Suspense. And the producer of radio's outstanding theater of thrills, the master of mystery and adventure,
William N. Robeson. H. G. Wells was one of the most remarkable writers of this century.
A storyteller whose tales are more than mere entertainment designed for a moment of escape.
They linger on in memory, seducing one into that sometimes dangerous and risky practice of thinking.
Such a story you're about to hear. A story with a shattering moral.
A story we guarantee you will not soon forget.
Listen. Listen then as Mr. Raymond Burr stars in The Country of the Blind by H. G. Wells,
which begins in exactly one minute.
Memo on medals. Information about our military awards and decorations.
The United States does not have any orders or ranking in the decorations it awards to Americans as do other nations.
For example, the English order of the garter is divided into several classes,
depending on the rank of the recipient and the value of his services.
Only one medal was granted by Congress in commemoration of a naval victory during the Revolutionary War.
This was awarded to John Paul Jones, commander of the Bonhomme Richard,
for his victory over the British frigate Seraphis on September 23, 1779.
George Washington established the first military decoration in 1782 called the Badge for Military Merit.
From it have come the Legion of Merit, the Purple Heart, and the Medal for Merit.
Today, as in the past, medals represent a nation's effort to pay tribute to its heroes for their loyalty and unselfish devotion to duty.
And now...
The Country of the Blind, starring Mr. Raymond Burr.
A tale well calculated to keep you in... suspense.
Once I had made my way across the Cordillera, I had to find Senor Cottright if he was still alive.
For it was he who had seen me last, that terrible night more than a year ago when I slipped and fell from a ledge 18,000 feet up the face of Mount Paris Cotepetl.
It was a long and painful journey, but at last I arrived at the mine, high in the Andes above Quito, where Senor Cottright was superintendent.
I dragged my aching feet across the porch of his shack and tapped on the door.
Come in.
Senor Cottright, is it you?
Yes. What do you want?
You... do not know me, Senor?
I know. I... you look like a man I knew once, but he... he...
He is dead? Dead on the slopes of Paris Cotepetl?
Nunez the Guide, when no it couldn't be.
Nunez the Guide, si, Senor. That is what I was called.
But you fell. I saw you fall.
Yes.
Why, it's unbelievable.
Perhaps the gods of the mountain had reason to spare me.
Nunez, if we'd had any idea we would have...
I know, I... I know. I do not blame you.
You could not have reached me, and if you had, I should not have welcomed you at... not at first, but later.
What do you mean?
Senor, you have heard the legend of the country of the blind?
Yes, something about a fertile valley high in the mountains which was cut off centuries ago by a great landslide.
Yes, the people who lived there had developed a strange illness which slowly made them blind, and after that their children were born blind.
Yes.
But what has that got to do...
It is no legend, Senor. It is true.
What?
And you have heard the saying in the country of the blind, a one-eyed man is king.
Yes.
That is not true, Senor.
I am afraid I do not follow you, Nunez. Suppose you begin at the beginning.
Very well. You remember that night on the face of the mountain.
I will never forget it. Trapped on a ledge scarcely a yard wide, you, Williamson, and I.
You had unfastened your safety rope and were trying to set up a shelter when you slipped.
Yes, I slipped and fell down, down through the icy black night.
I fell perhaps, perhaps a thousand feet before I felt the heavy, stinging impact of snow.
I had fallen unto an almost perpendicular slope, and then I was sliding, tumbling over and over and under me, around me.
And immense avalanche of snow was rumbling, sliding with me.
I fell with the snow for what seemed minutes, every second expecting the terrible final impact.
But the impact never came.
Slowly the avalanche subsided, flowing out upon a gentler slope, and finally, mercifully, I lost consciousness.
When I awoke, it was morning. My clothes were torn. I was bruised and bleeding.
I ached in every muscle, but I had not one single broken bone.
I lay there and offered up a prayer of thanksgiving to the gods of the mountain.
Far below me lay a lush valley, sparkling in the morning sunlight.
I could see the stately trees and the green meadows fresh with dew.
And then I saw them, people, men and women, working in the fields.
Two of them who were quite close failed to notice me as I approached until I shouted.
Only then did they look up attentively in my direction.
I waved wildly at them, but they took no notice.
Why, the fools must be blind. Blind?
Could it be that I had fallen into the country of the blind?
The second act of suspense continues in one minute.
Another visit with Joe and Daphne Forsythe.
Joe?
Joseph?
What? What? What?
Who is she?
Who's who?
Who were you dreaming about?
Was I dreaming?
You were talking in your sleep and giggling.
How about that?
What were you giggling about?
I can't remember.
Joseph, you mentioned a girl's name.
Oh, what name?
Spas.
Spas?
Yes, spas. Candy spas.
It sounded like a dancer or a striptease or something.
Oh.
Oh, what?
Well, I must have said candy spots.
Candy spots is a horse. I bet on them once.
You bet on a horse?
Yeah, we had a pool. I could have won three dollars.
Well, you should have put the money into savings bonds.
They're a much better investment.
It was only 50 cents.
For 63 cents a day, you can buy a 25 dollar bond a month.
And one year's worth of bonds will bring 300 dollars when they mature.
What's more, they're guaranteed to be winners.
The whole United States stands behind them.
Uh-huh.
So don't waste money betting on horses.
Put it in savings bonds.
Okay. Can I still dream about horses, though?
If you do it quietly.
Say, why were you giggling about a horse?
And now...
We continue with Act Two of The Country of the Blind,
starring Mr. Raymond Burr,
a tale well calculated to keep you in...
suspense.
The Country of the Blind.
I had fallen into the Country of the Blind.
As that realization came over me, I remembered the words,
in the Country of the Blind, the one-eyed man is king.
I walked toward the men, and I spoke to them.
Hello.
Well, hello there.
Who is this man?
Or is he a spirit, come down from the rocks?
Oh, I'm a man, all right, just like you.
But I've had a miraculous escape.
And now I find myself here in your valley.
Valley? What is valley?
Come hither, let me feel of you.
Certainly. Here, here, my arm, my face.
You see, I'm indeed a man like yourself.
My lips move with speech, you feel...
Here, careful there. Careful, gently on the eyes.
Eyes? What are eyes?
This is strange.
Feel this, Korea.
Yes, he is imperfectly formed.
Some strange bulge there, unseemly.
Oh, your eyes are shrunken in, but mine are whole.
I can see.
See? See?
Pedro here's a strange wild one.
I wonder where he comes from.
Down out of the rock?
No, no, no, over the mountains,
out of the country beyond there where men can see,
from Bogota where there are a hundred thousand people,
and the city stretches out of sight.
Sight? What strange words he uses, without meaning.
We must lead him to the elders.
No need to lead me, I can see.
See? His senses are still imperfect.
Lead him by the hand.
But look, I can...
Oh, well, all right.
These people had been blind for centuries.
They'd forgotten even the words associated with seeing.
They did not know what sight was, and they thought me an idiot,
only half-formed.
Especially when they led me into the pitch blackness
of one of their windowless huts, and I stumbled over some...
Oh, my...
A thousand pardons, Madina Sarote.
He is a clumsy one.
I am sorry I fell down.
I...I could not see in the darkness.
Who is this, and what is he saying?
He is but newly formed.
He has come down from the rocks.
He stumbles as he walks, and mingles words
that mean nothing but his speech.
He is a wild man out of the rocks.
No, no, I come from Bogota, over the mountains.
You hear? Bogota.
He uses wild words.
That must be his name, Bogota.
He stumbled twice as we came hither.
He must be taught.
No, no, you don't understand.
I can see, but not in the dark.
To you, darkness or light, it's all the same.
But to me, to us who can see,
to us outside in the world beyond the mountains...
Mountains? What are mountains?
Very well, then, beyond the rocks.
There is nothing beyond the rocks.
That is the end of the world.
But surely you must realize
the sky above covers more than this valley.
Sky above?
There is nothing above but the roof of rock.
He is very raw, my children.
He shall have to be taught from the beginning.
Take him away. Feed him.
It shall be done.
But guide him.
See that he does not stumble over my daughter again.
I shall guide him myself, Father.
And feed him.
Very well.
Come, take my hand.
Yes, thank you.
It will be a pleasure to get outside again
out of this darkness.
Come this way.
What is your name?
Medina Saroti.
Mine is Juan. Juan Núñez.
And...
Sunlight.
This is better.
Now I may look at you.
Senorita.
You are beautiful.
I...
I have not the words to tell you
what a wonderful thing you are to see.
And so it began.
I, the village idiot, the slave boy,
with my eyes still whole,
I fell in love with Medina Saroti,
the daughter of the elder of the village.
Only to her could I open my heart.
Only to her could I speak of the beauty
I could see around me.
It is a beautiful valley,
green with grass and yellow with sunlight and flowers,
bright flowers dotting the hills.
I...
You said I was beautiful too?
Yes, Medina Saroti.
Yes.
You are most beautiful.
It means something nice.
Something very nice.
Medina Saroti, why is it...
Why is it you have no husband?
I have a disfigurement.
These long hairs.
Your eyelashes.
But they are beautiful.
They are considered disfigurement.
Why?
You are the most lovely girl in the valley.
But they wouldn't know here, would they?
So...
So you have no husband?
No.
What do you think of me?
Do you think of me like...
like all the rest do?
Do you think of me as an idiot?
No.
No, you have much to learn, but you will learn it, I'm sure.
And you are kind and gentle.
And your voice is soft.
You speak the words that are soft and warm.
No one has ever spoken such words to me.
I shall speak them often.
Medina Saroti,
I love you.
And I love you.
Then...
Will you...
Will you marry me?
I would be very happy to.
No, no, no, no. I will not have it.
But father...
He is an idiot. He has delusions. He cannot do anything right.
But he is getting better. He's better than he was.
And he is strong and kind, stronger and kinder than anyone in the world.
And he loves me. And I love him.
No, I will not have it.
Great sire, if you please.
Yes, what is it, good doctor?
I have examined Bolgata and the case is clear to me.
I think very probably he might be cured.
And how might that be done?
His brain is affected by something.
I believe I know what it is.
Those queer things he calls eyes.
Where we have but an agreeable depression, he has great lumps.
Consequently his brain is in a constant state of irritation.
But what can be done to cure him?
It is a very simple surgical operation.
Remove the cause of the irritation.
We will merely cut out those things he calls eyes.
Act free of. Suspense follows in one minute.
We have together ample capacity in freedom to defend freedom.
This is NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
NATO's many achievements are plates of the shield which it is forging to protect peace and freedom.
But the shield is still thin and needs constant strengthening.
True, NATO forces in Europe cause any potential aggressor to exercise caution.
But these forces are insufficient to remove all threat of attack.
As NATO forces grow, so do hopes of world peace.
The United States of America is a part of NATO.
You should be aware of and alert to the objectives and programs of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
And now we continue with Act 3 of The Country of the Blind starring Mr. Raymond Burr.
A tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
This then was the price of my happiness. To marry Medina Sirotti I must give up my eyes and never see her again.
But they say it will make you well, my beloved.
You don't understand, Medina Sirotti. There are so many beautiful things to see in the world.
The flowers, the far sky with its drifting clouds, the sunsets, the stars and...
And you... just to see you... I would never see you again.
You will never regret it, my dearest one. My dearest with a tender voice.
Medina.
Be brave. Carry my voice in your heart. And tomorrow...
Yes?
Tomorrow will be forever.
I only meant to go up on the rocks and look out over the valley.
To spend my last day of sight feasting my eyes on the wonderful, beautiful world of light and color.
I drank it in the green of the fields, the blue of the gently curving stream, the orange of the lichen and the rocky crevasses.
I climbed higher to see the great snow-capped peaks towering above and away to the distant sky.
And higher as the shadows turned the snow to purple and crimson and deep blue.
The valley was far below and as beautiful as a painting, but like a painting, unreal.
Medina Sirotti was small and far away, a distant dream.
The world of sight was here all around, overpowering, wonderful.
I turned and began to climb up that sheer rock wall.
How many months it took me to make my way out over those mountains, over glaciers and snow fields and sheer precipices, I cannot guess.
How I lived through the cold and the hunger of it, I cannot tell you.
But I'm here at last, back from the country of the blind.
Good heavens, man. What a terrible experience.
Terrible and wonderful.
But you, you aren't sorry you came back?
Sorry? I see her face clearly now. It is the only thing I do see.
Nunes, you are...
Yes, the gods of the mountain have had their revenge.
Those months of crawling over the snow and ice with the sun glaring down.
Yes, yes, I'm blind.
Suspense.
In which Mr. Raymond Burr starred in William and Robeson's production of The Country of the Blind, written by H.G. Wells and adapted for radio by John Dunkle.
Supporting Mr. Burr in The Country of the Blind were Peggy Weber, Ben Wright, Ed Jerome, Edgar Berrier, and Jane Ovello.
Listen. Listen again next week, when we return with another tale well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense.
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Suspense has been brought to you through the worldwide facilities of the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
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