Suspense.
The thrill of the night time, the hushed voice and the prowling step, the crime that is almost
committed, the finger of suspicion pointing perhaps at the wrong man, the stir of nerves
at the ticking of the clock, the rescue that might be too late or the murderer who might
get away, mystery and intrigue and dangerous adventure.
We invite you to enjoy stories that keep you in suspense.
For suspense, tonight we present The Lord of the Witch Doctors by John Dixon Carr.
The drums were beating that night.
The Lord of the Witch Doctors was on his way.
Thirty miles off the East African coast, fanned by the blistering heat of the Indian
Ocean, lies the island of Zanzibar.
Here many years ago, to be exact in the year 1889, three nations were rivals for imperial
German eagles.
At Mogadishu were the Italians, a mixed population boiled along that coast, Portuguese, Arabs,
Swahili.
On the island itself, Sayyid Khalif, Sultan of Zanzibar, ruled the remains of a once mighty
empire, Mohammedan Bantus of the tribe of Zeng.
Look over there in the moonlight, that white building patched and rotted was the palace
where Sayyid Khalif lived with his fat wives and his captive lions.
Not far away on the hill overlooking the harbor stood the British Residency.
The British Residents, or Crown official, held uneasy sway against German and Italian
influence.
And at the Residency on that hot night long.
Martha.
Yes, Father?
Come away from the windows, please.
But Father, those drums are on the mainland.
Never mind.
Twenty miles from here.
I'd rather you stood there.
It's the fires I don't like, sir.
You can see the red light all this distance.
They're having a beano of some kind.
You'd better stand back too, Mr. Harris.
What's up here, sir?
Yes, Mr. Harris?
I've been your diplomatic attache in this place for three years.
Couldn't you call me by my first name in private?
Just as you please.
Lower the sun blinds and turn down the wick of that lamp.
You don't think there's any danger?
There's no danger whatever, but...
The air out seems terribly restless tonight.
Only natural, my dear, with the drums going.
Everybody seems restless.
This has been going on for days.
You begin to get in your nerves.
So you feel it too, eh?
And I do wish, said, Collet wouldn't tease Nero.
Jab at him with the meat fork and that kind of thing.
If that lion ever got me...
Nerves, my dear, nothing but nerves.
Let's face it, sir.
There's something very queer going on over on that mainland.
Well, suppose there is.
All we know is what Nyoka knows.
This great witch doctor, whoever he is,
been making a triumphal progress to the coast.
The whole bush is afraid of him.
You alarm me.
Nyoka says he's got horns.
He can make himself seven feet tall,
like stretching an accordion.
Oh, really, Bill Harris.
Well, I don't say I believe it.
I say it might be dangerous.
Now, for instance, could this be one of Dr. Schmidt's tricks?
Dr. Schmidt is a friend of ours.
Yes, he's also head of the German East Africa Company.
Dr. Schmidt is a gentleman.
Look at that coast over there.
He's got every native chief in his pocket.
Dr. Schmidt assured me that the German emperor
has no more territorial claims in East Africa.
We get our trade concessions from Said Khalif.
Said's our only friend, but we can't even be sure of him.
The Germans give him trade gin and a grand piano.
The Italians give him three new wives for his harem.
What do we give him?
I have no instructions from London
about the situation in this island.
No.
Somebody in Whitehall probably forgot to post them.
For the last time, Mr. Harris, I will not
hear His Majesty's government criticized like that.
Sorry.
Sorry.
These things take time.
If there's any danger, we'll be notified in due course.
Yes, sir.
They're only our own natives.
They beat their own drums, you know.
Somebody went past that window.
That's probably only Nyoka, my dear.
Surely you're not afraid of our own servant.
No, but I...
Master!
Master!
Master!
Nyoka, listen to me.
Don't hang on to that big curtain.
You'll pull it down.
Now stand up straight and tell me.
What is it?
He here, Bonner.
He here, yes, please.
Who's here?
Big witch doctor here, yes, please.
He come up passing moonlight.
He walks slow boom boom.
He got big teeth.
He with me outside front door now.
What was that?
Drums are stopped.
Nyoka's right, sir.
We have got a visitor.
There's somebody coming down the hall.
Better turn down that lamp, Arthur.
I...
I can't seem to find the lamp.
My fingers are all thumbs.
There's a revolver in the table drawer behind you, sir.
I don't need it.
Stand perfectly still, all of you.
Now, please, friends all, don't be alarmed.
Are you English?
That's right, miss, born and bred in Stredden.
Which of you is the British Consul?
I am the British resident, sir.
My name is Richardson.
May I ask the meaning of this tomfoolery?
Well, that's just what I'm here to tell you.
Or maybe I'd better show you.
Now, observe me right hand.
I hold it up so and as I live, I light it cigar.
That perhaps the lady doesn't like smoking in the drawing room.
Now, lucky, there's nothing up my sleeves.
I wouldn't deceive you for the world.
I turn over me hand and would you believe it?
A glass of water.
Is this man insane?
Father, I think he's trying to tell you he's a magician.
That's right, miss, direct from the Egyptian hall, Piccadilly.
Animal taming and magic.
That's my line.
Then you're the famous witch doctor that's
got all the natives in an uproar?
Nobody else, young fellow.
Yes, well, you tell us what you mean by this nonsense,
scaring everybody when there's no danger.
No danger?
I suppose you haven't heard about Saeed Caleb
and his Gatling guns.
Gatling guns?
Kindly presented by Dr. Otto Schmidt.
And believe me, all you've got is an appointment
with a Gatling gun unless my nonsense steps in.
Here, take a look at this.
What, you can't be from the British Foreign Office?
Well, that's just what I am, Governor,
and going up in the world, don't you think?
By the way, I'd better give you your instructions.
The envelope's pretty dirty and a little bit
smelly from being under my furs and devil pink, but, uh.
Read it, sir.
Go on and read it.
Foreign Office, Whitehall, British Consul Zanzibar.
Bearer of this letter, the great Mephisto.
That's me, real name Barney Ick.
They must be out of their minds.
Are they?
Listen, old man.
I've been three weeks in that jungle
with a Swahili interpreter.
I've been bitten and stung and fried to death.
But Schmidt or no Schmidt, I've got those native chiefs
just where I want them.
You see what happens when I announce
I'm a friend of the great white queen?
Well, you'll have them eaten out of your hand.
Well, that's true.
And all we've got to do is get around St. Kelly
if he had only silence.
But do we need to get around him?
The young lady would be good enough not to speak
until you're spoken to.
Oh, I'm sorry, Father.
Say it may be lazy and as fat as a hippopotamus.
He's rather a fine old boy.
Is he?
You said something about Gatling guns.
Now listen.
Here's the game.
Father, I don't like this.
I've never heard Nero's restless as that.
Never mind, Nero.
Go on.
I came over here tonight in a steam launch.
Tomorrow I'm paying my state visit to the great sultan
Sayed Caliph.
Now you present me as your friend
and a friend of the great white queen.
And I do me best tricks at home.
Is anything wrong with your native boy?
My old girl, be still.
You're not afraid of our witch doctor friend, are you?
No.
I could Christian.
Here, what are you doing?
Come out from under that sofa.
But, Puanah, I see something.
I look out through window slats.
See Puanah bald head coming apart?
Puanah bald head?
That's Dr. Schmidt.
Dr. Schmidt?
Well, he mustn't find me here.
Yes, I quite agree.
This is most irregular.
Is there a back way out of here?
Yes, through that arch.
Stay in the back room.
Naoka will show you.
Me go with witch doctor.
Yes, hurry, please.
I don't like, I don't like.
Never mind what you like.
You go.
I don't like, master.
I don't like.
It's all right.
They've gone.
Yes, about time, too.
Good evening, Dr. Schmidt.
Pleasure to see you.
Always a pleasure to see you.
Ah, my friends, I wish I could say it was such a pleasure to see you.
Isn't it, doctor?
This at any time, but now.
Do not mistake me, I beg of you.
No, it is that confounded line, Nero.
Always I said it will happen, and now it has happened.
What about Nero?
My friends, I regret.
Their smite is killing.
Theirs tasted blood.
What's that?
You permit that I sit down and take off my sun helmet.
I am not young and I am tired.
It's not saying it, Kelly.
Yeah, yeah, it is so.
Yes, these at line once too often.
Oh, poor old boy.
He was our friend.
He's not dead.
Yeah, yeah, I regret.
Yeah, he is dead.
Certain of sense of ours dead.
Oh, God.
But how did the lion ever get at him?
He drink too much pum.
That was his trouble.
He get drunk and think he can do too much.
So he open the door and went to the lion's cage.
Into the cage?
Yeah, would you believe it?
Not easily.
But it is true.
Over the palace there is what you call gnashing of teeth.
It's unobvious in tears.
Did you see this happen, doctor?
No, no, no, I go there later and they tell me.
It's all the worse because of some foolish toy,
tomb head story.
He has been stuck over the head and thrown into the cage
by someone who did not like him.
That's more likely, if you ask me.
My friend, it is foolishness.
Everybody liked old man.
There was a father to his people and a kind friend.
Doctor, are you telling us that Said may have been put
into that cage unconscious?
It is what one African soldier says, yeah.
Well, then he may still be alive.
Life?
It is impossible.
It's more than possible.
A lion may maul an unconscious man,
but it doesn't often kill him.
This is vital.
Vital to Said himself and others as well.
You're a doctor.
Can't you go and make sure?
My friend, I regret.
I am not that kind of a doctor.
That is, you may be right.
I think I'd better go myself.
Is this a good idea, sir?
I'll stay here and entertain Dr. Schmidt,
unless of course he wants to go too.
No, no, no, I think.
I do not like sides of that sort.
I have a tender heart and I have illnesses.
Besides, you can do nothing.
I tell you, he is dead.
We'll see.
Martha, you better come with me.
Your nurse is training, maybe of some use at last.
Of course.
Haven't we better go the back way and speak to Nyoka?
Yes, Nyoka mustn't be troubled in that back room.
A very good evening to you, Dr. Schmidt.
Ah, Mr. Harris, they have good hearts,
but they're so foolish.
I would give my own right arm to aid that poor man.
But, well, we must have philosophy.
We must cheer up and be at ease.
Yes.
Now, doctor, we're all alone.
So we are, so we are.
We must sit down and have a nice, comfortable chat.
Yes?
Definitely, yes.
I wanted to have a word with you anyway.
So?
About what, Mr. Harris?
Various things.
I am happy to give you all the time in the world.
I like talking to young people.
It makes me feel young again myself.
Like Nobby?
Nobby?
Said Khalif's eldest son, the new sultan.
Ah, one fine young man, for a savage.
Yes, but weak, easy to manage, and very fond of his father, too.
It's a wonder he didn't have the lions shot
after they got the body away.
Shot with what, my friend?
I beg your pardon, I do not consider the matters funny.
No, no, no.
But, uh, shot with what?
These spruits, they have nothing but tiloting muskets.
You're near overdose?
Suppose they had gatling guns.
Pardon?
Just suppose that, of course.
Of course.
Well, ah, my friend, gatlings would be of no better use.
You're only a wound.
To kill a lion, you must reach the eye or heart
with a high-power bullet.
What is the matter with us?
Why are we talking of these things?
Talking of death, you mean?
Of Sayed Khalif, who gave all the trade concessions
on Zanzibar to the British?
My friend, I was talking about express rifles.
OK, don't you find it warm in here?
Yeah, yeah, a little.
Yes, it smells of animals' fur, doesn't it?
I'll just raise those sun lines.
No, no, no, no, you must not trouble yourself to do that.
It's no trouble.
I-I-I beg of you, not to trouble.
It is not necessary.
Doctor, you've been mopping your fart
for a long time since you've been here.
Little fresh air never hurt anybody.
Here.
Here, isn't that better?
Much, much.
Why not sit down, my boy, and we have a nice chat?
It's a fine enough night.
No smell of the animals' cage here.
My friend, you talk like a hunter.
Yes, or a victim.
Yes, it's a fine night.
At least for this part of the world.
Fire's still burning on the mainland.
I wonder if that's a good sign.
Of what?
I wish I knew.
And the sea is like skim milk under the moon.
And...
Good Lord.
What is it?
What makes you jump?
Look there, in the harbor.
My friend, I see nothing.
Perhaps if I take off my spectacles and dive...
Why, man, you must see it, in the harbor, out at the left there,
beyond the shadow of those big palm trees.
Don't you see our riding lights?
It looks like...
By George, it is.
It's a warship.
It's only a German gunboat, my friend.
Only very little German gunboat.
German gunboat?
My friend, you must not be so distrustful.
That is not kind.
Let me get a telescope.
But I tell you who she is.
It is nothing.
She is on what you call a goodwill tour.
You're not angry.
Angry?
My friend...
I did not know.
I could not guess.
That is, England is our heart and the stand.
We know that ourselves.
I tell you something in confidence.
The Germans are sensitive.
The British object it.
The natives feel too strong.
I tell the gunboat to go away.
I fire an express rifle.
It has a sound.
Boom!
You cannot mistake one another.
That is why I think of an express rifle.
But nobody will object.
Why, not the least bit.
Tell me, doctor, do you like it here on this island?
Well, just not barely.
Don't you ever want to get away from a forsaken mud heap
like this?
My friend, I am a chairman.
My duty is here, and so I stay here.
Yes, I know.
Between ourselves, that's exactly my position.
Oh, try young.
That's not the point.
It's the importance of the job.
The British don't rule Zanzibar.
We hold the trade concessions from Said Khalif,
and our residency has to protect them.
But even you, doctor, would be surprised at the amount
of trade that we have to protect.
And the revenue that comes out of this island.
Is it so now?
You don't say so.
I do say so.
You say it so much.
More than you think.
Of course, I'm not allowed to give you any figures.
No, no, no.
Of course not.
I would not deem of asking you.
How much would you say it comes to, roughly?
Oh, come now, doctor.
As one gentleman to another, you're not asking me
to give away secrets.
Oh, no, no, no.
That's only a joke, you understand?
Please do not try to uptrip me.
I would try to pull your leg, and it was only a joke, believe me.
It's all in the game, isn't it?
Yes, all in the game, as gentlemen.
Doctor, you're quite a humorist.
You're not defended?
Not at all.
No, as I was saying, I hold a rather important job.
Of course, Mr. Richardson holds an even more important one.
He's been very friendly with old Said Khalifa in this job.
Um, of course you know what that job is.
Of course.
It's the British Council.
What is the matter with you?
You're not smiling any longer.
Why are you looking at me like that?
So that's it.
That's the game.
You made exactly the same mistake that he did.
Let's shoot it.
Dr. Schmidt, have you met the great lord of the witch doctors,
the maker of spells and the tamer of lions?
I am a good Christian.
I pay no attention to what natives say.
I do not believe in witch doctors.
No, neither do I.
Not in this one at any rate.
What one?
The witch doctor who came here tonight
and said that he was on a mission for the British Foreign Office.
He's an imposter from the word go, and you're working with him.
Oh, don't upset your chair like that, Dr. Schmidt.
Because if you fall on it, you may hurt yourself.
I have not hurt myself, young man.
Oh, yes, you have.
The fellow who came here tonight addressed Mr.
Richardson as the British Consul.
That might have been a slip of the tongue.
But then you see the letter on the table there.
I have eyesight, I thank you.
That letter is supposed to come from the Foreign Office.
And it calls him the British Consul, too.
I heard it read aloud.
Foreign Office may make mistakes, but they don't make mistakes like that.
That letter, doctor, is a forgery.
It was forged by a German and probably by the German who
calls himself Barney Hicks or the great Mephisto.
He's in the back room now.
No, he's not, Governor.
He's standing in the doorway behind you now.
Yes, I thought I heard you.
Don't turn around to look at me.
I'm just warning you.
Have you got anything to enforce that?
Yes.
I've got a 500 Express rifle that could smear you all over the opposite wall.
Kyle, what's the matter with you?
No, I'm not in the mood for this.
If you fellows are going to shoot me, I wish you'd speak English about it.
Kyle, I beg of you.
No, no, no.
Don't fire that rifle.
Exactly.
You see, Kyle, I'm turning around.
This is all very...
Now, Kyle.
You see what the doctor means, Kyle?
If you fire that rifle, you'll send your gunboat out of that harbor
just when you need it.
Isn't that the signal, doctor, to send the gunboat away?
Kyle, I beg of you.
Yes, it is.
Very simple, economical German signal.
So you two kill Saeed Khalif.
But the slender, that cannot be proved.
Had to do it, I imagine.
Saeed was the one chief that you couldn't buy or frighten with your witch doctor,
so you got rid of him.
Tomorrow morning, the witch doctor would have appeared.
He'd have scared the daylights out of a weak and superstitious son, Nobby.
I told you I was fairly good at my work, Governor.
And I am.
Yes.
And then the witch doctor would have taken over everything.
The British resident had to be bamboozled for 24 hours
to keep him out of the way with a ghost story about a British agent.
And there was a gunboat in the harbor in case of trouble.
Slight mistake there, Governor.
There is a gunboat in the harbor.
Yes.
It's really worked out beautifully.
The emperor should be pleased.
I don't think your white queen will be very happy, though.
I'm the great witch doctor to that frightened mob over there.
Saeed is dead.
And there's a German gunboat in the harbor.
Listen, I think I hear something.
Whoever's out there, stay back.
Whoever's out there, stay back.
Bill, listen to me.
Saeed's alive.
He's alive.
This is impossible.
We can see him breathe.
We don't even think he's badly hurt.
But he's still in the cage, unconscious.
Still in the cage?
You mean they can't get him out of there?
If he wakes up or they attempt anything nearer,
we'll tear him to pieces.
The whole crowd over there is nearly crazy.
But they don't dare go into the cage.
Well, gentlemen, you should have been more careful.
If they do get Saeed out of there alive, you're done for.
Be quiet.
Listen.
Nobby and the rest of the natives are coming up here now.
See here, miss.
Are you talking about the old boy's son?
Nobby, yes.
He wants to see the witch doctor.
The witch doctor?
This puts you in some slight trouble, Carl.
Listen to me, miss.
I couldn't get that old buzzard from the...
out of the way from that line, even if I...
I've got to get out of here.
Too late now, my dear witch doctor.
The natives have surrounded the house.
Who's that?
It's Nobby.
He's coming down the hall.
Seva, abudu sabe.
My Nobby, speak white language.
Tarry Sultan's wand.
Witch doctor, much respect.
Fall on floor.
Go ahead.
Play your part, Carl.
Play your ruddy part.
Get up again.
Great medicine man.
Father hurt, in cage with lion.
You come.
Say something, Carl.
You can't be a dumb wizard.
You come.
My dear Nobby, my friend.
The witch doctor can't understand you.
Be witch doctor.
Not speak everything.
Part witch doctor.
No, no.
It is not that.
He does not hear you.
He's in another world.
See how his eye is closed.
See how his face is.
He's not a child.
He's close.
See how his face.
I know this.
He saved my father.
Or maybe all of you.
We will kill all white people here.
Witch doctor saved my father from lion.
You come.
Nobby, listen to me.
You needn't worry.
The great witch doctor can save your father.
Go in cage?
No, not go in cage.
Strike with fire?
Yes, that's it.
Set fire.
Open heaven.
Flash great light.
Narrow scream and die.
Father saved.
You must not save him.
He will remain alive.
He will talk.
Then the natives will know.
You don't want to save father?
The witch doctor does want to save your father, Nobby.
You see that gun under his arm?
Gun?
Gun no good.
Not used gun.
Only wound lion.
Lion in pain killed father.
No, that's not like your muskets, Nobby.
It's an express gun.
It's a magic gun.
Magic gun?
Listen, Nobby.
Magic gun save your father with one shot.
Just like that.
Lion fall over dead.
Your father well again.
And our friend.
We use gun?
Give me gun.
No.
You could not use it, Nobby.
Witch doctor can use it best.
Tell him to use it.
Tell him to be sure that he hits the lion.
Look here, Harris.
I don't know for this.
Yes, Nobby.
If he wants to hit narrow with that white fire,
he can strike the lion dead before you could wink your eyes.
Then do.
You better try it, Carl.
And you better not miss him, or you know what will happen
to every white person in this room.
My hands are shaking like...
Magician with shaky hands?
That won't do.
I take your shoulder.
You follow.
Yalla, n'gomba.
All come.
There is cage.
By Palastor.
All caught over river.
Bright as day.
Thousand torches.
All make light.
Now do.
Now do.
See how quiet they get when Nobby raises his hand.
They're praying.
So are we.
Won't do it.
You better.
I told you that.
They're out of hand now.
If you miss, you're no witch doctor.
And if you had any thought of hitting Said instead,
just imagine what they do to you.
I can't see these torches flying me.
You do.
I think the old man's moving.
If he stirs, the lion will kill him.
You know what that means.
That's right.
Up with a rifle.
My hands are shaking.
Be careful of your sights.
It's a point blank shot.
Alla, focus.
All right, Nobby.
The lion is dead.
They can go in and carry our father out now.
Lion dead?
German magic is great magic.
Yes, Nobby, it is.
But English magic is greater.
English magic better than German magic?
Yes, Nobby.
Now prove it.
Turn around.
Look out towards the harbor.
I stand here.
I wave my hand like this.
Nothing up my sleeves.
I wouldn't deceive you for the world.
I wave my hand towards the gunboat in the bay.
The gunboat sails away.
English magic, Nobby.
English magic.
And so ends the Lord of the Witch Doctors.
Tonight's story of suspense.
Next Tuesday, when CBS again brings you suspense, our story will be The Devil in the Summerhouse.
The broadcast for next week only is scheduled for 10 p.m. Eastern wartime, a half hour later
than usual.
William Spear, the producer, John Dietz, the director, Bernard Herrmann, the composer-conductor,
and John Dixon Carr, the author, are all collaborators on suspense.
This is the Columbia Broadcasting System.