life is kind of return. The captain's doubloon.

Johnny Reed

I don't feel much like going down into that basement again. And I'm not sure it's safe for Ms. Baxter.

Polly Baxter

Don't you worry about me, Johnny. Now that I know the monster le is dead, I'm not afraid.

Billy Lee Baxter

All right, but let's go into the front. Have we got everything? Lights, ropes, and my shotgun just in case.

Dr. Joe Petty

And camera.

Billy Lee Baxter

Watch your footing, Polly. And when we go down into the dungeon, stay between us.

Dr. Joe Petty

Let me leave, bud.

Billy Lee Baxter

I've Got guns.

Johnny Reed

There it is.

Billy Lee Baxter

Poor old Micah's under that thing.

Professor Micah

Aim that big light right. Right at it, Johnny. It's incredible. It's six feet long and four feet thick.

Johnny Reed

Micah let out one scream and then he was dead. Partly frightened, maybe.

Professor Micah

Keep the light trained on him, Donnie. We'll try to pull him free.

Dr. Joe Petty

Let me take a few pictures first. No one's gonna believe this horror, Claude.

Polly Baxter

What about Professor Michael? What happens to him now?

Billy Lee Baxter

We give him a decent burial. And Joe wants to find out, if he can, why Micah did all this.

Dr. Joe Petty

Billy and I searched the castle. The one tower is still partly standing. Micah had a room and his books and a small laboratory.

Billy Lee Baxter

There were a lot of papers and

Dr. Joe Petty

chemicals, but the real discovery was this diary. It goes back 40 years, back to 1931, in fact, under an October date.

Billy Lee Baxter

Listen to what Micah wrote today.

Professor Micah

I was discharged as an assistant professor of zoology because I was consulted by a friend whose son was certain to die from acute. I urged the man's doctor to attempt a transplant. The doctor was repelled by my suggestion. I explained that in zoology I had conducted many experiments in which I have saved small animals with various organ defects. My suggestion was with check. And so was I. I have left. I intend to continue my experiments somehow, somewhere else out, probably. But at least I will have the climate in my favor. And one day I am convinced the name of Micah will be honored for his proof that life can be prolonged and improved.

Dr. Joe Petty

There it is. And a lot more. Poor man. He wasn't really mad. He. He just felt rejected. And because of his bitterness, his experiments became grotesque. Through that huge parrot, for example, he intended to. To prove to skeptics that man's magic science could reshape mankind and his environment. He was an intellect, and far ahead of the time in which he lived.

Billy Lee Baxter

And the giant leech, like the parrot,

Dr. Joe Petty

another proof of what Micah maintained control of life, and both got out of hand. I'm going to publish Micah's papers.

Johnny Reed

Claws.

Billy Lee Baxter

And I'm going to burn the captain subloom to the ground. Make that land habitable again and stop dead lake with fish. That horror is gone. Nature, with a little help from me, will restore it.

EG Marshall

Nightmares are made of such stuff as a dream about a monster leech, because the word makes the skin crawl. And when in sleep a fiend or incubus oppresses you.

Professor Micah

Wake up. It will go away.

EG Marshall

But was it real or just a nightmare? I'll be back in a moment. It is foolish, I think, to dismiss anything. Was it conceivable years back to imagine men walking on the moon. Is the notion of a huge killer shark unimaginable? We know a great deal about Earth, something about the universe. But isn't anything, or almost anything conceivable? Monsters are, and our story's giant leech was one of them. Our guest included William Prince, Gordon Gould, Ann Shepherd, George Petrie and Gil Mack. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown. And now, a preview of our next tale.

Polly Baxter

Who is it?

EG Marshall

Till next time. Pleasant dreams.