And now, tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Tonight, we bring you a transcribed story of a boy who ran from a prophecy but couldn't
escape its deadly promise.
So now, starring Sam Edwards and Richard Crenna, here is tonight's Suspense play, The Prophecy
of Bertha Abbott.
The train moved on into the night.
It was dark in the boxcar and Ernie was scared.
He didn't want to think about where he was going or why he was there.
He tried to fill his mind with plans for the jazzy sports car he intended to have one day,
but somehow he didn't find the comfort in this that he usually did.
The image of the car blurred and became distorted.
So he just sat, huddled behind a crate in the corner.
He listened to the sound of the wheels on the rails and realized that he was awfully
hungry.
Whitey, you still asleep?
Nah.
You're so quiet.
I've been thinking.
About what?
About how hungry I am.
Gee, me too.
You got any dough?
A couple of bucks, maybe.
I guess I got about that much.
You have any idea where we are?
It'll be light pretty soon.
We'll check.
When we check, then what?
Well, when we're near a town or something, we get off.
One thing's sure, we gotta watch we don't ride this car into a stopping place.
You mean maybe they'll be looking for us?
You're improving, man.
Whitey, what now?
Gotta run, Ernie.
He remembered she had lived alone in a little house at the end of the block.
Her hair was gray and stringy and she had a long, thin face with a beaked nose.
Her name was Bertha Abbott and she was generally regarded as a somewhat peculiar but harmless
old woman.
However, it was whispered among the children of the neighborhood that she was a witch,
a real witch, and no child ever passed her fenced yard without a quickening step and
a strange tingle of fear.
In early summer, when the luscious golden peaches hung heavy on the tree just inside
the fence.
Then fear momentarily forgotten, the children were apt to slow down and pause and contemplate
the fruit, tempting, tantalizing, and beckoning.
Oh, Ernie, it'd be easy.
Uh-uh.
You're scared.
Oh, it wouldn't be.
Old Lady Abbott might catch us.
No, she wouldn't.
She might?
What then?
She's a witch, a real witch.
She was a witch.
Gee, we could climb that old fence easy as anything.
Oh, why didn't let's go home?
Ernie, look at them peaches.
Yeah.
Tonight, huh?
When it's dark, nobody see it.
I don't want to.
You wouldn't even have to climb the tree.
Just stay inside and watch.
Uh-uh.
Ernie, look at them peaches.
Ernie?
Yeah?
Catch.
That's enough, Whitey.
Let's go.
Put them inside your shirt.
Here.
Whitey, let's go.
Wait, will you?
I want to go.
It's so dark.
There's some neat ones up here.
We've got enough.
Here.
Whitey, come on.
Shh.
Who's that?
Who's that out there?
Run, Ernie.
Run.
Ernie ran, but he didn't run far enough.
Before he reached the fence, he stumbled and fell.
Then fear as big as the night closed in on him.
He was in the clutches of the witch.
She came by the collar and she was shaking him and screaming at him.
Come stealing, eh?
Come on my property and come stealing.
Let go of me.
Please let go.
I'll teach you, you little thief.
Let me go.
I didn't do it.
Let me go.
You're a liar and a thief.
Oh, you're a bad one.
Yes, sirree, Bob, you're a bad one.
You know what's going to happen to you, do you?
Let go of me.
You're hurting me.
Come stealing.
You're bad.
You know where the likes of you end up, do you?
You're a bad one.
You know where the likes of you end up, do you?
The gas chamber.
No.
A little room all locked up tight and there's all poison gas there.
And you die.
Like a rat, you die there.
And that's what's going to happen to you.
No.
Yes, sirree, you bad ones.
You all go to the gas chamber.
Now, you give me them peaches.
No.
Come stealing.
Yes, sirree.
You'll die like a rat.
And you just go on home and tell your mother I said so.
Ernie didn't tell his mother.
He couldn't tell, but he never forgot about it and it made his sleep restless and troubled.
The days and the years passed.
Ernie, it'll be easy.
Don't be a square all your life.
Cut it out, Whitey.
Suppose we got caught.
We won't get caught.
I got it all figured out.
The brain.
That's right.
You've reached the second plateau.
Look, Ernie, have you ever figured how much Goofy takes in on a weekend on this joint?
Maybe five, six hundred bucks.
That much?
Sure.
You know what he keeps it until he can get to the bank on Monday?
In a shoe box right there in that back room.
How do you know so much?
Never mind.
You just stick with old dad.
I also know there's a window in that room that opens to the alley.
Well, there you have it.
I don't want it.
Ernie, think of all that dough.
Yeah.
Ernie, that neat car we saw down the schweiger's line.
That one just needs a little fixing up.
Yeah.
Did you mention it to your old man?
Yeah.
What'd he say?
Nothing.
Just like he didn't hear me.
Just like always.
Like I never said anything.
Like I wasn't even there.
You should have heard my old man take off when I mentioned it.
Like how?
Same old jive.
Like I'm a no good bum and if I'm such a big shot I gotta have a car.
Why don't I pay some land?
You know.
Gee, that car.
Just a little fixing up.
Sure.
Well, tonight?
I don't want to.
You won't even have to climb inside.
Just stay outside and watch.
Ernie, think of all that dough.
Ernie.
Yeah?
Hand me that crowbar.
Why don't we forget it?
Shut up.
Hand me that crowbar.
Here.
Whitey?
What?
It's so loud.
Shut up.
When you're loud, mouth.
Whitey, let's go.
Let's forget it.
You're a cube for sure, man.
Not when I'm this close.
Okay.
Here.
The crowbar.
Catch.
No.
I'm sorry, Whitey.
Don't.
It's okay.
I'm going in.
Now, stupid, watch.
Sorry, Goof, come on, Ernie.
Stop.
Stop you.
I got a gun.
Run, Ernie, run.
They ran down the alley, through the side streets, and into the dark of the night.
Whitey led and Ernie followed.
Ernie didn't know where he was going, but he knew his legs hurt.
His throat was dry and his heart was a big, pounding, aching thing inside of him.
They climbed a rail fence and started to cross a field.
Ernie tripped and fell face down on the grass.
Ernie.
Give me a minute.
Come on.
Just give me a minute.
Whitey.
What?
Don't clover smell good?
We gotta run, man.
You shot him.
You shot old Goofy.
I had to.
No, you didn't.
I didn't mean to shoot him.
You didn't tell me he had a gun.
Where'd you get the gun?
Let's go.
Where are we going?
Just follow me.
No, really, Whitey.
Where are we going?
We'll cut across this field and swing around the back way to the freight yard.
And then what?
And we hop a freight, stupid.
We gotta get out of town.
I wish we didn't.
I wish you hadn't shot Goofy.
I wish you hadn't.
Come on, Ernie.
We gotta run.
Now we watch.
See which one looks like it's gonna be pulling out.
Remember, when I was a little kid, I'd come down here to this railroad yard.
And always I'd get kind of sad.
Why?
How should I know?
Pick that up.
What's the matter?
This place is lousy with cops.
You saw them?
In the light of that switch engine, about three.
Only a little head figures.
What figures?
They look for us down here.
What do we do?
Stay down.
Crawl along the ground to that loading platform.
We'll hide under that.
Whitey?
Shut up.
If that switch engine with the beam turns this way, lie flat, and don't move.
Whitey, do you suppose they know it's us they're looking for?
Well, maybe.
What do you mean, maybe?
I think Goofy recognized us.
Maybe he...
I maybe told him.
You mean maybe he didn't die?
Yeah.
Maybe he didn't.
Lie still.
Now when that engine turns back, move fast.
Head for that platform.
I hope he didn't die.
Now, run, Ernie.
It's dark.
How long do we have to stay under here?
We're making up a train on that second track.
We'll watch.
Just as it starts to pull out, we'll climb on.
I've never been on a train.
We'll have to let it get up some speed.
I used to think a lot about how I'd like to take a ride on a train.
Now when I tell you, you just follow me.
It's the craziest thing.
I think about going for a ride on a train.
I get a real bang out of thinking about it.
About getting a bag packed and saying goodbye to everybody.
And how I was going to send postcards.
You know, all that stuff.
Then it's so crazy.
When I think about the train pulling out, I get sick.
Really sick.
You know, Whitey?
Huh?
I get really sick when I think about the train pulling out.
Ernie, you're a real square.
I think it's about time.
I follow you, Whitey, huh?
Yeah.
Now about the fifth or sixth car there, you see?
Never mind. Just follow me.
But you've got to move fast.
Okay. Now.
Run, Ernie, run!
My mom, she's going to be worried when I don't come home.
My mom, too.
My old man.
Oh, he's really going to flip.
I hope he's satisfied.
What do you mean?
Like he's always telling me I'm no good.
Like I'm going to get in trouble.
I guess I got it made.
Yeah.
Whitey, listen.
Huh?
The wheels.
What about the wheels?
The sound they make.
Like they're talking.
Oh, come on, man.
Let's not get spooky.
Are you crying?
No.
You are, too.
Knock it off.
You are listening to the prophecy of Bertha Abbott.
Tonight's presentation on radio's outstanding
theater of thrills, Suspense.
Smoke signals were an ingenious means of communication
back in the days when America was young.
But for up to the minute word about the important developments
that occur in our complicated and fast-moving 20th century world,
you'll find CBS News a much more reliable source of information.
On the job seven days a week, 24 hours a day,
the CBS Newsroom makes every effort to keep you well informed
via our regular schedule of news broadcasts
and by means of special bulletins whenever a significant story breaks.
And now we bring back to our Hollywood soundstage
Richard Krena and Sam Edwards, starring in tonight's production,
The Prophecy of Bertha Abbott, a tale well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense.
You gotta help me slide this door.
Watch it, now the window gets you.
Hang on.
James!
Now pick a spot and jump.
Why is it going fast like this?
It slowed down some.
You've got to do it, Ernie.
You go first.
I go first, you might chicken out.
No I won't, I promise.
Okay, it's your funeral if you do.
Now pick a spot with grass like that.
Like this.
Jump.
Where are we walking, Whitey?
There's gotta be a town near here someplace.
Seems like we've been gone forever.
It'll be a town pretty soon.
We'll get something to eat.
Can't you make any better time than that?
It's my ankle.
I heard it when I jumped off of that train.
Do you suppose...
Well, figure it this way.
Maybe it won't be so bad.
Do you suppose we ought to forget it and we'll just go back?
Are you crazy, man?
No, really, Whitey.
Maybe it won't be so bad.
Ernie, I don't dare go back.
My old man.
You know how he is.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
My old man.
You know what he's probably doing?
What?
Crying.
Crying?
Yeah, he cries lots of times.
Why?
How should I know?
Well, your old man cries, you ought to know why.
He's sad, I guess.
I never did dig your old man reading all him books all the time.
Yeah, that's it.
He's sad, I guess.
Gee, it's hot.
It's hot, it's cold, all the time beefing.
Well, it is hot and I'm thirsty.
There's going to be a town pretty soon.
Seems like we've been gone forever.
You've had enough of that hamburger, Ernie.
What do you mean?
Quiet, stupid.
Keep your head down.
But look at that newspaper on the counter.
Don't grab it.
You can see it from here.
Gee.
I'm going over to the jukebox.
Leave the dope with the check on the counter and follow me.
Keep your head down.
Gee, they bite down.
You got a dime?
Here.
Gee, they got our pictures and everything.
Keep your back to your right.
You're looking for a record.
That's my picture they took for the school book.
I wonder if this joint got a back door.
Yeah, down at the end of the hall where the washroom is.
Let's go, man.
Take it easy now while we get around this corner.
Okay, now.
Let's hurry it up a little.
We'll head for that draw we passed on the way in.
Stay there till it's dark.
It's almost dark.
What now, Whitey?
You know something, Ernie?
You get out of this country, you go someplace maybe like South America.
You got a little dough, you can live like a king.
You know that, Whitey?
Oh, that's no jive, man.
You got a few bucks, that's all you need.
I've been thinking about it.
Yeah?
Yeah, I've been sitting here thinking about it, about how we go to South America.
See, and we fall into something real good, like we discover uranium or something.
We make a pile.
And we come back and I got a big car.
And I go home.
And I drive up there in front of my old man and...
...whole life, he's all the time saying how I'm no good and I'm never gonna make it.
Only now I got this big car and all this loot.
And I'm a big man, see?
Ernie, wouldn't it be the most?
Yeah.
Only, uh...
...we can't go home.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
Yeah, well...
Whitey, it's almost dark.
What now?
South America.
What?
We're going to South America.
You're talking crazy.
No, no I'm not.
Did you notice that sign on the highway back there? We're almost to San Diego.
San Diego, man, they got a harbor there and boats.
You know anything about boats, Whitey?
Well, not exactly.
See, you're talking crazy.
I tell you I'm not.
First we gotta pick up a car.
You know how to pick up a car, Whitey?
It'll be easy.
You sure you know what you're talking about?
Ernie, you just follow old dad.
Gee, this is a neat car.
We gotta dump it pretty soon. It's too conspicuous.
Oh, man, she really is a gaser.
Look at her cut out.
Wow!
You know, that neat car we saw in Schreiger's lot?
Yeah.
Well, that car...
I know just what we could have done to it to fix it up.
It wouldn't have taken a lot, just a little work.
Well, it's a nice car.
It's a nice car.
It wouldn't have taken a lot, just a little work.
That was a good car.
Man, ain't that something?
Those boats are big, aren't they?
Sure.
You see how easy it's gonna be to hide somewhere in one of those things?
Now, look here, this one over here.
See where they're loading that stuff up there in front?
Just get on when nobody's looking.
Climb down in there, you're on your way.
Suppose they'd find us.
Well, we'll have dough, see?
If we get caught, we just pay our way, and there we are.
We got it made.
Whitey, where are we gonna get this dough?
Well, I...
I still got that gun.
No, Whitey.
Ernie, will you take it easy? It'll be easy.
You're sure this is gonna work?
I never steered you wrong yet, did I?
Now, this job will be a breeze.
I got it all worked out.
You just stay here and keep the motor running.
We're ready to take off.
Now, you know the way?
Like we planned it, yeah.
Where are we gonna ditch the car?
Behind the warehouse on the dock, yeah.
And the boat?
What does Perdido mean?
How should I know?
Okay, now, wait.
And Ernie waited.
He didn't want to think about why he was there
or where he was going, so
he tried to fill his mind with other things.
Then he remembered that
Perdido meant lost.
Let's go, man.
Whitey, what happened?
Something fouled up. Come on, take out.
Like we planned?
Yeah.
Well, there they are.
After us? You know it.
Faster, Ernie.
They're almost on us.
We're near the dock. Do we ditch the car like we planned?
I don't know.
You gotta tell me, Whitey.
I guess so, Ernie.
Okay, we're on the warehouse.
Run, Ernie.
Whitey!
Run, Ernie.
Run.
So Ernie ran.
He ran across and onto the dock.
And fear as big as the night was on him.
For now, he was running alone.
My name is Joe Beshki.
I'm a seaman on the Nino Perdido.
Able-bodied, that is.
I'm standing gangway, Whitey, and I hear
they're shooting down by the warehouse.
Well, I'm like this. I always figure
that's when I'm gonna make myself scarce.
So I duck down behind this winch
and I see this kid come running down the dock.
He's running real crazy, you know, zigzagging all over
the place like he lost his rudder.
And he heads this way, and before I can stop, he meets a board.
Well,
now, like I say, I wasn't at my station,
but anybody could have seen
them signs all over the places.
Quarantine, danger, keep off.
You see, we was due to sail, but we discovered rats
and we had to fumigate. Anyway,
before I knew what he was up to,
we had to cover off that small forward hole
and he was down there.
Boy, there's enough hydrocyanic acid
down there to kill ten men.
It's awful to think about.
That kid closed up in there.
Died like a rat.
Suspense, in which Sam Edwards and Richard Krenna
starred in tonight's presentation of
The Prophecy of Bertha Abbott.
Be sure to listen again next week
when we bring you another presentation
of radio's outstanding theater of thrills,
Suspense.
Suspense is directed and transcribed in Hollywood by Anthony Ellis.
You've heard the Prophecy of Bertha Abbott, written by Ann Dodd for Suspense.
The music was composed and conducted by Jerry Goldsmith.
Featured in the cast were Stacy Harris, Paula Winslow, George Walsh, Bill James, Jack Crouchon, Richard Beals, and Peggy Webber.
If a prowler entered your home, you'd track him down, wouldn't you?
Then why not seek out and eliminate possible sources of accidents in your home?
Make frequent checks to see that stairways are uncluttered.
Make sure that throw rugs are securely anchored to the floor.
Keep matches, medicines, and any poisonous household materials well out of the reach of children.
See that lamp cords and switches are kept in good repair.
Make everyone in your family a private eye for home safety.
The Prophecy of Bertha Abbott