ANNOUNCER: The American Broadcasting Company presents "Quiet, Please!" which is written and directed by Wyllis Cooper and which features Ernest Chappell. "Quiet, Please!" for today is called "Calling All Souls."
MUSIC: THEME ... END
LOUIS: (NARRATES) I tell you what happened last Halloween -- or All Souls, or All Hallows, or whatever you call it in your part of the country.
I bet you can't guess where I was.
Well, I was a couple of places. But where I started--
I was sitting in a tight little room in a great big house.
You ever been West?
Well, you know when you cross the Mississippi River on the Santa Fe from Illinois to Iowa? 'Bout four or five hours out of Chicago? Fort Madison, Iowa?
Ever notice that great big place right alongside the riverbank to your right -- the big high walls and the towers and the big gates?
That's right. The Iowa State Prison.
That's where I was last Halloween. In a little cell.
Oh, very comfortable.
All by myself.
Waiting.
And not much more time to wait.
Sure.
The death cell.
MUSIC ... AN ACCENT, THEN IN BG
LOUIS: (NARRATES) I was just sitting there playing solitaire on the edge of my bed trying not to think of what was coming up and thinking of nothing else but that. I was pretending I'd paid the house fifty-two dollars for the deck and the house would pay off five dollars for every card I got in the top row. I was thirty-two dollars to the good this particular hand. I didn't hear anybody come up. I didn't hear anybody except the guard walkin' around -- till this voice spoke to me.
MUSIC: OUT WITH--
DELBERT: (OFF) Red nine on the ten of clubs, Louis.
SOUND: SQUEAKY METAL CELL DOOR UNLOCKS, OPENS, SHUTS AND LOCKS
DELBERT: How are ya?
LOUIS: I'm all right. So far. How are you?
DELBERT: All right.
LOUIS: Sit down.
DELBERT: Yeah. (EXHALES SADLY)
LOUIS: No soap, huh?
DELBERT: (EXHALES SADLY)
LOUIS: Turned us down.
DELBERT: That's right.
LOUIS: Well, what'd he say?
DELBERT: Oh, a lot o' things.
LOUIS: What?
DELBERT: What's the difference? He said no.
LOUIS: It's tough, Delbert, when I didn't do it.
DELBERT: It's tough on me, too, Louis.
LOUIS: Yes, but they're not gonna hang you.
DELBERT: I begged him to give you a two-weeks' stay at least, but he said his conscience wouldn't let him.
LOUIS: (CHUCKLES) Conscience, huh?
DELBERT: He said if he felt I could turn up anything at all in two weeks, he'd be tempted to give you the benefit of the doubt. You've had three stays now.
LOUIS: Could you turn up anything?
DELBERT: (UNCOMFORTABLE) Louis!
LOUIS: (EXHALES) Yeah, I know.
DELBERT: I've done everything I could.
LOUIS: I know. But I didn't do it, Delbert!
DELBERT: I know you didn't. But proving it--
LOUIS: (BEAT) Wanna - play cards? (NO ANSWER, EXHALES) Nah, I guess I don't wanna play either.
SOUND: SLAPS DOWN DECK OF CARDS
LOUIS: Well--
DELBERT: I've done my very best Louis. My very, level best!
LOUIS: I know, I know. It's pretty tough on me though, ain't it?
DELBERT: Certainly is.
LOUIS: No - hope at all?
DELBERT: No hope at all. No witnesses; plenty of motive; your fingerprints all over everything.
LOUIS: I remember. Only, I didn't do it!
DELBERT: Who did? You got any idea, Louis?
LOUIS: No idea at all.
DELBERT: I thought maybe--
LOUIS: I just opened the door after I'd knocked a dozen times-- I just opened the door and they were on the floor, I told you.
DELBERT: I know, I know.
LOUIS: I was so shocked-- You know. I couldn't help it! I tried to-- That's how I got the fingerprints all over.
DELBERT: You told me.
LOUIS: I - I admit I didn't like Harris. I didn't go for Etta very much either. But I didn't kill 'em, Delbert!
DELBERT: You told me.
LOUIS: I just went out there to ask him to let me have however much he could of that two thousand dollars he owed me for the pigs.
DELBERT: You shouldn't have made all those statements about how you were gonna get the money or else, Louis.
LOUIS: I know it. I shouldn't have gone through his desk lookin' for the money either.
DELBERT: I don't know why the dickens you did that.
LOUIS: Well-- Well, I don't know either but I was-- I said I was shocked. I just thought this was a good way to get the money if I could find it. Nobody 'ud know, I figured. I knew if I didn't get it then, I'd never get it. (HELPLESSLY) They were - lyin' there on the floor--
DELBERT: Louis, listen. It was pretty hard to convince the jury you didn't do it with them lying on the floor and you goin' through the desk and blood spots on your suit and everything.
LOUIS: I know it, Delbert. I was crazy to do it. But I didn't murder 'em!
DELBERT: I know that, I told ya.
LOUIS: Delbert? (EXHALES) Are they - sure enough gonna hang me?
DELBERT: Unless--
LOUIS: (BEAT) Unless what?
DELBERT: They discover new evidence.
LOUIS: Where are they gonna discover that?
DELBERT: They'll hafta do it awful fast.
LOUIS: Where are they gonna discover it?
DELBERT: You tell me.
LOUIS: There isn't any more evidence. Whoever really did it covered his tracks too good.
DELBERT: I'll say he did. Well, you smooched it up foolin' around.
LOUIS: Well, by gosh, Delbert, I was just trying to see if I could help!
DELBERT: And seeing if you could find the money Harris owed ya.
LOUIS: Well, I know it was foolish, but--
DELBERT: Honestly, Louis. Now, you wouldn't expect anybody in his right mind to believe your story, would you?
LOUIS: But it's true, I tell ya!
DELBERT: I know it's true but I couldn't make the jury believe it, or the governor.
LOUIS: (BEAT) How do you know it's true?
DELBERT: What?
LOUIS: How do you know it's true?
DELBERT: Why, I - just know it, Louis. I've seen murderers before, you know.
LOUIS: You - don't think I'm a murderer?
DELBERT: Of course not.
LOUIS: Delbert -- don't you really think there's a chance of uncovering some new evidence? Really?
DELBERT: I think the only people who saw the murder -- the only people who know who did it -- are Harris and Etta themselves.
LOUIS: But -- they're dead!
DELBERT: That's right, they're dead, Louis. Look, uh, what I stopped in for; I, uh-- You want me to ask Father McIntyre to come 'round and see ya now?
MUSIC: SOMBER ORGAN ACCENT ... THEN IN BG, EERILY BUILDS TO A CLIMAX DURING FOLLOWING
LOUIS: (NARRATES) Thirteen steps up, with your hands fastened behind you.
Thirteen steps -- stop and turn around -- the man says, "Stand here."
Look down the thirteen steps at the reporters, the doctor with the stethoscope hangin' around his neck.
Feel a man tying your feet together.
Feel the floor give a little underfoot.
You see how the man stays away from the little trap door, reaching out to make the rope tight around your ankles.
Listen.
Father McIntyre's voice in your ear.
A little rustling behind you and the black hood over your head and you can't see any more.
But you can feel -- feel the rope as it brushes against your neck a little -- hairy and creepy-crawly on your skin.
And the weight of the knot -- nine turns on your shoulder.
Floor gives a little underfoot!
MUSIC: HAS REACHED ITS CLIMAX ... HUGE ACCENT ... FOR A BODY DESCENDING THROUGH TRAP DOOR ... THEN ABRUPTLY OUT
LOUIS: (AS IF WAKING FROM A NIGHTMARE, HOLLERS) No! I can't--! I can't--! I didn't do it, I tell ya, I didn't do it! (BEAT, NARRATES) All I could think of was what my lawyer said -- what Delbert said -- before he got up and opened the door and went away.
DELBERT: The only people who saw the murder -- the only people who know who did it -- are Harris and Etta themselves.
MUSIC: MOURNFUL ... THEN IN BG
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And Harris and Etta knew I didn't do it. Maybe they didn't know who it was that did it, but they did know that I didn't do it. Maybe they didn't--
MUSIC: STING ... THEN IN BG, BUILDS TO A SMALL CLIMAX DURING FOLLOWING
LOUIS: (NARRATES, BRISK) --and, maybe they did. Maybe they did know! Maybe they could tell me-- Maybe they could "discover some new evidence," the way Delbert put it. Maybe they could tell me where to go, who to look for, or what I'd find! I could tell it all to Delbert; he could go tell the governor; I'd get a stay! Maybe the evidence'll be good enough so I-- So they'd let me go! Maybe they wouldn't hang--!
MUSIC: CLIMAX ... THEN ABRUPTLY OUT
LOUIS: (NARRATES, HOPELESS) But - Harris is dead.
And Etta's dead.
(INCREASINGLY TERRIFIED) I - saw them dead on the floor of their house when I went-- And they accuse me of murdering them.
They found me guilty.
I'm in the death cell -- waiting.
(A QUIET, TEARFUL, PLEADING PRAYER) Harris! Etta! Don't let me die! Don't let them--! Etta! Harris! Have mercy on my soul!
SOUND: BELL TOLLS REPEATEDLY ... THEN IN BG
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And when I heard the bell tolling somewhere in the distance, I remembered. I remembered what night this was. This was All Souls' Night. This was the night when the souls of the weary dead walk the earth again. Why, I remember. When graveyards yawn and tombs give up their dead. And the sound of the bell tolling away in the darkness of early evening. (BEAT, HESITANT) Calling all souls. (STRONGER) Calling all souls.
MUSIC: SOMBER ORGAN BLENDS WITH TOLLING BELL ... THEN IN BG
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And I wondered. If my soul had to leave my body when I walk up the thirteen steps and -- after -- if my soul had to leave my body then, why could it not leave my living body for a while and go seeking after the others that step from the tomb this night -- the souls of the weary dead, the souls of the unhappy dead -- the murdered -- the kindly souls that knew?
MUSIC: HOPEFUL ... FILLS A PAUSE ... THEN IN BG
SOUND: TOLLING BELL FADES OUT DURING FOLLOWING
LOUIS: (NARRATES) Then, I sat down again, quietly. The fit of deadly terror was gone for a moment. I was exhausted and weak.
I closed my eyes and the sound of the distant bell faded out as I thought--
"Why can't it be possible?" I thought. All these things are not mere superstition. There's some foundation in every belief, I thought.
"I - I can't die; I'm innocent," I thought.
And only those two know the truth.
"Calling all souls" -- I repeated again to myself.
Calling all souls.
And I stood up.
MUSIC: FOR AN SACRED, OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE ... THEN IN BG
LOUIS: (NARRATES) I stood up in that brightly lighted, sorrowful place. And as I rose I turned to look behind me.
And there -- on the bed, still in an attitude of despair -- sat my body.
And in a flash of darkness the place faded away -- the stone walls and the iron bars and the bare, narrow bed, the man in prison uniform seated motionless on its edge.
And I stood alone -- in the darkness of a place I knew.
Tall marble shafts gleaming faintly in the starlight.
Curving, gravel roadways -- hedge-bordered.
And the scent of moldering flowers in the darkness.
The dry rustle of the weather-beaten flag at the head of a low mound beside me.
And loneliness. All-aloneness, pressing inward upon me like a living thing.
The eve of All Souls'.
MUSIC: FOR THE VOICES OF THE DEAD, BEHIND--
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And suddenly, quietly, in the cold shadows, the little, little whispers of innumerable voices -- the voices of the wandering souls that hastened past me, seeking their dusty desires across the face of the world they once all knew.
MUSIC: CONTINUES IN BG, IN AGREEMENT WITH FOLLOWING--
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And then a voice -- speaking to me in the dark. Speaking my name in the darkness. Calling me.
ETTA: Louis?
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And another voice.
HARRIS: Louis?
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And I knew I had won for these were the voices of the two they said I murdered.
ETTA: Why, of course you didn't, Louis.
HARRIS: Of course you didn't.
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And a little child -- a little boy -- ran up in the darkness and took my hand and laughed to hear my name.
ETTA: You remember little Tommy -- our little boy that died when he was sick?
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And I remembered.
And in the darkness I saw many another I'd all but forgotten. Charlie Cullen that was killed at Romain in the Argonne thirty years ago!
Albert Newhouse, my Boy Scout comrade that drowned so many years ago.
Grace Williams who died at her husband's hand.
Crowds and crowds of the ones who had gone before spending this, their brief holiday, on their well-loved earth.
And I, the only living soul among them -- spending my brief moment with them to seek my life from them -- on All Souls' Eve a year ago.
And I said, "Help me."
And Etta answered me.
ETTA: What is there we can do now, Louis?
LOUIS: You know I didn't kill you, Etta!
ETTA: Of course.
HARRIS: Of course.
LOUIS: They're going to hang me for it!
HARRIS: You didn't do it.
LOUIS: But -- how can I prove it?! Delbert said if we could find new evidence--!
HARRIS: There's plenty of evidence, Louis, to be found.
LOUIS: Where? How?
ETTA: Why, let me see. He found the money.
HARRIS: That's why you couldn't find it, Louis.
LOUIS: Ah--! (REALIZES, UNHAPPILY) But if he found the money, it must be gone by now.
HARRIS: No. He has some of it left.
LOUIS: But -- what good does that do?
HARRIS: Why, there's a list of the numbers of the bills somewhere.
LOUIS: (IN DESPAIR) They looked for it. They - they couldn't find it.
ETTA: Have them look in the bedroom, Louis -- behind the third drawer in my chest of drawers. I know where it is. It fell down there.
LOUIS: (BRIGHTLY) Oh, that - that's wonderful! That-- (DARKLY) But what good will it do now, unless we know-- (HOPEFUL) Unless you tell me--
HARRIS: There's plenty of evidence, Louis, if you'll just look for it. He ripped his coat on the catch of the living room door. There's threads there that could be identified.
LOUIS: You know who did it? (NO ANSWER) You know who did it?!
HARRIS: Yes. We know.
ETTA: Yes. We know.
LOUIS: Then tell me. Tell me and I'll see-- Delbert'll see that he confesses. (NO RESPONSE) Look, I - I tell you they're going to hang me for it! (DESPERATE) Do you hear?! Tell me! (BEAT, REALIZES) Oh. And you still hate me. And you haven't learned mercy since - since you-- (UPSET) You're going to let me die because you hated me while you were alive!
ETTA: (GENTLY) Louis--
LOUIS: You're going to carry it beyond the grave! You're going to keep it to yourself and let me hang!
HARRIS: (GENTLY) You hated us, Louis.
LOUIS: (BITTER) Yes, I hated you and I hate you now! Ghost or no ghost, soul or no soul, I--! (DESPERATE AGAIN, TEARFUL) No! No, Harris! Have pity on me! It's all over now! There's no use hating me! Don't you hate the man that killed you? Don't you?
HARRIS: No, Louis, no.
ETTA: We don't hate him.
LOUIS: But you hate me! You're going to let me die! You know I'm innocent! You're going to let me die just because we didn't like each other on earth.
HARRIS: Louis, listen to us. There's no such thing as hate any more with us.
LOUIS: Then why don't you give me a chance to live?!
HARRIS: Go back, Louis. Go back to your body.
ETTA: Go back.
LOUIS: (SCORNFUL) Go back! To die!
ETTA: Dying isn't so bad, Louis. You don't see any unhappiness among all these souls, do you?
LOUIS: I don't want to die!
HARRIS: You'd rather save your life for a while at the expense of somebody else's life?
LOUIS: (SCREAMS) But I'm not guilty! And he is!
HARRIS: Go back, Louis.
ETTA: Go back.
LOUIS: I won't go back till you've told me who killed you!
HARRIS: Listen to me, Louis. You're tampering with things that-- Things that you have no right to know. Your soul has left your body before its time. You have come upon secrets that no living man should know. Your body is waiting for you. Go back to it while there's time.
LOUIS: (SCORNFUL) While there's time!
ETTA: It is only this one night that souls may walk the earth.
HARRIS: And, when morning comes--
LOUIS: (BEAT) Well--?
HARRIS: When morning comes, if you are still here-- Louis, I can make you no promises.
ETTA: Go back, Louis.
LOUIS: Tell me the man's name!
HARRIS: No, Louis. No, it's none of your affair.
LOUIS: (DISBELIEF, UPSET) None of my affair?! Don't you understand what I said to you?! They're going to hang me! None of my affair! Listen--!
HARRIS: There was no need for you to send your soul out seeking us, Louis.
LOUIS: (CONFUSED) I don't get that.
ETTA: We have been waiting for this night, Louis.
LOUIS: (PUZZLED) Well--?
ETTA: Tell him, Harris.
HARRIS: He - he will have to come with us now.
ETTA: Yes, that is the law.
HARRIS: You should not have come here. Louis, there is still time, but only a little time. If you go back now--
LOUIS: I won't go back! I won't go back until you tell me!
ETTA: You have no right here, you know, Louis.
LOUIS: But I'm here!
HARRIS: And now it is too late.
ETTA: Yes.
HARRIS: You will have to come with us.
LOUIS: Where are you going?
ETTA: Tell him, Harris.
HARRIS: We are going to visit the man who murdered us.
LOUIS: You what?!
HARRIS: I told you there was no need for you to come here, Louis. We have a way of taking care of this man.
LOUIS: I - don't know what you mean.
ETTA: Haven't you ever heard of ... haunting, Louis?
MUSIC: A BIG ACCENT ... THEN OUT BEHIND--
HARRIS: Come with us now, Louis.
LOUIS: No.
ETTA: You must come.
LOUIS: You're - really going to haunt him? And make him confess?
HARRIS: We are going to appear to him, Louis.
ETTA: What he will do we cannot say.
HARRIS: But when he sees us--
LOUIS: Well then, I'm going back to the prison.
HARRIS: No.
ETTA: No.
LOUIS: (EXCITED) I'll go back and I'll call the warden; I'll get Delbert; tell him that there'll be a confession; Delbert'll get me a stay of execution; then when he confesses I'll be-- Who is it, Harris?
HARRIS: Come with us and you will see.
LOUIS: No, I'm - I'm going back to the prison, I told you -- get things all set up.
HARRIS: No, you changed your mind too late, Louis.
LOUIS: Too late? Why? I--
HARRIS: No, Louis. You have meddled too much. You have gone too far. The souls of the living have no place here, but you have come.
ETTA: We told you to go back while there was time, Louis.
LOUIS: Yes, but--!
HARRIS: Now you must come with us.
LOUIS: No! No! I want to go back!
HARRIS AND ETTA: (TOGETHER) Come, Louis!
MUSIC: FOR A WISTFUL, ETHEREAL TRANSITION ... THEN IN BG
LOUIS: (NARRATES, AWED) High. High up over the face of the sleeping, starlit world with the tiny lights of the living far below us -- the broad peaceful farmlands; the sleeping cities; the broad breast of the great river far below us -- the universe throbbing with strange, compelling song.
And above us, around us, the sense of a million souls -- a million, a myriad, a countless multitude, returning joyously to their single night upon the earth they loved.
And I looked up in the clearness of the haunted night. And above me, the endless pathway of the Milky Way glowed with a strange splendor. And Etta plucked my sleeve.
ETTA: The pathway of the souls, Louis. The way we all return.
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And I saw the features of the ones I had loved; of strangers; of men, women and little children; of boys in ragged uniforms, of bearded ancients, and smiling babes in their mothers' arms.
And on their faces in the sparkling night, an expression of awful eagerness, of long-awaited realization that this night they would once again rest upon the mortal Earth.
And I -- even I, the only living soul amongst all the multitude of the dead -- even I felt an overpowering desire to set my feet again, this moment, upon the reality of Earth.
And I closed my eyes for a moment. And when I opened them, we three were in a room.
And on a bed there was a sleeping man.
MUSIC: UP AND OUT
LOUIS: (LOW) Where are we? (WHISPERS) Is this the man?
HARRIS: This is the man.
ETTA: This is the man.
LOUIS: Who is he?
HARRIS: Go and look.
LOUIS: I-- (BEAT) No.
ETTA: Go and look.
LOUIS: I don't want to--
HARRIS: Go and look, Louis.
ETTA: You must go and look, Louis.
LOUIS: (NARRATES) He lay there, sleeping as innocently as any child. The covers were drawn up about his face as if he were shutting out some childish fancy of bogey men in the dark. But I knew him for a wicked, guilty man -- the man who held my own life in jeopardy.
HARRIS: Look at him, Louis.
ETTA: Look at him, Louis.
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And I lifted up the comforter that hid his face and bent down to look at him.
MUSIC: A HIGH, KEENING ACCENT TO CONVEY LOUIS' REALIZATION ... OUT BEHIND--
LOUIS: (REALIZES) Delbert. (NARRATES) Delbert. My friend. The man who defended me in the courtroom and lost. The man who had gone to the governor -- or had he gone? -- to plead for my life.
Delbert! The man who told me, "Of course I know you didn't do it."
Of course he knew. He alone of mortal men knew the murderer. For the defender of the accused man -- was the murderer himself.
HARRIS: Wake him, Louis.
LOUIS: No.
ETTA: Wake him.
LOUIS: (BEAT, CALLS) Delbert? (NO ANSWER) Delbert? (NO ANSWER) Delbert, wake up.
MUSIC: A BRIEF ACCENT TO CONVEY DELBERT'S TERROR
DELBERT: (SHOCKED, TERRIFIED) Louis! Louis, what are you doing here?!
HARRIS: He came with us, Delbert.
DELBERT: (UTTER DISBELIEF) Harris?!
ETTA: Harris and Etta, Delbert.
DELBERT: No! No, go away! You're ghosts!
HARRIS: We are human souls, Delbert, come to hear your testimony.
DELBERT: Noooo! No, I won't tell you anything!
LOUIS: You murdered them, didn't you, Delbert?
DELBERT: No!
HARRIS: You murdered us, Delbert.
DELBERT: No! No, I--!
ETTA: Confess, Delbert.
DELBERT: I didn't do it!
LOUIS: You did do it.
DELBERT: You, Louis! You can't be here!
LOUIS: Confess.
DELBERT: Well, I--
ETTA: Confess.
HARRIS: Louis must hear you, Delbert.
DELBERT: Louis! (BEAT, QUICKLY, HYSTERICAL) Louis, I did do it! I killed them, Louis! I murdered them! I knew I could throw the blame on you! I knew I could get you convicted and I could save myself! I hated them, too, Louis! (BREAKS DOWN AND CRIES, TEARFUL) Oh, Louis! Louis, forgive me! Louis, forgive me!
LOUIS: (CONTEMPTUOUS) Me, forgive you, Delbert? Ask Harris and Etta to forgive you.
DELBERT: (TEARFUL, PLEADING) Harris? Etta?
HARRIS: We have already forgiven you, Delbert. But you have done a great wrong to Louis.
ETTA: You will be punished, Delbert.
DELBERT: (DESPERATE) I'll confess! I'll call the prison!
LOUIS: (RELIEVED, TO HARRIS AND ETTA) I'm going back to my body now in the prison.
DELBERT: (OFF) Louis!
LOUIS: (TO HARRIS AND ETTA) Thank you.
DELBERT: (OFF) Forgive me!
LOUIS: (DEEPLY) Thank you, Harris, Etta.
DELBERT: (OFF) Louis!
LOUIS: I'm going back. (OVERCOME WITH JOY) Oh, Harris--
HARRIS: Wait, Louis.
LOUIS: (PUZZLED) What?
DELBERT: (OFF) Louis!
LOUIS: (HARSH, TO DELBERT) Be quiet, murderer! (BEAT, GENTLER) What, Harris?
HARRIS: You can't go back, Louis.
LOUIS: I can't go back? Why, what have I--? What--?
ETTA: You must stay.
LOUIS: Stay? Stay? Why must I stay? My body's back there in the prison waiting for me. I've got to go back and live.
HARRIS: No, Louis.
LOUIS: Why?! Tell me why?! Everything's all--! (BEAT) What's the matter?
ETTA: (SLOWLY) You tell him, Delbert.
DELBERT: (BEAT, RELUCTANT) Louis--
LOUIS: (BEAT) Well?
DELBERT: Louis. They hanged you half an hour ago.
MUSIC: THEME ... FADE FOR ...
ANNOUNCER: The title of today's "Quiet, Please!" story is "Calling All Souls." It was written and directed by Wyllis Cooper, and the man who spoke to you was Ernest Chappell.
CHAPPELL: And Kermit Murdock played Delbert. Harris and Etta were, respectively, Ralph Schulman and Mary Patton. Mr. Cooper and I are very grateful for the superb efforts of Albert Buhrman who is always responsible for our "Quiet, Please!" music. Now, for a word about next week, here is our writer-director Wyllis Cooper.
COOPER: Thank you for listening to "Quiet, Please!" again. Next week, I have a story for you called "Adam and the Darkest Day."
CHAPPELL: And so, until next week at this same time, I am quietly yours, Ernest Chappell.
MUSIC: THEME ... END
ANNOUNCER: And now, a listening reminder. "David Harding, Counterspy" is a name that means "action, excitement, drama" each time his efficient law enforcement organization exposes another racket. Hear "Counterspy" this afternoon over these ABC stations.
This is ABC, the American Broadcasting Company.
WJZ ANNCR: WJZ, New York's First Station. WJZ, AM and FM.
0/5
1
2
3
4
5
Sorry, you don't have permission to post posts. Log in, or register if you haven't yet.
Comments on Calling All Souls
Senior Member
Usergroup: Member
Joined: Mar 14, 2003
Total Topics: 74
Total Comments: 265
CHAPPELL: Quiet, please. (PAUSE) Quiet, please.
MUSIC: THEME ... UNDER ...
ANNOUNCER: The American Broadcasting Company presents "Quiet, Please!" which is written and directed by Wyllis Cooper and which features Ernest Chappell. "Quiet, Please!" for today is called "Calling All Souls."
MUSIC: THEME ... END
LOUIS: (NARRATES) I tell you what happened last Halloween -- or All Souls, or All Hallows, or whatever you call it in your part of the country.
I bet you can't guess where I was.
Well, I was a couple of places. But where I started--
I was sitting in a tight little room in a great big house.
You ever been West?
Well, you know when you cross the Mississippi River on the Santa Fe from Illinois to Iowa? 'Bout four or five hours out of Chicago? Fort Madison, Iowa?
Ever notice that great big place right alongside the riverbank to your right -- the big high walls and the towers and the big gates?
That's right. The Iowa State Prison.
That's where I was last Halloween. In a little cell.
Oh, very comfortable.
All by myself.
Waiting.
And not much more time to wait.
Sure.
The death cell.
MUSIC ... AN ACCENT, THEN IN BG
LOUIS: (NARRATES) I was just sitting there playing solitaire on the edge of my bed trying not to think of what was coming up and thinking of nothing else but that. I was pretending I'd paid the house fifty-two dollars for the deck and the house would pay off five dollars for every card I got in the top row. I was thirty-two dollars to the good this particular hand. I didn't hear anybody come up. I didn't hear anybody except the guard walkin' around -- till this voice spoke to me.
MUSIC: OUT WITH--
DELBERT: (OFF) Red nine on the ten of clubs, Louis.
LOUIS: (MILD SURPRISE) Oh. Hello, Delbert. (LOOKS AT CARDS) Yeah, that's right. Coming in?
DELBERT: (OFF) Yeah.
SOUND: SQUEAKY METAL CELL DOOR UNLOCKS, OPENS, SHUTS AND LOCKS
DELBERT: How are ya?
LOUIS: I'm all right. So far. How are you?
DELBERT: All right.
LOUIS: Sit down.
DELBERT: Yeah. (EXHALES SADLY)
LOUIS: No soap, huh?
DELBERT: (EXHALES SADLY)
LOUIS: Turned us down.
DELBERT: That's right.
LOUIS: Well, what'd he say?
DELBERT: Oh, a lot o' things.
LOUIS: What?
DELBERT: What's the difference? He said no.
LOUIS: It's tough, Delbert, when I didn't do it.
DELBERT: It's tough on me, too, Louis.
LOUIS: Yes, but they're not gonna hang you.
DELBERT: I begged him to give you a two-weeks' stay at least, but he said his conscience wouldn't let him.
LOUIS: (CHUCKLES) Conscience, huh?
DELBERT: He said if he felt I could turn up anything at all in two weeks, he'd be tempted to give you the benefit of the doubt. You've had three stays now.
LOUIS: Could you turn up anything?
DELBERT: (UNCOMFORTABLE) Louis!
LOUIS: (EXHALES) Yeah, I know.
DELBERT: I've done everything I could.
LOUIS: I know. But I didn't do it, Delbert!
DELBERT: I know you didn't. But proving it--
LOUIS: (BEAT) Wanna - play cards? (NO ANSWER, EXHALES) Nah, I guess I don't wanna play either.
SOUND: SLAPS DOWN DECK OF CARDS
LOUIS: Well--
DELBERT: I've done my very best Louis. My very, level best!
LOUIS: I know, I know. It's pretty tough on me though, ain't it?
DELBERT: Certainly is.
LOUIS: No - hope at all?
DELBERT: No hope at all. No witnesses; plenty of motive; your fingerprints all over everything.
LOUIS: I remember. Only, I didn't do it!
DELBERT: Who did? You got any idea, Louis?
LOUIS: No idea at all.
DELBERT: I thought maybe--
LOUIS: I just opened the door after I'd knocked a dozen times-- I just opened the door and they were on the floor, I told you.
DELBERT: I know, I know.
LOUIS: I was so shocked-- You know. I couldn't help it! I tried to-- That's how I got the fingerprints all over.
DELBERT: You told me.
LOUIS: I - I admit I didn't like Harris. I didn't go for Etta very much either. But I didn't kill 'em, Delbert!
DELBERT: You told me.
LOUIS: I just went out there to ask him to let me have however much he could of that two thousand dollars he owed me for the pigs.
DELBERT: You shouldn't have made all those statements about how you were gonna get the money or else, Louis.
LOUIS: I know it. I shouldn't have gone through his desk lookin' for the money either.
DELBERT: I don't know why the dickens you did that.
LOUIS: Well-- Well, I don't know either but I was-- I said I was shocked. I just thought this was a good way to get the money if I could find it. Nobody 'ud know, I figured. I knew if I didn't get it then, I'd never get it. (HELPLESSLY) They were - lyin' there on the floor--
DELBERT: Louis, listen. It was pretty hard to convince the jury you didn't do it with them lying on the floor and you goin' through the desk and blood spots on your suit and everything.
LOUIS: I know it, Delbert. I was crazy to do it. But I didn't murder 'em!
DELBERT: I know that, I told ya.
LOUIS: Delbert? (EXHALES) Are they - sure enough gonna hang me?
DELBERT: Unless--
LOUIS: (BEAT) Unless what?
DELBERT: They discover new evidence.
LOUIS: Where are they gonna discover that?
DELBERT: They'll hafta do it awful fast.
LOUIS: Where are they gonna discover it?
DELBERT: You tell me.
LOUIS: There isn't any more evidence. Whoever really did it covered his tracks too good.
DELBERT: I'll say he did. Well, you smooched it up foolin' around.
LOUIS: Well, by gosh, Delbert, I was just trying to see if I could help!
DELBERT: And seeing if you could find the money Harris owed ya.
LOUIS: Well, I know it was foolish, but--
DELBERT: Honestly, Louis. Now, you wouldn't expect anybody in his right mind to believe your story, would you?
LOUIS: But it's true, I tell ya!
DELBERT: I know it's true but I couldn't make the jury believe it, or the governor.
LOUIS: (BEAT) How do you know it's true?
DELBERT: What?
LOUIS: How do you know it's true?
DELBERT: Why, I - just know it, Louis. I've seen murderers before, you know.
LOUIS: You - don't think I'm a murderer?
DELBERT: Of course not.
LOUIS: Delbert -- don't you really think there's a chance of uncovering some new evidence? Really?
DELBERT: I think the only people who saw the murder -- the only people who know who did it -- are Harris and Etta themselves.
LOUIS: But -- they're dead!
DELBERT: That's right, they're dead, Louis. Look, uh, what I stopped in for; I, uh-- You want me to ask Father McIntyre to come 'round and see ya now?
MUSIC: SOMBER ORGAN ACCENT ... THEN IN BG, EERILY BUILDS TO A CLIMAX DURING FOLLOWING
LOUIS: (NARRATES) Thirteen steps up, with your hands fastened behind you.
Thirteen steps -- stop and turn around -- the man says, "Stand here."
Look down the thirteen steps at the reporters, the doctor with the stethoscope hangin' around his neck.
Feel a man tying your feet together.
Feel the floor give a little underfoot.
You see how the man stays away from the little trap door, reaching out to make the rope tight around your ankles.
Listen.
Father McIntyre's voice in your ear.
A little rustling behind you and the black hood over your head and you can't see any more.
But you can feel -- feel the rope as it brushes against your neck a little -- hairy and creepy-crawly on your skin.
And the weight of the knot -- nine turns on your shoulder.
Floor gives a little underfoot!
MUSIC: HAS REACHED ITS CLIMAX ... HUGE ACCENT ... FOR A BODY DESCENDING THROUGH TRAP DOOR ... THEN ABRUPTLY OUT
LOUIS: (AS IF WAKING FROM A NIGHTMARE, HOLLERS) No! I can't--! I can't--! I didn't do it, I tell ya, I didn't do it! (BEAT, NARRATES) All I could think of was what my lawyer said -- what Delbert said -- before he got up and opened the door and went away.
DELBERT: The only people who saw the murder -- the only people who know who did it -- are Harris and Etta themselves.
MUSIC: MOURNFUL ... THEN IN BG
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And Harris and Etta knew I didn't do it. Maybe they didn't know who it was that did it, but they did know that I didn't do it. Maybe they didn't--
MUSIC: STING ... THEN IN BG, BUILDS TO A SMALL CLIMAX DURING FOLLOWING
LOUIS: (NARRATES, BRISK) --and, maybe they did. Maybe they did know! Maybe they could tell me-- Maybe they could "discover some new evidence," the way Delbert put it. Maybe they could tell me where to go, who to look for, or what I'd find! I could tell it all to Delbert; he could go tell the governor; I'd get a stay! Maybe the evidence'll be good enough so I-- So they'd let me go! Maybe they wouldn't hang--!
MUSIC: CLIMAX ... THEN ABRUPTLY OUT
LOUIS: (NARRATES, HOPELESS) But - Harris is dead.
And Etta's dead.
(INCREASINGLY TERRIFIED) I - saw them dead on the floor of their house when I went-- And they accuse me of murdering them.
They found me guilty.
I'm in the death cell -- waiting.
(A QUIET, TEARFUL, PLEADING PRAYER) Harris! Etta! Don't let me die! Don't let them--! Etta! Harris! Have mercy on my soul!
SOUND: BELL TOLLS REPEATEDLY ... THEN IN BG
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And when I heard the bell tolling somewhere in the distance, I remembered. I remembered what night this was. This was All Souls' Night. This was the night when the souls of the weary dead walk the earth again. Why, I remember. When graveyards yawn and tombs give up their dead. And the sound of the bell tolling away in the darkness of early evening. (BEAT, HESITANT) Calling all souls. (STRONGER) Calling all souls.
MUSIC: SOMBER ORGAN BLENDS WITH TOLLING BELL ... THEN IN BG
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And I wondered. If my soul had to leave my body when I walk up the thirteen steps and -- after -- if my soul had to leave my body then, why could it not leave my living body for a while and go seeking after the others that step from the tomb this night -- the souls of the weary dead, the souls of the unhappy dead -- the murdered -- the kindly souls that knew?
MUSIC: HOPEFUL ... FILLS A PAUSE ... THEN IN BG
SOUND: TOLLING BELL FADES OUT DURING FOLLOWING
LOUIS: (NARRATES) Then, I sat down again, quietly. The fit of deadly terror was gone for a moment. I was exhausted and weak.
I closed my eyes and the sound of the distant bell faded out as I thought--
"Why can't it be possible?" I thought. All these things are not mere superstition. There's some foundation in every belief, I thought.
"I - I can't die; I'm innocent," I thought.
And only those two know the truth.
"Calling all souls" -- I repeated again to myself.
Calling all souls.
And I stood up.
MUSIC: FOR AN SACRED, OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE ... THEN IN BG
LOUIS: (NARRATES) I stood up in that brightly lighted, sorrowful place. And as I rose I turned to look behind me.
And there -- on the bed, still in an attitude of despair -- sat my body.
And in a flash of darkness the place faded away -- the stone walls and the iron bars and the bare, narrow bed, the man in prison uniform seated motionless on its edge.
And I stood alone -- in the darkness of a place I knew.
Tall marble shafts gleaming faintly in the starlight.
Curving, gravel roadways -- hedge-bordered.
And the scent of moldering flowers in the darkness.
The dry rustle of the weather-beaten flag at the head of a low mound beside me.
And loneliness. All-aloneness, pressing inward upon me like a living thing.
The eve of All Souls'.
MUSIC: FOR THE VOICES OF THE DEAD, BEHIND--
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And suddenly, quietly, in the cold shadows, the little, little whispers of innumerable voices -- the voices of the wandering souls that hastened past me, seeking their dusty desires across the face of the world they once all knew.
MUSIC: CONTINUES IN BG, IN AGREEMENT WITH FOLLOWING--
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And then a voice -- speaking to me in the dark. Speaking my name in the darkness. Calling me.
ETTA: Louis?
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And another voice.
HARRIS: Louis?
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And I knew I had won for these were the voices of the two they said I murdered.
ETTA: Why, of course you didn't, Louis.
HARRIS: Of course you didn't.
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And a little child -- a little boy -- ran up in the darkness and took my hand and laughed to hear my name.
ETTA: You remember little Tommy -- our little boy that died when he was sick?
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And I remembered.
And in the darkness I saw many another I'd all but forgotten. Charlie Cullen that was killed at Romain in the Argonne thirty years ago!
Albert Newhouse, my Boy Scout comrade that drowned so many years ago.
Grace Williams who died at her husband's hand.
Crowds and crowds of the ones who had gone before spending this, their brief holiday, on their well-loved earth.
And I, the only living soul among them -- spending my brief moment with them to seek my life from them -- on All Souls' Eve a year ago.
And I said, "Help me."
And Etta answered me.
ETTA: What is there we can do now, Louis?
LOUIS: You know I didn't kill you, Etta!
ETTA: Of course.
HARRIS: Of course.
LOUIS: They're going to hang me for it!
HARRIS: You didn't do it.
LOUIS: But -- how can I prove it?! Delbert said if we could find new evidence--!
HARRIS: There's plenty of evidence, Louis, to be found.
LOUIS: Where? How?
ETTA: Why, let me see. He found the money.
HARRIS: That's why you couldn't find it, Louis.
LOUIS: Ah--! (REALIZES, UNHAPPILY) But if he found the money, it must be gone by now.
HARRIS: No. He has some of it left.
LOUIS: But -- what good does that do?
HARRIS: Why, there's a list of the numbers of the bills somewhere.
LOUIS: (IN DESPAIR) They looked for it. They - they couldn't find it.
ETTA: Have them look in the bedroom, Louis -- behind the third drawer in my chest of drawers. I know where it is. It fell down there.
LOUIS: (BRIGHTLY) Oh, that - that's wonderful! That-- (DARKLY) But what good will it do now, unless we know-- (HOPEFUL) Unless you tell me--
HARRIS: There's plenty of evidence, Louis, if you'll just look for it. He ripped his coat on the catch of the living room door. There's threads there that could be identified.
LOUIS: You know who did it? (NO ANSWER) You know who did it?!
HARRIS: Yes. We know.
ETTA: Yes. We know.
LOUIS: Then tell me. Tell me and I'll see-- Delbert'll see that he confesses. (NO RESPONSE) Look, I - I tell you they're going to hang me for it! (DESPERATE) Do you hear?! Tell me! (BEAT, REALIZES) Oh. And you still hate me. And you haven't learned mercy since - since you-- (UPSET) You're going to let me die because you hated me while you were alive!
ETTA: (GENTLY) Louis--
LOUIS: You're going to carry it beyond the grave! You're going to keep it to yourself and let me hang!
HARRIS: (GENTLY) You hated us, Louis.
LOUIS: (BITTER) Yes, I hated you and I hate you now! Ghost or no ghost, soul or no soul, I--! (DESPERATE AGAIN, TEARFUL) No! No, Harris! Have pity on me! It's all over now! There's no use hating me! Don't you hate the man that killed you? Don't you?
HARRIS: No, Louis, no.
ETTA: We don't hate him.
LOUIS: But you hate me! You're going to let me die! You know I'm innocent! You're going to let me die just because we didn't like each other on earth.
HARRIS: Louis, listen to us. There's no such thing as hate any more with us.
LOUIS: Then why don't you give me a chance to live?!
HARRIS: Go back, Louis. Go back to your body.
ETTA: Go back.
LOUIS: (SCORNFUL) Go back! To die!
ETTA: Dying isn't so bad, Louis. You don't see any unhappiness among all these souls, do you?
LOUIS: I don't want to die!
HARRIS: You'd rather save your life for a while at the expense of somebody else's life?
LOUIS: (SCREAMS) But I'm not guilty! And he is!
HARRIS: Go back, Louis.
ETTA: Go back.
LOUIS: I won't go back till you've told me who killed you!
HARRIS: Listen to me, Louis. You're tampering with things that-- Things that you have no right to know. Your soul has left your body before its time. You have come upon secrets that no living man should know. Your body is waiting for you. Go back to it while there's time.
LOUIS: (SCORNFUL) While there's time!
ETTA: It is only this one night that souls may walk the earth.
HARRIS: And, when morning comes--
LOUIS: (BEAT) Well--?
HARRIS: When morning comes, if you are still here-- Louis, I can make you no promises.
ETTA: Go back, Louis.
LOUIS: Tell me the man's name!
HARRIS: No, Louis. No, it's none of your affair.
LOUIS: (DISBELIEF, UPSET) None of my affair?! Don't you understand what I said to you?! They're going to hang me! None of my affair! Listen--!
HARRIS: There was no need for you to send your soul out seeking us, Louis.
LOUIS: (CONFUSED) I don't get that.
ETTA: We have been waiting for this night, Louis.
LOUIS: (PUZZLED) Well--?
ETTA: Tell him, Harris.
HARRIS: He - he will have to come with us now.
ETTA: Yes, that is the law.
HARRIS: You should not have come here. Louis, there is still time, but only a little time. If you go back now--
LOUIS: I won't go back! I won't go back until you tell me!
ETTA: You have no right here, you know, Louis.
LOUIS: But I'm here!
HARRIS: And now it is too late.
ETTA: Yes.
HARRIS: You will have to come with us.
LOUIS: Where are you going?
ETTA: Tell him, Harris.
HARRIS: We are going to visit the man who murdered us.
LOUIS: You what?!
HARRIS: I told you there was no need for you to come here, Louis. We have a way of taking care of this man.
LOUIS: I - don't know what you mean.
ETTA: Haven't you ever heard of ... haunting, Louis?
MUSIC: A BIG ACCENT ... THEN OUT BEHIND--
HARRIS: Come with us now, Louis.
LOUIS: No.
ETTA: You must come.
LOUIS: You're - really going to haunt him? And make him confess?
HARRIS: We are going to appear to him, Louis.
ETTA: What he will do we cannot say.
HARRIS: But when he sees us--
LOUIS: Well then, I'm going back to the prison.
HARRIS: No.
ETTA: No.
LOUIS: (EXCITED) I'll go back and I'll call the warden; I'll get Delbert; tell him that there'll be a confession; Delbert'll get me a stay of execution; then when he confesses I'll be-- Who is it, Harris?
HARRIS: Come with us and you will see.
LOUIS: No, I'm - I'm going back to the prison, I told you -- get things all set up.
HARRIS: No, you changed your mind too late, Louis.
LOUIS: Too late? Why? I--
HARRIS: No, Louis. You have meddled too much. You have gone too far. The souls of the living have no place here, but you have come.
ETTA: We told you to go back while there was time, Louis.
LOUIS: Yes, but--!
HARRIS: Now you must come with us.
LOUIS: No! No! I want to go back!
HARRIS AND ETTA: (TOGETHER) Come, Louis!
MUSIC: FOR A WISTFUL, ETHEREAL TRANSITION ... THEN IN BG
LOUIS: (NARRATES, AWED) High. High up over the face of the sleeping, starlit world with the tiny lights of the living far below us -- the broad peaceful farmlands; the sleeping cities; the broad breast of the great river far below us -- the universe throbbing with strange, compelling song.
And above us, around us, the sense of a million souls -- a million, a myriad, a countless multitude, returning joyously to their single night upon the earth they loved.
And I looked up in the clearness of the haunted night. And above me, the endless pathway of the Milky Way glowed with a strange splendor. And Etta plucked my sleeve.
ETTA: The pathway of the souls, Louis. The way we all return.
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And I saw the features of the ones I had loved; of strangers; of men, women and little children; of boys in ragged uniforms, of bearded ancients, and smiling babes in their mothers' arms.
And on their faces in the sparkling night, an expression of awful eagerness, of long-awaited realization that this night they would once again rest upon the mortal Earth.
And I -- even I, the only living soul amongst all the multitude of the dead -- even I felt an overpowering desire to set my feet again, this moment, upon the reality of Earth.
And I closed my eyes for a moment. And when I opened them, we three were in a room.
And on a bed there was a sleeping man.
MUSIC: UP AND OUT
LOUIS: (LOW) Where are we? (WHISPERS) Is this the man?
HARRIS: This is the man.
ETTA: This is the man.
LOUIS: Who is he?
HARRIS: Go and look.
LOUIS: I-- (BEAT) No.
ETTA: Go and look.
LOUIS: I don't want to--
HARRIS: Go and look, Louis.
ETTA: You must go and look, Louis.
LOUIS: (NARRATES) He lay there, sleeping as innocently as any child. The covers were drawn up about his face as if he were shutting out some childish fancy of bogey men in the dark. But I knew him for a wicked, guilty man -- the man who held my own life in jeopardy.
HARRIS: Look at him, Louis.
ETTA: Look at him, Louis.
LOUIS: (NARRATES) And I lifted up the comforter that hid his face and bent down to look at him.
MUSIC: A HIGH, KEENING ACCENT TO CONVEY LOUIS' REALIZATION ... OUT BEHIND--
LOUIS: (REALIZES) Delbert. (NARRATES) Delbert. My friend. The man who defended me in the courtroom and lost. The man who had gone to the governor -- or had he gone? -- to plead for my life.
Delbert! The man who told me, "Of course I know you didn't do it."
Of course he knew. He alone of mortal men knew the murderer. For the defender of the accused man -- was the murderer himself.
HARRIS: Wake him, Louis.
LOUIS: No.
ETTA: Wake him.
LOUIS: (BEAT, CALLS) Delbert? (NO ANSWER) Delbert? (NO ANSWER) Delbert, wake up.
MUSIC: A BRIEF ACCENT TO CONVEY DELBERT'S TERROR
DELBERT: (SHOCKED, TERRIFIED) Louis! Louis, what are you doing here?!
HARRIS: He came with us, Delbert.
DELBERT: (UTTER DISBELIEF) Harris?!
ETTA: Harris and Etta, Delbert.
DELBERT: No! No, go away! You're ghosts!
HARRIS: We are human souls, Delbert, come to hear your testimony.
DELBERT: Noooo! No, I won't tell you anything!
LOUIS: You murdered them, didn't you, Delbert?
DELBERT: No!
HARRIS: You murdered us, Delbert.
DELBERT: No! No, I--!
ETTA: Confess, Delbert.
DELBERT: I didn't do it!
LOUIS: You did do it.
DELBERT: You, Louis! You can't be here!
LOUIS: Confess.
DELBERT: Well, I--
ETTA: Confess.
HARRIS: Louis must hear you, Delbert.
DELBERT: Louis! (BEAT, QUICKLY, HYSTERICAL) Louis, I did do it! I killed them, Louis! I murdered them! I knew I could throw the blame on you! I knew I could get you convicted and I could save myself! I hated them, too, Louis! (BREAKS DOWN AND CRIES, TEARFUL) Oh, Louis! Louis, forgive me! Louis, forgive me!
LOUIS: (CONTEMPTUOUS) Me, forgive you, Delbert? Ask Harris and Etta to forgive you.
DELBERT: (TEARFUL, PLEADING) Harris? Etta?
HARRIS: We have already forgiven you, Delbert. But you have done a great wrong to Louis.
ETTA: You will be punished, Delbert.
DELBERT: (DESPERATE) I'll confess! I'll call the prison!
LOUIS: (RELIEVED, TO HARRIS AND ETTA) I'm going back to my body now in the prison.
DELBERT: (OFF) Louis!
LOUIS: (TO HARRIS AND ETTA) Thank you.
DELBERT: (OFF) Forgive me!
LOUIS: (DEEPLY) Thank you, Harris, Etta.
DELBERT: (OFF) Louis!
LOUIS: I'm going back. (OVERCOME WITH JOY) Oh, Harris--
HARRIS: Wait, Louis.
LOUIS: (PUZZLED) What?
DELBERT: (OFF) Louis!
LOUIS: (HARSH, TO DELBERT) Be quiet, murderer! (BEAT, GENTLER) What, Harris?
HARRIS: You can't go back, Louis.
LOUIS: I can't go back? Why, what have I--? What--?
ETTA: You must stay.
LOUIS: Stay? Stay? Why must I stay? My body's back there in the prison waiting for me. I've got to go back and live.
HARRIS: No, Louis.
LOUIS: Why?! Tell me why?! Everything's all--! (BEAT) What's the matter?
ETTA: (SLOWLY) You tell him, Delbert.
DELBERT: (BEAT, RELUCTANT) Louis--
LOUIS: (BEAT) Well?
DELBERT: Louis. They hanged you half an hour ago.
MUSIC: THEME ... FADE FOR ...
ANNOUNCER: The title of today's "Quiet, Please!" story is "Calling All Souls." It was written and directed by Wyllis Cooper, and the man who spoke to you was Ernest Chappell.
CHAPPELL: And Kermit Murdock played Delbert. Harris and Etta were, respectively, Ralph Schulman and Mary Patton. Mr. Cooper and I are very grateful for the superb efforts of Albert Buhrman who is always responsible for our "Quiet, Please!" music. Now, for a word about next week, here is our writer-director Wyllis Cooper.
COOPER: Thank you for listening to "Quiet, Please!" again. Next week, I have a story for you called "Adam and the Darkest Day."
CHAPPELL: And so, until next week at this same time, I am quietly yours, Ernest Chappell.
MUSIC: THEME ... END
ANNOUNCER: And now, a listening reminder. "David Harding, Counterspy" is a name that means "action, excitement, drama" each time his efficient law enforcement organization exposes another racket. Hear "Counterspy" this afternoon over these ABC stations.
This is ABC, the American Broadcasting Company.
WJZ ANNCR: WJZ, New York's First Station. WJZ, AM and FM.