 A mysterious traveller. The mysterious traveller inviting you to join me on another journey into the realm of the strange and the terrifying. I hope you will enjoy the trip, that it will thrill you a little and cheer you a little. So settle back, get a good grip on your nerves and be comfortable, if you can. Where are we going? Why are we going to visit a man who could change the soul of a human being from one body into another? In a story I call, They Who Sleep. My story begins, late one foggy night in a dingy little room in the slum section of a great city. The occupant of the room, the small man, white haired, his cheeks hollow from hunger, is just admitted a visitor whom he does not know and whom he is trying to send away. An expensive redressed young woman with a heavy veil hiding her face. But my child, it cannot be me to whom you wish to speak. You have made some mistake. I haven't made any mistake. I've been hunting for you for days. I spend a good deal of money tracing you here. But I do not understand. Why should you wish to find me Alexander Thomas, a penniless old man who... You did not always use the name Alexander Thomas. Once you called yourself Chadwin the Great, hypnotist beyond compare. Chadwin the Great? Yes. I once used that name. But Chadwin the Great no longer exists. I am only Alexander Thomas now. Listen to me, Chadwin. We've met before. Ten years ago you gave a performance at the Bijou Theater. There are so many Bijou Theater. You asked for volunteers to be hypnotized. I came up on the stage. I and my sister Rose. You hypnotized her easily, but you could not hypnotize me. There were so many. I cannot remember. No, but you can remember this newspaper clipping. That old story from the newspapers? Where did you get it? It says that you, Chadwin the Great, once performed the experiment of exchanging two men's souls. By the use of secret drugs and your great powers of hypnotism, you transferred one man's soul into another man's body. You cannot believe all the newspapers say... But you did this before witnesses. And one of the two men died. You went to prison for five years for manslaughter. Why do you come here to remind an old man of his tragedies? Go please, leave me alone. No, Chadwin. For years I've kept this clipping for years. Never knowing what impulse made me tear it out and save it. Until last week I found it again. And then I knew... You speak not like a woman, but like a soul possessed by devils. Perhaps I am. So you can transfer souls from one body to another? No, no, I cannot. How much would you charge to do it again? Do not ask that of me. I am old. I have been in prison. How much, Chadwin? Could you put my soul into another's body for ten thousand dollars? Ten thousand dollars. Yes. Then you could live like a man again, not like a starving animal in this hovel. Once before I tempered with the eternal laws, I paid the penalty. And so did one of those I experimented upon. But which one, Chadwin? Which one? He died. The other, the strong soul in its new body, lived. Then I am ready. When can you do it? Tomorrow night? Well, my child, why should you risk your life for that which cannot be, which was not meant to be? Look, Chadwin. I shall raise my veil. What you call me beautiful. Even pretty? No. I'm ugly. You are not ugly. Your face is strong. But if it were not twisted by bitterness... Enough of talking! How can you know what it means to a woman to be ugly? To lose the man you love to a woman you hate? Because you are plain, and she is so beautiful. Chadwin, will you do as I ask? To help you change with one who is beautiful. To help you to be loved for just a little. My child, perhaps it is not such a great wickedness to do that. Then you'll do it? But it is only for a little while. You must understand that. For ten days no more. Then the laws which cannot be violated with impunity require that your soul must return to your body. It's enough. It's all I want, Chadwin. Very well. I have here small bottle. Take it. Guard it carefully. When the moment comes, she, the other, must drink it in water. Yes. It will be easy. She will drift off to sleep. Then you, you must come to me. But not here. It would not be safe. Never mind. I know the place. The safest in the world. Very well. The exchange will be made. You will see that she, in your body, slumber dreamlessly. After ten days she will wake and be herself again. With no memory, whatever, what has happened. And now, Miss Vaughn. Helen Vaughn. Now, Miss Vaughn, who is this beautiful one with whom you would change places? The girl who just married the man I love. My sister, Rose Vaughn. Good morning, Bessie. Good morning, Miss Helen. Where's Miss Rose? She's gone downstairs yet? Mrs. Tabor, you must learn to say now, Miss Helen. This is Tabor, then. She's in her room, Miss Helen. Is, uh, Mr. Tabor with her? Yes, he is. All right, Bessie, thank you. Helen, is that you? We thought we heard your voice. Come on in. Leonard just leaving for the office. Good morning, Helen. How's the best sister-in-law I ever had? Hello, Rose. Leonard? Darling, what's the matter? I know. Did you hear what time this young lady got in last night? It must have been quite a party. Leonard, I hope you aren't keeping tabs on Helen. No, but I did hear the clock strike three just as her door closed. Well, me for the office. First, a goodbye kiss. Oh, gosh. I sure picked myself a beautiful wife. Oh, run along, you silly. Bye, Helen. Got a sisterly kiss for me? Don't put your arms around me, please. Well, there's sisterly affection for you. You'd think she hated me. Oh, run along with it. I probably need you downtown to polish off a big deal. Yeah, they probably do it that. OK, I'm on my way. Bye, you two. Bye, darling. Oh, Helen, you are in a mood this morning. I just think you two carry this lovey-dovey business to a ridiculous extreme. Helen, this is if... Well, is if you dislike seeing Leonard kiss me? You don't have to be constantly kissing him in front of other people, do you? Helen, oh, my dear, I didn't realize... Didn't realize what? Didn't realize it. Oh, Helen, darling, believe me, someday the man will come along who'll mean just as much to you as... as Leonard does to me. You'll find him. I'll help you find him. Listen, I'll give some parties and invite a lot of new men. Don't, Rose. Let go of me. Don't go gushing over me, you idiot. Helen, how can you be so cruel? Oh, stop sniveling like that. I'm sorry, Helen, but you're always so sharp when anybody tries to be nice to you. And you, you're always so nice to everybody, so soft, so sweet. Sorry, Rose. I always forget how the least quarrel upset you. Well, here, drink this, Rose. There's a sedative in it. Something quite harmless, it'll soothe your nerves. All right. Nasty stuff. Now lie down in your bed. That's it. Just a few moments now and you'll be drifting off to slumberland, my beautiful sister. Oh, it's quick, isn't it? It'll drive you already. You do? And you must give in to the feeling, you hear? Don't fight it. Rose, little Rose. Rose? Can you hear me? Yeah, I hear you. It seems such a long way the way. Such a long way. Rose, you're to come to me when I call you. Do you hear? You're to sleep for a while. Then when I call, no matter where I am, you're to come to me. She's asleep. Jadwin's drug is working. Come. Well, let it rain. Yes, let the skies open and branch the earth. Let the rain fall like a curtain. Like a cloak to hide the rebirth of Helen Vaughn. Leaving her sister Rose in a slumber so deep, it was almost deathlike. Helen Vaughn hurried to her room. There she wrote a note addressed to Rose and Leonard, explaining that she had decided suddenly to go off by herself on a trip to Mexico, and that they would probably not hear from her if for some time. Then she put on her hat and coat and slipped out. All day she waited in a hotel. Then when night came, she picked up Jadwin the great in a rented car and drove him through the storm into a spot well outside the city. When she turned into an ancient cemetery, there she brought the car to a stop before a low building of white marble over which Ivy and Moss had grown for many years. With a heavy key, she opened a massive padlock, and they entered, shutting the door behind them. The air in this old musty Liam is dank odor of a charnel house. But where else could the living liar sleep peaceful and undisturbed as safely as here among the sleeping dead? No, I will not go so many. You already have your money? You can knock back out now. Then in heaven's name, let us be finished quickly. Quickly, yes. The storm should hide the car from the cemetery guards, but we must take no chances. Now, here's a flashlight I brought. I'll turn it on. Look there, Jadwin, at the tears of compartments this tiny stone building holds. Each compartment with its iron door, each holding within it a coffin in which lies the dust of a Vaughan. I see them, yes. Twelve of them. This one, here on the bottom, is empty. It meant some day to hold the body of Helen Vaughan. Tonight it shall receive her. No, no, this is madness. I'll open it. See that narrow, dark compartment. So small, so quiet, so restful, so safe from disturbance. In it for the next ten days, I'll rest my body, holding the soul of my sister Rose. No, no, there must be some other way. None that is safe. While my body sleeps, and I am absent from it, it must be where no one can find. And here, no one ever will. I do not like it. Pull the light. I'll slide into it. Wait, fool me enough. The stone is chilly, but what matters that to one is when he sleeps. Go in there. Rose-Van, hear me. Enter the body that awaits you here. Enter quickly and wait. This guy... Shadwin closed and locked the iron door of the compartment, slipped from the most alieum, left the padlock on a huge door again, and was gone. At the same time, back in the big house in the city, the frantic Leonard faced the floor, waiting for some change in the condition of his wife Rose who all day had been in a strained stupa from which nothing could arouse her. There you are. Doesn't she look better? Yes, I... I think she does. She's waking up. Rose, Rose darling, don't be frightened. Yes, of course it's me. Who did you think it was going to be? I was startled. I guess... I guess I must have been dreaming. Rose, what's happened to you? Your voice sounds just like Helen's. Really, Leonard? Perhaps I'm catching a cold. No, no. Now you sound like yourself again. But for a moment I'd have sworn it was Helen speaking. I guess I've been so worried I'm just imagining things. Leonard, hold me close. Close, darling, close. Always, Rose, always. Always. Yes, always. She'll never have you back, never. What are you saying, Rose? I was just thinking of how much I love you. So much that I'll never let anything take you away from me. Never! In the days that followed, Leonard found his beautiful wife, Rose, strangely changed. You... You've been different somehow these last 10 days. In fact, ever since Helen went away, so unexpected. Have I, Leonard? How? Well, you've been gayer. More headstrong, too. It's almost as if you required a whole character. Well, perhaps I have. And how do you like this new wife of yours? Well, I do, and I... Don't? Oh, please, I... I don't mean it. It's just that... Well, I was so in love with the old Rose, it's a little hard to get used to the new. And all these bills that you're running up, like, that's not like the Rose you used to be. And, uh, I do hope you're not too mad at me because... Well, what is it this time? Another fur coat? Uh-huh. Worse than that. We're going to give a party. Another? Why, there's three in 10 days. Rose, I forbid it. You can't, Len. Because I've invited everybody already. Rose, it's so unlike you. You used... Why, you act more like Helen than like yourself these days. Never mind, darling. You'll get used to the change in me. In time. Bring her husband's displeasure, Rose, or, should I say, Helen, when I head with her planned for a party that night. And when early in the evening, a small gray-haired man presented himself at the door and asked for her, he sent word by Bessie that she would not see him. I'm sorry, Mr. Chadron. Mrs. Tabor says she cannot see him. She says she does not know anyone named Chadron. Well, she does. Ten days ago I was here. I gave you an envelope for her. It had a key in it. Oh, surely you remember? Yes, but just the same, she says she doesn't know you. Now, please go, or I'll have to call an officer. Did you tell her what I said? This was the 10th day? Yes, and she said she had no idea what you were talking about. All right, I'm going to do what I can by myself. And while the gay party went on, miles away in the old cemetery, Chadron the Great worked frantically with a hammer and chisel to force the padlock on the door of the mausoleum in which, unknown to the world, a sleeping girl lay hidden. Look, God don't kill it all. He won't let me into our house. He won't even talk to me. Won't let me warn her if she wa... What is it? The dog's coming this way. There he is. Nobody's trying to take him to the one what's in here. The dogs. I must run for it. Look out, he's getting away. There you go, great runner. They missed me. I've got to get back to town. I must warn her. She's got to know. Miss Warn, thank heaven this time you heeded my message. I won't have you coming around to my house this way. Do you hear? You must never come here again. But you do not understand. The ten days is up tonight. Now, your time is over. Are you trying to scare me, Chadron? To get more money from me? Money? No. I'm just trying to tell you. It was understood ten days only. Mark is not allowed. You fool. Do you think I ever intended to give up Rosa's body once I had it? In that narrow crypt in the tightly locked morselium, my body has long since died from lack of air. That rose has died, but I remain alive. Oh, that is what you planned. I should have guessed. But it is not so. Your body is not deep. It is in a sleep so deep that it scarcely breathes. It needs no food, no water. But sometime tonight, the dog will wear off and your sister Rose will claim her body again while you, you, Helen Bond, will wait to find yourself locked within a burial crypt. No. No, it's not true. It is true. And you will not be asleep. You will be awake, needing air. And there will be no air. You're just trying to frighten me. And tonight I try to open a tomb to save you. I was driven away by guards with dogs. But what can I do? Only if we can reach the tomb in time to open it, can you be saved. We must go now. I'll get the key. And we must hurry. Hurry! There's the most lean, Miss Bond. We, heaven and the gods, are not waiting. They won't be. We fool them by leaving the car outside and walking up this back path. Now hurry, Chip. What is it, Miss Bond? I don't know. For a moment. It's Rose trying to return to her body. We cannot waste an instant. Hold me up. Something is pulling at me, tugging at me. She's speaking to her own lips. No. No, not yet. Go back. You hear me, Rose? Go back. Here's the most lean. The key. Give me the key. Here it is. Quickly. She's pushing at me so hard. Help me. Everything is so dark. Where are you? Go back. I'll tell you. Chad will have you got the lock out. It won't unlock. It must. They put a new padlock on. Oh, dear heaven, they've changed the lock. Help me. No. No. It's getting dark. Dark. It's hopeless. We cannot enter. Helen, where are you? No. We can't both be in the same body. Go back. Helen, I'm trying. Don't push me out. Help me. Go back where you were. Help me. Wait, Rose, wait. They're coming back. Help me. Child, sleep a little longer and wake without memories. With it, I can do nothing now. And God, they must not catch me. They must not catch me. There it is. We've got him this time. Only catch. It's a girl. It's Mrs. Tavern. The sleeper of the steps of her own family wants to live. Say, we got to get her out of here. Help me live to her end. And wait. Did you hear something then? Somebody calling a long ways off. Listen. I don't hear it. Did you hear anything? I can't hear anything. It's just a wind. Come on. We've got to phone Mrs. Tavern's husband. She may be sick. Come on now. No time to lose. Do you remember anything about a man named Chadwin? Chadwin? It's Leonard. Bessie says he called several times last week to see you. The last time was the night of the party. You're sure you don't remember it? No, Leonard. I'm sorry. Oh, that's all right, darling. I just thought maybe you might have begun to remember some of the things that happened during those ten days when you, well, weren't yourself. It's so strange. It's just my mind has been asleep the whole time. Is there something about Chadwin, the paper? He committed suicide last night. His body was found near the old family morselium. He left a mysterious note saying he was paying for some transgression. Oh, strange. I wondered if he could have given us any clue as to how you came to leave the party so suddenly that night and drive to the cemetery. Oh, but it's all over now and not worth worrying about. I remember if I could, but when I try, I become suddenly frightened and feel as if I were locked in in some dark, tiny space where I can't breathe. All right now, darling. Let's forget the whole thing. Now, let's see what came in the morning mail. Maybe there's a letter from Helen. You know, it's high time we were hearing from her. She's really not acting much like a sister being. Oh, for long without even reminding her to let her just know where she is. This is the mysterious traveler again. I'm afraid Leonard and Rose are going to have to wait a long time for a letter from Helen. In fact, I'll be very much surprised if they ever get one. I suppose it'll never occur to them to look in the old Marcelium. In fact, since they both feel a distinctive version of going near it, it may never be open again. But I don't suppose that'll make much difference to Helen now. Now, if you were wishing that you could step into somebody else's shoes, maybe what happened to Helen will make you change your mind. You know, I knew a man once who stole somebody else's body only to discover when it was too late that he... Oh, you're getting off here? Well, perhaps we'll meet again soon. I take this same train every week at this same time. You have just heard chapter 55 of The Mysterious Traveler, a series of dramas of the strange and terrifying. In Tonight's Story, They Who Sleep, Philip Clark played Chadwin, Gertrude Warner played Helen, and Helen Clare played Rose. The Mysterious Traveler is written by Bob Arthur and David Kogan. Original music is played by Henry Silverne, and the entire production is under the direction of Jock McGregor. Listen next week to a tale titled Escape Through Time, another tale of The Mysterious Traveler. The Mysterious Traveler is presented by W.O.R. Mutual from the W.O.R. Studios in New York. This is Mutual.