_BROADCAST_ WOR - 10:00-10:30 PM EST MON. OCT. 6, 1947 MBS - 8:30- 9:00 PM EST WED. OCT. 8, 1947
_REHEARSALS_ Studio 16...2:00-5:00 PM EST MON. OCT. 6, 1947 Studio 15...8:00-10:00 PM EST MON. OCT. 6, 1947
[page 1]
CHAPPELL: Quiet, please.
(SEVEN SECONDS' SILENCE)
CHAPPELL: Quiet, please.
(MUSIC: ... THEME ... FADE FOR:)
ANNCR: The Mutual Broadcasting System presents Quiet, Please, which is written and directed by Wyllis Cooper, and features Ernest Chappell.
Quiet, Please for tonight is called "Not Enough Time".
(MUSIC: ... THEME ... FADE)
------------------------------
WALTER: Wait just a minute, will you, please?
I got to bust this thing.
SOUND: (STEPS AWAY)
WALTER: Only be a minute.
SOUND: (SEVERAL HAMMER-BLOWS ON SOMETHING LIKE AN ALARM-CLOCK. WE HEAR SPRINGS AND WHEELS SHATTER, AND THEN HE THROWS THE SMASHED BITS INTO AN ASHCAN.)
(MUSIC: ... THE PIANO HELPS OUT ON THE LAST SOUND)
WALTER: (RETURNING) So that's that.
That's sixteen hundred and forty dollars' worth of junk.
And four years' work.
And here's a bale of notes that the editor of Astonishing Stories would give his eye-teeth for.
He ain't gonna get 'em.
SOUND: (AND HE TEARS THE NOTES UP SLOWLY)
[2]
WALTER: Yup. That is strictly that.
(A PAUSE) It was a time-machine.
Yuh; one of those gadgets to travel in time. You know; turn it on and it takes you back fifty years and so on. You know - like Alley-Oop in the funny-paper; like the stories H. G. Wells wrote; you know.
SOUND: (HE REACHES INTO THE ASH-CAN)
WALTER: Yup. This was the dial you set for how far you wanted to go in time.
SOUND: (HE TOSSES IT ON TABLE)
WALTER: This was the cucambulator.
SOUND: (HE TOSSES IT AWAY)
WALTER: Here's a piece of the - well, never mind what it was. It's none of your business.
SOUND: (HE SWEEPS ALL THE PARTS INTO THE ASHCAN AGAIN)
WALTER: I sure wish _I_ hadn't monkeyed with a time machine.
Oh, this one _worked_!
Sure.
That's what's the matter, see?
It worked.
(MUSIC: ... A BRIEF ACCENT)
WALTER: Well, I don't want any part of time-machines - not after what happened to me with this one. You can make one for yourself, if you want to - and if you can - but you're not going to get any help from me. Oh, they can be made, all right. Me, I'm just a bumble-fingered mechanic out of a garage, and _I_ made one. But I'll give you my first and last piece of advice, buster. Don't you do it.
[3]
(MUSIC: ... A BRIEF ACCENT)
WALTER: I saved up my dough, and working around a garage I could glom onto a gadget here and there that Cliff Oswald didn't know about, and I had a lathe there, and some other machinery; and I did the rough-hand work there, see. Then when I quit and rented this old busted-down farmhouse out here on cemetery road, I bought some more machinery, see, stuff for precision work, and some stock - piece of iridium from that fountain-pen factory in Fort Madison, Iowa ... two or three polysterene plastics that they made for me in Parlin, New Jersey ... special crown glass prisms I had made here in town and some other stuff. Quite a lot of other stuff, and try and find out what it was.
You'd be surprised how easy it is to drop out of sight in a small town. This place here is 'way out in the sticks, past the cemetery, off on a side road that nobody's used for twenty, thirty years. And I done all my shopping in Peoria, instead of here in Pekin, and I never went down town or anything. So nobody knew I was here. It was just that easy.
I put in nearly four years, like I said.
And then all of a sudden the doggone thing worked. I was just sitting here, and I turned it on, see, and just like that it was raining. Well, the sun was shining bright when I turned it on, and for a minute I couldn't figure it.
[4]
Then I remembered it rained the day before, and by golly it _was_ the day before, right then!
How d'you _like_ that?
Well, I stayed in yesterday for ten minutes and then - tick! We came back and the rain stopped and the sun was shining again, and it wasn't even damp outside.
Well. I'm not going into a lot of details that you wouldn't understand if I told 'em to you, but the net of the thing was I decided I'd really try it out. But really. And that's the story.
Supposing you intended to take a trip back fifty years in time. How'd you prepare for it? Well, I'll tell you what I did. First I studied an old history of Tazewell county, paying particular attention to l897: fifty years ago. So's I wouldn't make any more bobbles than necessary. I picked out a place on a map where there wasn't any trees in l897. I didn't want to find myself hanging from somebody's apple-tree when the thing stopped. Then I bought my equipment.
I got me a revolver, and a camera and a flashlight. And some aspirin, and I was all fixed.
I moved the gadget out in the backlot, where the map said there wasn't any trees fifty years before. And I set it back to fifty years and I was reaching for the release when I got a sudden fast thought.
There I was, dressed in a double-breasted grey suit with white stripes, and a blue sport-shirt, and a pair of brown and white shoes.
[5]
It was the shoes, I guess. I looked down at 'em and I said Holy Moses! would I be a number in 1897 in this outfit! They'd throw me in the can before I could say Howdy! Imagine! So I quick disconnected the machine from my wrist, and put it back in the house, and jumped in the car and beat it for Peoria and a theatrical costume house. They thought I was nuts, but I got the rig I was lookin' for. How you like it? This here brown derby's a dinger, ain't it? Even with the dent in it. And get a load of the shoes. Buttons. And you know what? There ain't anyplace you can buy a buttonhook today! Well, anyway: you want to hear the story.
I got the machine out again and set it, and I took a long breath, and I said, well, kid, hold your hat, here we go, and I pressed the button.
SOUND: (WE HEAR A SERIES OF BUZZES, AND A KIND OF RATCHET SOUND, RISING IN INTENSITY, WITH THE ORGAN HELPING OUT. JUST BEFORE THE SOUND REACHES ITS HEIGHT, A WOMAN'S VOICE IS HEARD, CALLING)
CARRIE: Walter! Walter! Wait, Walter!
SOUND: (AND THE SOUND INCREASES TO A HOWL, STOPPING ABRUPTLY)
WALTER: By golly, I thought I heard somebody calling me ...
(BUT THERE IS NOT A SOUND)
WALTER: (LOOKING AROUND) There couldn't've been -
STOUT: You hold up your hands, there, you hear me?
WALTER: What? Now look out with that gun, buster -
STOUT: You hold up your hands, or I'll be forced to shoot.
[6]
WALTER: Who do you think _you_ are?
STOUT: You'll find out soon enough. (COMES CLOSER) Just you keep your hands up, now, you hear me?
WALTER: This is a fine way to welcome a stranger, bud.
STOUT: This is the way I welcome strangers all the time, and don't give me any sass, either. Who are you?
STOUT: And you sure are going to visit me. Come on - march!
(MUSIC: ... UP AND FADE FOR)
WALTER: You see?
Smart guy, me. I told you I studied that history of Tazewell County till my head hurt, and the only name I could think of when this guy popped up from behind a fence was the sheriff's.
Well, John Stout marched me over to a horse and buggy, and he buttoned me to a stanchion with the biggest pair of rusty handcuffs I ever saw, and said git-ap, Queenie, and away we went to the jail-house.
And my time-machine lying on the ground out there two miles from where I was looking out of an iron-barred window. And it was all set to come back to 1947 in just twenty four hours.
Whether I was there or not.
How you like that?
(MUSIC: ... FOR AN ACCENT)
[8]
WALTER: I had a very pretty picture of me getting a fifty-year jail sentence, and getting out of Joliet just in time to come back to the house out on cemetary road and pick up where I left off - only at the age of seventy-six, instead of twenty-six.
Very pretty, huh?
Yeh, that's what I thought.
Well, they had me up before Judge Curran good and fast, but try as they could, they couldn't get anything on me.
STOUT: Horse-stealin'.
WALTER: I didn't steal any horses.
STOUT: Lurkin' and lyin' in wait.
WALTER: I was just standing there.
STOUT: Uh - Disturbin' the peace.
WALTER: I didn't say a word.
STOUT: (TRIUMPHANTLY) Disorderly conduct.
WALTER: Well, I said to myself, I'll buy that. It can't be a jail sentence for disorderly conduct, and I've got three or four hundred dollars in my pocket, and I can afford the fine, but I got to get out of here! So I paid off ten dollars and costs. Eleven dollars and ninety-six cents.
Sure. Sure. I'd remembered to get some old big-size bills, all kind of dirty, figuring they wouldn't examine the bills close enough so's I could get away - if I got in a jam, see - before anybody looked at the dates.
Uh-huh.
I was the smart kid.
[9]
It says here.
By this time, I've got a lot less than twenty-four hours before the old machine takes off, and I am beginning to get a small order of goose-pimples on the back of my neck, because I'm not exactly sure where the darn thing is ... after all, I'd never been here before, except fifty years later, see; and if I miss the thing, oh man!
I thought, though, I'd kind of case the town a little bit so if I wanted to come back - you know. I walk up Court Street a block, and there on the corner of Fifth is Bill Kelley's livery stable, where Conaghan's Ford Agency is now - right across the street, practically, from where I used to work for Cliff Oswald. There's nothing but a vacant lot _there_.
So I go into the stable and hire me a rig - get me! Hire a rig! - and pay in advance and I take off.
You ever drive a horse and buggy? Man, I was all over the lot. But I got out there after a fashion - out where I thought I'd left the machine.
So I tied the horse to a tree; somebody'd come and get him, I figured, and he could eat grass. That is if horses eat grass. And I started looking.
(MUSIC: ... FOR AN ACCENT)
[10]
WALTER: It was just a great big field, see. No landmarks of any kind. I got more and more panicky, because that old clock was going round and round ...
And then I saw a hole in the ground. Big hole. Dirt piled up around it, and out of the corner of my mind I sort of remembered seeing it when I landed, when Stout grabbed me.
All of a sudden, I had it!
This old house I worked in was about fifty years old! By golly, this was the foundation for it that somebody was digging!
Well, sure. I found the machine easy. South of the excavation about fifty yards. Lying there ticking away as if nothing'd happened.
Oh, boy! I said. Oh, boy! I practically kissed the thing. And then I jumped about six feet in the air.
CARRIE: What are you doing on our land, young man?
WALTER: Wow! There was the most beautiful girl in the world. Just the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. Red hair - no makeup - natch! - and I tell you she looked beautiful even in an l897 outfit, a brown dress down to her ankles, and a white shirt-waist with big red polka-dots on it. And a hat that looked like a dog's dinner. And she looked wonderful. And she pointed those big blue eyes at me and she said again.
CARRIE: What are you doing on our land?
WALTER: And when I could get my breath, I said who are you, lady?
[11]
CARRIE: My father and I merely happen to be the owners of this land, that's all.
WALTER: Well, I was - I mean - lady, I'm sorry.
CARRIE: You're trespassing.
WALTER: I'm sorry. I - used to live there in that house you're going to build.
CARRIE: What?
WALTER: I mean I'm going to live in - I - my name is Walter McCoy.
CARRIE: Well, I'll thank you to get off our land, Mr. Walter McCoy.
WALTER: Yeh, sure. Sure. I'll get off.
CARRIE: Right away.
WALTER: Yes, ma'm.
CARRIE: Well, go on.
WALTER: Lady, I - what's your name?
CARRIE: Carrie McKinstry. _Miss_ Carrie McKinstry. So there.
WALTER: Carrie McKinstry. Gee.
CARRIE: Sir?
WALTER: We're both Mac's, Carrie.
CARRIE: How dare you!
WALTER: What?
CARRIE: A gentleman would address me as Miss McKinstry, sir.
WALTER: Sir. I be darned.
CARRIE: I don't understand you.
WALTER: I said look, we're both Mac's, see. Maybe you're Irish, too.
CARRIE: Are you Irish?
WALTER: Irish descent.
CARRIE: So are we.
[12]
WALTER: Well, what do you know?
CARRIE: About what?
WALTER: Hello, Irish.
CARRIE: Sir! (AND THEN SHE LAUGHS) You're fresh.
WALTER: You're beautiful.
CARRIE: Take care, sir.
WALTER: Hey, do people really talk like that?
CARRIE: What people?
WALTER: You live around here?
CARRIE: On Ann Eliza Street, down near the fire-house.
WALTER: What are you doing out here?
CARRIE: You ask an awful lot of questions.
WALTER: I'm interested.
CARRIE: You're a masher!
WALTER: A what?
CARRIE: A masher. Don't you try to mash me!
[13]
WALTER: Gosh, Miss McKinstry, I wouldn't hurt you!
CARRIE: You certainly talk strangely, Mister McCoy.
WALTER: Well, I - I come from a long ways away from here, see.
CARRIE: Are you a drummer?
WALTER: No. I used to play a little piano when I was a kid, but -
CARRIE: I mean a traveling man.
WALTER: Well, yes. Yes, you might say I'm a traveling man. Yes, I guess I am.
CARRIE: What are you doing here?
WALTER: Uh - travelling, I guess.
CARRIE: Well, then, you travel.
WALTER: Listen, Miss Carrie - I have to wait a while.
CARRIE: Why?
WALTER: Well -
CARRIE: What's that machine thing there?
WALTER: It's a - a gadget.
CARRIE: Oh.
WALTER: Look, I have to wait a little while - let's you and me sit down and talk for a minute, will you?
CARRIE: I am not in the habit of talking to persons I don't know, Mr. McCoy.
WALTER: Why, you know me! You just called me by name. Carrie.
CARRIE: Why - why .... well, what would we talk about?
WALTER: Let's ... let's talk about the future, Carrie.
(MUSIC: ... UP BRIEFLY)
[14]
WALTER: Man!
Did you ever hear of love at first sight?
Yeh, I always thought it was bunk, too.
It ain't.
No, sir.
I wish you could've seen that girl. Red hair, blue eyes ... I said that, though, didn't I?
Well, nobody's going to see her.
Not me, even.
(MUSIC: ... A BRIEF ACCENT)
WALTER: We sat there on a pile of dirt and talked. I don't know what we talked about, though I guess I did most of the talking. I told her about automobiles, and radio, and skyscrapers, and airplanes, I think. I think I did. And she sat there and didn't believe a word of it, but she loved it.
And it got along toward dark and we still sat there, and the sun went down across the river and ... oh, man.
Yeah. I kissed her.
I forgot for a minute she was Irish.
SOUND: (THERE IS THE SOUND OF A GREAT BIG SLAP)
WALTER: Owtch!
CARRIE: Sir, I'll have you know that I'm a respectable girl!
WALTER: And I picked myself up out of the dirt and shoved my jaw back in place.
CARRIE: Oh, Walter! Walter! Did I hurt you? Walter!
(MUSIC: ... AN ACCENT)
[15]
WALTER: And the sound of a voice came back to me - remember, when I took off on this trip? Somebody yelled at me -
CARRIE: (OFF) Walter! Walter!
WALTER: And I didn't have any more time to think, because Carrie had her arms around _me_, and she was crying and kissing me, and -
Yeh. It was love at first sight. Doubled.
Carrie McKinstry, and Walter McCoy. October fifth, l897.
(MUSIC: ... AN ACCENT)
WALTER: And then she pushed herself away from me suddenly.
CARRIE: There's somebody coming!
WALTER: Huh? Who? Where?
CARRIE: Down the road - Look!
WALTER: And I looked. I couldn't miss that dapple-grey mare, Queenie! And even if I hadn't known it was Sheriff Stout, I could hear 'way down the road, the gong on the dashboard of his buggy
SOUND: (DISTANT GONG)
WALTER: and he was heading right for the place he'd found me!
CARRIE: It's the sheriff!
WALTER: Let me out of here!
CARRIE: You'll have to hide! Quick! Oh, gracious! What would my father say? Walter - hide!
WALTER: Yeh, but where?
CARRIE: In the cellar! Quick - jump in! Jump in!
WALTER: I must go down the cellar one of these days and see if my footprints are still down there on the cellar floor. I drove myself right up to the knees jumping in.
[16]
So I scrabbled some dirt over me, and squeezed up in the corner, the machine ticking away right under my chin, and I heard him come running up.
CARRIE: (OFF) Why, how do you do, Sheriff Stout?
STOUT: (OFF) Howdy, Carrie? You seen anything of a miscreant?
CARRIE: A miscreant? Heavens to Betsey, no, Sheriff!
STOUT: I figured he'd come out here where I captured him before.
CARRIE: You captured - what - who is he?
STOUT: He's a dog-gone counterfeiter, that's who!
CARRIE: A counterfeiter?
STOUT: I picked him up for disorderly conduct, and he paid his fine, and all the coins was dated from 1932 to 1947 - the fool! fifty years from now!
CARRIE: Oh, no, sheriff ...
STOUT: By goodness, yes! Well, he ain't gonna take me in! I'll put him in jail for a hundred years. You sure you ain't seen him, Carrie?
WALTER: I waited in the dirt, holding my breath. I waited ten years, it seemed.
CARRIE: No. No, sheriff, I haven't seen anybody.
STOUT: Well. Well, all right. If you you do, though, Carrie, you let me know. Might even be some kind of reward.
CARRIE: All right. All right, I will. Good night, sheriff.
STOUT: Don't forget!
CARRIE: No. I won't forget.
(MUSIC: ... AN ACCENT)
CARRIE: You can come out now, counterfeiter. (SHE BURSTS INTO TEARS)
[17]
(MUSIC: ... UP FULL AND FADE FOR)
WALTER: Did I say she had red hair?
Yeah.
Brother, I've been chewed out by experts, I thought. But Carrie! She threw the book at me. And all the time crying. That was rugged. Finally, when she slowed down, I started to talk.
Look, I was in love with her.
That was day before yesterday.
That was fifty years ago.
So I confessed. I told her all about the machine, and how I had to go back with it, or be stuck here.
No, she didn't believe me at first. But after a while, I guess I convinced her. I know I convinced her. And I told her I was in love with her.
The moon was coming up.
And she told me she thought she was in love with me.
She knew she was in love with me.
There's a fix to be in, brother.
Well.
CARRIE: You can't stay here, Walter.
WALTER: I guess not, but ...
CARRIE: Oh, Walter, I do love you - I'm a shameless woman, but I love you -
(MUSIC: ... [?] )
[18]
WALTER: You see?
I looked at the machine. I had till eight o'clock the next morning. We couldn't sit there in the field all night. I said I'll take you home, Carrie, and we can talk about it on the way. So she said all right, and we climbed into the buggy and started back to town. You know, you can say what you want to about this world we got today, but ... you've never been riding along an unpaved road with a hedge fence along one side, and big elm trees lining the other side, and a laprobe over your knees, and a big round harvest moon shining down above the hills up towards Billy Moore's place ... and lonesome little lights from kerosene lamps shining out of windows off in the distance... and a girl alongside you ...
That was a pretty good world they had fifty years ago. A pretty good world. I wish we had it now.
Yeh. I should have stayed.
But I didn't.
Well, we got to her house.
There wasn't anybody home.
Her father was a railroad man, and he was out on a run somewhere. Decatur, or Springfield, or Bloomington, or somewhere.
We went in the house.
I'd seen pictures.
She lit a kerosene lamp, and there it was.
[19]
WALTER: Brother, I should have stayed. Rag carpet on the floor. A pump at the kitchen sink that went
[X]SOUND:[/X] (EE-WAW, EE-WAW)
when she pumped water for the coffee.
There wasn't a tin can in the kitchen cupboard.
Yeh. I should have stayed.
So we were having a little supper, and talking, you know, low voices ... eating pork chops and applesauce, and there was an apple-pie on the table, and coffee in - believe it or not a mustache-cup, and it was awful nice in the yellow light, and there was a
[X]SOUND:[/X] (KNOCK ON THE DOOR)
CARRIE: Who's that?
[X]SOUND:[/X] (AND THE DOOR OPENED)
WALTER: and a great big tall woman walked in. She jumped when she saw me.
MRS. STOUT: Oooh! Well, excuse me!
CARRIE: Why - why, good evening, Mrs. Stout.
MRS. STOUT: I didn't know you had company, Carrie, or I wouldn't've come bursting in like this ...
CARRIE: It's all right, Mrs. Stout. Mrs. Stout, this is Mr. McCoy.
MRS. STOUT: Oh. Pleased to meet you, Mr. McCoy.
WALTER: How do you do.
MRS. STOUT: Why, I've been poorly, but I'm tolerable now, thank you. You a stranger in town, Mr. McCoy?
CARRIE: Mr. McCoy is a - stranger in town.
[20]
MRS. STOUT: Well, my goodness. Nice and cozy, ain't it? Think your father'd approve, Carrie? Not that it's any of my business, of course, but - (SHE LAUGHS) - it is a little odd. Isn't it, Mr. McCoy?
WALTER: Yes. Yes, it's very odd.
CARRIE: Mr. McCoy is a friend of mine, Mrs. Stout.
MRS. STOUT: Well, I should think so!
CARRIE: Mrs. Stout lives next door, Walter. I forgot to tell you.
WALTER: I see. And Mr. Stout lives there, too.
MRS. STOUT: Well, of course, he's up at the county jail quite a lot. He's the sheriff, you know.
WALTER: Yes, I know.
CARRIE: Yes, we know.
MRS. STOUT: He's out looking for a miscreant someplace.
CARRIE: Is he?
MRS. STOUT: A stranger in town.
WALTER: Is that so?
MRS. STOUT: He'll be home any minute. Maybe he'll drop in.
WALTER: Oh, well, I - I got to be going.
CARRIE: Yes. Walter is in a hurry. He just stopped in for a - a bite to eat.
MRS. STOUT: Mm-hm. Well, I just happened to see that rig from Bill Kelley's livery stable out front, and thinks I, what's that rig doing out in front of McKinstry's, and so I decided to stop in for a minute ...
CARRIE: Well - ah -
[21]
MRS. STOUT: Where did you come from, did you say, Mr. - what was the name?
WALTER: Why - ah - ah -
MRS. STOUT: Hey?
WALTER: McCoy, Mrs. Stout.
MRS. STOUT: Mm-hm. That's what I thought Carrie said. Well - good night.
WALTER AND CARRIE: Good night
SOUND: (AND THE DOOR CLOSES BEHIND HER)
CARRIE: Walter!
WALTER: I get it.
CARRIE: Look what I've done to you!
WALTER: It's all right, honey. If I can get out of here before Stout comes home -
CARRIE: She'll tell him!
WALTER: You kiddin'? Sure she will. Well - I'm gonna see how fast that horse of Mr. Kelley's is.
CARRIE: You'll have to hurry, Walter - oh, Walter, darling -
WALTER: Can't be helped, honey. But I wish -
CARRIE: Oh, Walter - you will come back, won't you?
WALTER: You bet I'll come back! And I'll make me another of these machines, and I'll come and get -
CARRIE: Listen!
SOUND: (A DOOR SLAMS, OFF)
MRS. STOUT: (OFF) He's in there, John! He's right in there with Carrie McKinstry!
WALTER: Quick - turn out the light!
[22]
STOUT: (OFF A LITTLE) Come out of that, counterfeiter! Come out!
CARRIE: The back door, Walter, quick -
STOUT: You hear me? Come out of that, McCoy!
WALTER: I'll come back, Carrie! I'll come back -
CARRIE: Hurry! Hurry -
STOUT: I'm comin' in there -
CARRIE: Here - kiss me - quick - oh, Walter, I love you, I love you - come back - come back -
WALTER: I'll come back ...
SOUND: (THE DOOR IS KICKED OPEN)
STOUT: Where'd he go -
CARRIE: Hurry, Walter - run - run -
WALTER: And I ran. Brother, how I ran.
Over a board fence, and I could hear the sheriff yelling right behind me. And the machine was ticking, ticking, and I was wishing it was eight o'clock, and wondering what'd happen when I did come back to 1897, and then -
SOUND: (THE RATCHET AND THE BUZZING, AND THE MUSIC BEHIND IT AS THE TIME-MACHINE OPERATES. A SUDDEN AUTOMOBILE HORN AS A CAR ROARS PAST.
[23]
WALTER: And I was dodging an automobile in a street in Pekin, Illinois, in 1947.
Yep. The machine was set for eight o'clock, and it was eight o'clock. Only twelve hours earlier than I'd figured.
So I walked on out here, and I kept wondering what happened to Sheriff Stout when I disappeared.
What happened to Bill Kelley's horse and buggy.
What happened to Carrie McKinstry.
Well. I came in the house.
I turned on the light.
I didn't see anybody at first.
I heard her voice first.
CARRIE: Walter.
WALTER: There in my easy chair was an old, old woman. And she spoke to me again.
CARRIE: Walter, I waited so long. Fifty years I've waited, Walter, and you didn't come back ...
(MUSIC: ... TOPS HER)
WALTER: When I came to, there wasn't anybody in the house but me.
Just me and a time machine.
I told you this place of mine is close to the cemetery road.
There's a funeral going by on the road now.
I don't need to ask whose it is.
It's an old lady, seventy-four years old, who waited and waited and waited for a sweetheart that never came back.
[24]
So there isn't any use keeping a time-machine any more, is there?
She said I never came back. And she knew.
(MUSIC: ... THEME)
ANNCR: You have listened to "Quiet, Please!" which is written and directed by Wyllis Cooper.
The man who spoke to you was Ernest Chappell.
CHAPPELL: And Nancy Sheridan played Carrie; Sheriff Stout was Donald Briggs, and Katharine Meskill was Mrs. Stout. The music for "Quiet, Please!" is composed and played by Gene Perrazzo.
Now for a word about next week's "Quiet, Please!" here is our writer-directer, Wyllis Cooper.
COOPER: I call next week's story "Camera Obscura" which, if you understand Italian, means "dark room" ---- you may like this story of what takes place in this dark room.
CHAPPELL: So until next week at this time, I am quietly yours, Ernest Chappell.
(MUSIC: ... THEME ... UP AND FADE FOR)
ANNCR: "Quiet, Please!" comes to you from New York.
THIS IS THE MUTUAL BROADCASTING SYSTEM.
NOTE: On pages 8, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24, "Mount" is the name of the Sheriff and his wife. Elsewhere in the script, and in the surviving recording of this episode, the characters are named "Stout." For clarity, "Mount" has been changed to "Stout" throughout the above text.
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"QUIET, PLEASE!"
Wyllis Cooper
No. 17
"NOT ENOUGH TIME"
_BROADCAST_
WOR - 10:00-10:30 PM EST MON. OCT. 6, 1947
MBS - 8:30- 9:00 PM EST WED. OCT. 8, 1947
_REHEARSALS_
Studio 16...2:00-5:00 PM EST MON. OCT. 6, 1947
Studio 15...8:00-10:00 PM EST MON. OCT. 6, 1947
[page 1]
CHAPPELL: Quiet, please.
(SEVEN SECONDS' SILENCE)
CHAPPELL: Quiet, please.
(MUSIC: ... THEME ... FADE FOR:)
ANNCR: The Mutual Broadcasting System presents Quiet, Please, which is written and directed by Wyllis Cooper, and features Ernest Chappell.
Quiet, Please for tonight is called "Not Enough Time".
(MUSIC: ... THEME ... FADE)
------------------------------
WALTER: Wait just a minute, will you, please?
I got to bust this thing.
SOUND: (STEPS AWAY)
WALTER: Only be a minute.
SOUND: (SEVERAL HAMMER-BLOWS ON SOMETHING LIKE AN ALARM-CLOCK. WE HEAR SPRINGS AND WHEELS SHATTER, AND THEN HE THROWS THE SMASHED BITS INTO AN ASHCAN.)
(MUSIC: ... THE PIANO HELPS OUT ON THE LAST SOUND)
WALTER: (RETURNING) So that's that.
That's sixteen hundred and forty dollars' worth of junk.
And four years' work.
And here's a bale of notes that the editor of Astonishing Stories would give his eye-teeth for.
He ain't gonna get 'em.
SOUND: (AND HE TEARS THE NOTES UP SLOWLY)
[2]
WALTER: Yup. That is strictly that.
(A PAUSE) It was a time-machine.
Yuh; one of those gadgets to travel in time. You know; turn it on and it takes you back fifty years and so on. You know - like Alley-Oop in the funny-paper; like the stories H. G. Wells wrote; you know.
SOUND: (HE REACHES INTO THE ASH-CAN)
WALTER: Yup. This was the dial you set for how far you wanted to go in time.
SOUND: (HE TOSSES IT ON TABLE)
WALTER: This was the cucambulator.
SOUND: (HE TOSSES IT AWAY)
WALTER: Here's a piece of the - well, never mind what it was. It's none of your business.
SOUND: (HE SWEEPS ALL THE PARTS INTO THE ASHCAN AGAIN)
WALTER: I sure wish _I_ hadn't monkeyed with a time machine.
Oh, this one _worked_!
Sure.
That's what's the matter, see?
It worked.
(MUSIC: ... A BRIEF ACCENT)
WALTER: Well, I don't want any part of time-machines - not after what happened to me with this one. You can make one for yourself, if you want to - and if you can - but you're not going to get any help from me. Oh, they can be made, all right. Me, I'm just a bumble-fingered mechanic out of a garage, and _I_ made one. But I'll give you my first and last piece of advice, buster. Don't you do it.
[3]
(MUSIC: ... A BRIEF ACCENT)
WALTER: I saved up my dough, and working around a garage I could glom onto a gadget here and there that Cliff Oswald didn't know about, and I had a lathe there, and some other machinery; and I did the rough-hand work there, see. Then when I quit and rented this old busted-down farmhouse out here on cemetery road, I bought some more machinery, see, stuff for precision work, and some stock - piece of iridium from that fountain-pen factory in Fort Madison, Iowa ... two or three polysterene plastics that they made for me in Parlin, New Jersey ... special crown glass prisms I had made here in town and some other stuff. Quite a lot of other stuff, and try and find out what it was.
You'd be surprised how easy it is to drop out of sight in a small town. This place here is 'way out in the sticks, past the cemetery, off on a side road that nobody's used for twenty, thirty years. And I done all my shopping in Peoria, instead of here in Pekin, and I never went down town or anything. So nobody knew I was here. It was just that easy.
I put in nearly four years, like I said.
And then all of a sudden the doggone thing worked. I was just sitting here, and I turned it on, see, and just like that it was raining. Well, the sun was shining bright when I turned it on, and for a minute I couldn't figure it.
[4]
Then I remembered it rained the day before, and by golly it _was_ the day before, right then!
How d'you _like_ that?
Well, I stayed in yesterday for ten minutes and then - tick! We came back and the rain stopped and the sun was shining again, and it wasn't even damp outside.
Well. I'm not going into a lot of details that you wouldn't understand if I told 'em to you, but the net of the thing was I decided I'd really try it out. But really. And that's the story.
Supposing you intended to take a trip back fifty years in time. How'd you prepare for it? Well, I'll tell you what I did. First I studied an old history of Tazewell county, paying particular attention to l897: fifty years ago. So's I wouldn't make any more bobbles than necessary. I picked out a place on a map where there wasn't any trees in l897. I didn't want to find myself hanging from somebody's apple-tree when the thing stopped. Then I bought my equipment.
I got me a revolver, and a camera and a flashlight. And some aspirin, and I was all fixed.
I moved the gadget out in the backlot, where the map said there wasn't any trees fifty years before. And I set it back to fifty years and I was reaching for the release when I got a sudden fast thought.
There I was, dressed in a double-breasted grey suit with white stripes, and a blue sport-shirt, and a pair of brown and white shoes.
[5]
It was the shoes, I guess. I looked down at 'em and I said Holy Moses! would I be a number in 1897 in this outfit! They'd throw me in the can before I could say Howdy! Imagine! So I quick disconnected the machine from my wrist, and put it back in the house, and jumped in the car and beat it for Peoria and a theatrical costume house. They thought I was nuts, but I got the rig I was lookin' for. How you like it? This here brown derby's a dinger, ain't it? Even with the dent in it. And get a load of the shoes. Buttons. And you know what? There ain't anyplace you can buy a buttonhook today! Well, anyway: you want to hear the story.
I got the machine out again and set it, and I took a long breath, and I said, well, kid, hold your hat, here we go, and I pressed the button.
SOUND: (WE HEAR A SERIES OF BUZZES, AND A KIND OF RATCHET SOUND, RISING IN INTENSITY, WITH THE ORGAN HELPING OUT. JUST BEFORE THE SOUND REACHES ITS HEIGHT, A WOMAN'S VOICE IS HEARD, CALLING)
CARRIE: Walter! Walter! Wait, Walter!
SOUND: (AND THE SOUND INCREASES TO A HOWL, STOPPING ABRUPTLY)
WALTER: By golly, I thought I heard somebody calling me ...
(BUT THERE IS NOT A SOUND)
WALTER: (LOOKING AROUND) There couldn't've been -
STOUT: You hold up your hands, there, you hear me?
WALTER: What? Now look out with that gun, buster -
STOUT: You hold up your hands, or I'll be forced to shoot.
[6]
WALTER: Who do you think _you_ are?
STOUT: You'll find out soon enough. (COMES CLOSER) Just you keep your hands up, now, you hear me?
WALTER: This is a fine way to welcome a stranger, bud.
STOUT: This is the way I welcome strangers all the time, and don't give me any sass, either. Who are you?
WALTER: My name's Walter McCoy.
STOUT: What you doing here?
WALTER: I'm a - I'm a visitor.
STOUT: Visiting who?
WALTER: Why - uh - Visiting - uh - (AN INSPIRATION) the Sheriff.
STOUT: Oh, you are, hey?
WALTER: (PROMPTLY) John Stout.
[7]
STOUT: Pleased to meet you.
WALTER: Huh?
STOUT: I'm John Stout, stranger.
WALTER: Oh, my golly!
STOUT: And you sure are going to visit me. Come on - march!
(MUSIC: ... UP AND FADE FOR)
WALTER: You see?
Smart guy, me. I told you I studied that history of Tazewell County till my head hurt, and the only name I could think of when this guy popped up from behind a fence was the sheriff's.
Well, John Stout marched me over to a horse and buggy, and he buttoned me to a stanchion with the biggest pair of rusty handcuffs I ever saw, and said git-ap, Queenie, and away we went to the jail-house.
And my time-machine lying on the ground out there two miles from where I was looking out of an iron-barred window. And it was all set to come back to 1947 in just twenty four hours.
Whether I was there or not.
How you like that?
(MUSIC: ... FOR AN ACCENT)
[8]
WALTER: I had a very pretty picture of me getting a fifty-year jail sentence, and getting out of Joliet just in time to come back to the house out on cemetary road and pick up where I left off - only at the age of seventy-six, instead of twenty-six.
Very pretty, huh?
Yeh, that's what I thought.
Well, they had me up before Judge Curran good and fast, but try as they could, they couldn't get anything on me.
STOUT: Horse-stealin'.
WALTER: I didn't steal any horses.
STOUT: Lurkin' and lyin' in wait.
WALTER: I was just standing there.
STOUT: Uh - Disturbin' the peace.
WALTER: I didn't say a word.
STOUT: (TRIUMPHANTLY) Disorderly conduct.
WALTER: Well, I said to myself, I'll buy that. It can't be a jail sentence for disorderly conduct, and I've got three or four hundred dollars in my pocket, and I can afford the fine, but I got to get out of here! So I paid off ten dollars and costs. Eleven dollars and ninety-six cents.
Sure. Sure. I'd remembered to get some old big-size bills, all kind of dirty, figuring they wouldn't examine the bills close enough so's I could get away - if I got in a jam, see - before anybody looked at the dates.
Uh-huh.
I was the smart kid.
[9]
It says here.
By this time, I've got a lot less than twenty-four hours before the old machine takes off, and I am beginning to get a small order of goose-pimples on the back of my neck, because I'm not exactly sure where the darn thing is ... after all, I'd never been here before, except fifty years later, see; and if I miss the thing, oh man!
I thought, though, I'd kind of case the town a little bit so if I wanted to come back - you know. I walk up Court Street a block, and there on the corner of Fifth is Bill Kelley's livery stable, where Conaghan's Ford Agency is now - right across the street, practically, from where I used to work for Cliff Oswald. There's nothing but a vacant lot _there_.
So I go into the stable and hire me a rig - get me! Hire a rig! - and pay in advance and I take off.
You ever drive a horse and buggy? Man, I was all over the lot. But I got out there after a fashion - out where I thought I'd left the machine.
So I tied the horse to a tree; somebody'd come and get him, I figured, and he could eat grass. That is if horses eat grass. And I started looking.
(MUSIC: ... FOR AN ACCENT)
[10]
WALTER: It was just a great big field, see. No landmarks of any kind. I got more and more panicky, because that old clock was going round and round ...
And then I saw a hole in the ground. Big hole. Dirt piled up around it, and out of the corner of my mind I sort of remembered seeing it when I landed, when Stout grabbed me.
All of a sudden, I had it!
This old house I worked in was about fifty years old! By golly, this was the foundation for it that somebody was digging!
Well, sure. I found the machine easy. South of the excavation about fifty yards. Lying there ticking away as if nothing'd happened.
Oh, boy! I said. Oh, boy! I practically kissed the thing. And then I jumped about six feet in the air.
CARRIE: What are you doing on our land, young man?
WALTER: Wow! There was the most beautiful girl in the world. Just the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. Red hair - no makeup - natch! - and I tell you she looked beautiful even in an l897 outfit, a brown dress down to her ankles, and a white shirt-waist with big red polka-dots on it. And a hat that looked like a dog's dinner. And she looked wonderful. And she pointed those big blue eyes at me and she said again.
CARRIE: What are you doing on our land?
WALTER: And when I could get my breath, I said who are you, lady?
[11]
CARRIE: My father and I merely happen to be the owners of this land, that's all.
WALTER: Well, I was - I mean - lady, I'm sorry.
CARRIE: You're trespassing.
WALTER: I'm sorry. I - used to live there in that house you're going to build.
CARRIE: What?
WALTER: I mean I'm going to live in - I - my name is Walter McCoy.
CARRIE: Well, I'll thank you to get off our land, Mr. Walter McCoy.
WALTER: Yeh, sure. Sure. I'll get off.
CARRIE: Right away.
WALTER: Yes, ma'm.
CARRIE: Well, go on.
WALTER: Lady, I - what's your name?
CARRIE: Carrie McKinstry. _Miss_ Carrie McKinstry. So there.
WALTER: Carrie McKinstry. Gee.
CARRIE: Sir?
WALTER: We're both Mac's, Carrie.
CARRIE: How dare you!
WALTER: What?
CARRIE: A gentleman would address me as Miss McKinstry, sir.
WALTER: Sir. I be darned.
CARRIE: I don't understand you.
WALTER: I said look, we're both Mac's, see. Maybe you're Irish, too.
CARRIE: Are you Irish?
WALTER: Irish descent.
CARRIE: So are we.
[12]
WALTER: Well, what do you know?
CARRIE: About what?
WALTER: Hello, Irish.
CARRIE: Sir! (AND THEN SHE LAUGHS) You're fresh.
WALTER: You're beautiful.
CARRIE: Take care, sir.
WALTER: Hey, do people really talk like that?
CARRIE: What people?
WALTER: You live around here?
CARRIE: On Ann Eliza Street, down near the fire-house.
WALTER: What are you doing out here?
CARRIE: You ask an awful lot of questions.
WALTER: I'm interested.
CARRIE: You're a masher!
WALTER: A what?
CARRIE: A masher. Don't you try to mash me!
[13]
WALTER: Gosh, Miss McKinstry, I wouldn't hurt you!
CARRIE: You certainly talk strangely, Mister McCoy.
WALTER: Well, I - I come from a long ways away from here, see.
CARRIE: Are you a drummer?
WALTER: No. I used to play a little piano when I was a kid, but -
CARRIE: I mean a traveling man.
WALTER: Well, yes. Yes, you might say I'm a traveling man. Yes, I guess I am.
CARRIE: What are you doing here?
WALTER: Uh - travelling, I guess.
CARRIE: Well, then, you travel.
WALTER: Listen, Miss Carrie - I have to wait a while.
CARRIE: Why?
WALTER: Well -
CARRIE: What's that machine thing there?
WALTER: It's a - a gadget.
CARRIE: Oh.
WALTER: Look, I have to wait a little while - let's you and me sit down and talk for a minute, will you?
CARRIE: I am not in the habit of talking to persons I don't know, Mr. McCoy.
WALTER: Why, you know me! You just called me by name. Carrie.
CARRIE: Why - why .... well, what would we talk about?
WALTER: Let's ... let's talk about the future, Carrie.
(MUSIC: ... UP BRIEFLY)
[14]
WALTER: Man!
Did you ever hear of love at first sight?
Yeh, I always thought it was bunk, too.
It ain't.
No, sir.
I wish you could've seen that girl. Red hair, blue eyes ... I said that, though, didn't I?
Well, nobody's going to see her.
Not me, even.
(MUSIC: ... A BRIEF ACCENT)
WALTER: We sat there on a pile of dirt and talked. I don't know what we talked about, though I guess I did most of the talking. I told her about automobiles, and radio, and skyscrapers, and airplanes, I think. I think I did. And she sat there and didn't believe a word of it, but she loved it.
And it got along toward dark and we still sat there, and the sun went down across the river and ... oh, man.
Yeah. I kissed her.
I forgot for a minute she was Irish.
SOUND: (THERE IS THE SOUND OF A GREAT BIG SLAP)
WALTER: Owtch!
CARRIE: Sir, I'll have you know that I'm a respectable girl!
WALTER: And I picked myself up out of the dirt and shoved my jaw back in place.
CARRIE: Oh, Walter! Walter! Did I hurt you? Walter!
(MUSIC: ... AN ACCENT)
[15]
WALTER: And the sound of a voice came back to me - remember, when I took off on this trip? Somebody yelled at me -
CARRIE: (OFF) Walter! Walter!
WALTER: And I didn't have any more time to think, because Carrie had her arms around _me_, and she was crying and kissing me, and -
Yeh. It was love at first sight. Doubled.
Carrie McKinstry, and Walter McCoy. October fifth, l897.
(MUSIC: ... AN ACCENT)
WALTER: And then she pushed herself away from me suddenly.
CARRIE: There's somebody coming!
WALTER: Huh? Who? Where?
CARRIE: Down the road - Look!
WALTER: And I looked. I couldn't miss that dapple-grey mare, Queenie! And even if I hadn't known it was Sheriff Stout, I could hear 'way down the road, the gong on the dashboard of his buggy
SOUND: (DISTANT GONG)
WALTER: and he was heading right for the place he'd found me!
CARRIE: It's the sheriff!
WALTER: Let me out of here!
CARRIE: You'll have to hide! Quick! Oh, gracious! What would my father say? Walter - hide!
WALTER: Yeh, but where?
CARRIE: In the cellar! Quick - jump in! Jump in!
WALTER: I must go down the cellar one of these days and see if my footprints are still down there on the cellar floor. I drove myself right up to the knees jumping in.
[16]
So I scrabbled some dirt over me, and squeezed up in the corner, the machine ticking away right under my chin, and I heard him come running up.
CARRIE: (OFF) Why, how do you do, Sheriff Stout?
STOUT: (OFF) Howdy, Carrie? You seen anything of a miscreant?
CARRIE: A miscreant? Heavens to Betsey, no, Sheriff!
STOUT: I figured he'd come out here where I captured him before.
CARRIE: You captured - what - who is he?
STOUT: He's a dog-gone counterfeiter, that's who!
CARRIE: A counterfeiter?
STOUT: I picked him up for disorderly conduct, and he paid his fine, and all the coins was dated from 1932 to 1947 - the fool! fifty years from now!
CARRIE: Oh, no, sheriff ...
STOUT: By goodness, yes! Well, he ain't gonna take me in! I'll put him in jail for a hundred years. You sure you ain't seen him, Carrie?
WALTER: I waited in the dirt, holding my breath. I waited ten years, it seemed.
CARRIE: No. No, sheriff, I haven't seen anybody.
STOUT: Well. Well, all right. If you you do, though, Carrie, you let me know. Might even be some kind of reward.
CARRIE: All right. All right, I will. Good night, sheriff.
STOUT: Don't forget!
CARRIE: No. I won't forget.
(MUSIC: ... AN ACCENT)
CARRIE: You can come out now, counterfeiter. (SHE BURSTS INTO TEARS)
[17]
(MUSIC: ... UP FULL AND FADE FOR)
WALTER: Did I say she had red hair?
Yeah.
Brother, I've been chewed out by experts, I thought. But Carrie! She threw the book at me. And all the time crying. That was rugged. Finally, when she slowed down, I started to talk.
Look, I was in love with her.
That was day before yesterday.
That was fifty years ago.
So I confessed. I told her all about the machine, and how I had to go back with it, or be stuck here.
No, she didn't believe me at first. But after a while, I guess I convinced her. I know I convinced her. And I told her I was in love with her.
The moon was coming up.
And she told me she thought she was in love with me.
She knew she was in love with me.
There's a fix to be in, brother.
Well.
CARRIE: You can't stay here, Walter.
WALTER: I guess not, but ...
CARRIE: Oh, Walter, I do love you - I'm a shameless woman, but I love you -
(MUSIC: ... [?] )
[18]
WALTER: You see?
I looked at the machine. I had till eight o'clock the next morning. We couldn't sit there in the field all night. I said I'll take you home, Carrie, and we can talk about it on the way. So she said all right, and we climbed into the buggy and started back to town. You know, you can say what you want to about this world we got today, but ... you've never been riding along an unpaved road with a hedge fence along one side, and big elm trees lining the other side, and a laprobe over your knees, and a big round harvest moon shining down above the hills up towards Billy Moore's place ... and lonesome little lights from kerosene lamps shining out of windows off in the distance... and a girl alongside you ...
That was a pretty good world they had fifty years ago. A pretty good world. I wish we had it now.
Yeh. I should have stayed.
But I didn't.
Well, we got to her house.
There wasn't anybody home.
Her father was a railroad man, and he was out on a run somewhere. Decatur, or Springfield, or Bloomington, or somewhere.
We went in the house.
I'd seen pictures.
She lit a kerosene lamp, and there it was.
[19]
WALTER: Brother, I should have stayed. Rag carpet on the floor. A pump at the kitchen sink that went
[X]SOUND:[/X] (EE-WAW, EE-WAW)
when she pumped water for the coffee.
There wasn't a tin can in the kitchen cupboard.
Yeh. I should have stayed.
So we were having a little supper, and talking, you know, low voices ... eating pork chops and applesauce, and there was an apple-pie on the table, and coffee in - believe it or not a mustache-cup, and it was awful nice in the yellow light, and there was a
[X]SOUND:[/X] (KNOCK ON THE DOOR)
CARRIE: Who's that?
[X]SOUND:[/X] (AND THE DOOR OPENED)
WALTER: and a great big tall woman walked in. She jumped when she saw me.
MRS. STOUT: Oooh! Well, excuse me!
CARRIE: Why - why, good evening, Mrs. Stout.
MRS. STOUT: I didn't know you had company, Carrie, or I wouldn't've come bursting in like this ...
CARRIE: It's all right, Mrs. Stout. Mrs. Stout, this is Mr. McCoy.
MRS. STOUT: Oh. Pleased to meet you, Mr. McCoy.
WALTER: How do you do.
MRS. STOUT: Why, I've been poorly, but I'm tolerable now, thank you. You a stranger in town, Mr. McCoy?
CARRIE: Mr. McCoy is a - stranger in town.
[20]
MRS. STOUT: Well, my goodness. Nice and cozy, ain't it? Think your father'd approve, Carrie? Not that it's any of my business, of course, but - (SHE LAUGHS) - it is a little odd. Isn't it, Mr. McCoy?
WALTER: Yes. Yes, it's very odd.
CARRIE: Mr. McCoy is a friend of mine, Mrs. Stout.
MRS. STOUT: Well, I should think so!
CARRIE: Mrs. Stout lives next door, Walter. I forgot to tell you.
WALTER: I see. And Mr. Stout lives there, too.
MRS. STOUT: Well, of course, he's up at the county jail quite a lot. He's the sheriff, you know.
WALTER: Yes, I know.
CARRIE: Yes, we know.
MRS. STOUT: He's out looking for a miscreant someplace.
CARRIE: Is he?
MRS. STOUT: A stranger in town.
WALTER: Is that so?
MRS. STOUT: He'll be home any minute. Maybe he'll drop in.
WALTER: Oh, well, I - I got to be going.
CARRIE: Yes. Walter is in a hurry. He just stopped in for a - a bite to eat.
MRS. STOUT: Mm-hm. Well, I just happened to see that rig from Bill Kelley's livery stable out front, and thinks I, what's that rig doing out in front of McKinstry's, and so I decided to stop in for a minute ...
CARRIE: Well - ah -
[21]
MRS. STOUT: Where did you come from, did you say, Mr. - what was the name?
WALTER: Why - ah - ah -
MRS. STOUT: Hey?
WALTER: McCoy, Mrs. Stout.
MRS. STOUT: Mm-hm. That's what I thought Carrie said. Well - good night.
WALTER AND
CARRIE: Good night
SOUND: (AND THE DOOR CLOSES BEHIND HER)
CARRIE: Walter!
WALTER: I get it.
CARRIE: Look what I've done to you!
WALTER: It's all right, honey. If I can get out of here before Stout comes home -
CARRIE: She'll tell him!
WALTER: You kiddin'? Sure she will. Well - I'm gonna see how fast that horse of Mr. Kelley's is.
CARRIE: You'll have to hurry, Walter - oh, Walter, darling -
WALTER: Can't be helped, honey. But I wish -
CARRIE: Oh, Walter - you will come back, won't you?
WALTER: You bet I'll come back! And I'll make me another of these machines, and I'll come and get -
CARRIE: Listen!
SOUND: (A DOOR SLAMS, OFF)
MRS. STOUT: (OFF) He's in there, John! He's right in there with Carrie McKinstry!
WALTER: Quick - turn out the light!
[22]
STOUT: (OFF A LITTLE) Come out of that, counterfeiter! Come out!
CARRIE: The back door, Walter, quick -
STOUT: You hear me? Come out of that, McCoy!
WALTER: I'll come back, Carrie! I'll come back -
CARRIE: Hurry! Hurry -
STOUT: I'm comin' in there -
CARRIE: Here - kiss me - quick - oh, Walter, I love you, I love you - come back - come back -
WALTER: I'll come back ...
SOUND: (THE DOOR IS KICKED OPEN)
STOUT: Where'd he go -
CARRIE: Hurry, Walter - run - run -
WALTER: And I ran. Brother, how I ran.
Over a board fence, and I could hear the sheriff yelling right behind me. And the machine was ticking, ticking, and I was wishing it was eight o'clock, and wondering what'd happen when I did come back to 1897, and then -
SOUND: (THE RATCHET AND THE BUZZING, AND THE MUSIC BEHIND IT AS THE TIME-MACHINE OPERATES. A SUDDEN AUTOMOBILE HORN AS A CAR ROARS PAST.
[23]
WALTER: And I was dodging an automobile in a street in Pekin, Illinois, in 1947.
Yep. The machine was set for eight o'clock, and it was eight o'clock. Only twelve hours earlier than I'd figured.
So I walked on out here, and I kept wondering what happened to Sheriff Stout when I disappeared.
What happened to Bill Kelley's horse and buggy.
What happened to Carrie McKinstry.
Well. I came in the house.
I turned on the light.
I didn't see anybody at first.
I heard her voice first.
CARRIE: Walter.
WALTER: There in my easy chair was an old, old woman. And she spoke to me again.
CARRIE: Walter, I waited so long. Fifty years I've waited, Walter, and you didn't come back ...
(MUSIC: ... TOPS HER)
WALTER: When I came to, there wasn't anybody in the house but me.
Just me and a time machine.
I told you this place of mine is close to the cemetery road.
There's a funeral going by on the road now.
I don't need to ask whose it is.
It's an old lady, seventy-four years old, who waited and waited and waited for a sweetheart that never came back.
[24]
So there isn't any use keeping a time-machine any more, is there?
She said I never came back. And she knew.
(MUSIC: ... THEME)
ANNCR: You have listened to "Quiet, Please!" which is written and directed by Wyllis Cooper.
The man who spoke to you was Ernest Chappell.
CHAPPELL: And Nancy Sheridan played Carrie; Sheriff Stout was Donald Briggs, and Katharine Meskill was Mrs. Stout. The music for "Quiet, Please!" is composed and played by Gene Perrazzo.
Now for a word about next week's "Quiet, Please!" here is our writer-directer, Wyllis Cooper.
COOPER: I call next week's story "Camera Obscura" which, if you understand Italian, means "dark room" ---- you may like this story of what takes place in this dark room.
CHAPPELL: So until next week at this time, I am quietly yours, Ernest Chappell.
(MUSIC: ... THEME ... UP AND FADE FOR)
ANNCR: "Quiet, Please!" comes to you from New York.
THIS IS THE MUTUAL BROADCASTING SYSTEM.
NOTE: On pages 8, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24, "Mount" is the name of the Sheriff and his wife. Elsewhere in the script, and in the surviving recording of this episode, the characters are named "Stout." For clarity, "Mount" has been changed to "Stout" throughout the above text.