 Autolight and its 98,000 dealers bring you Mr. Herbert Marshall in tonight's presentation of Suspense Tonight Autolight presents the story of a man who having no fear Attempted his own death a new dramatization of C.E. Montague's action our star mr. Herbert Marshall Hello, mr. Wilcox what you hear already. Yes, sir. Mr. Wilcox is Johnny plug check time again Well, so it is cold weather's coming and that means Johnny's around to remind you motorists to get that car Prepared for winter now with a tune-up change of oil and grease and if we and don't forget to check those important spark plugs too Yes, sir Johnny because the spark plugs are the very heart of a car's ignition system, and they're right You'll start quicker and sure every time even in coldest weather So visit your auto light spark plug dealer right Johnny He's a tune-up expert and a specialist on spark plug cleaning and adjustment and if replacements are needed He'll recommend a new set of ignition engineered auto light spark plugs like the amazing double life resistor spark plug To quickly learn the location of your nearest auto light spark plug dealer phone Western Union by number and ask for operator 25 and remember from bumper to tail light you're always right with auto light and now Auto light presents action starring mr. Herbert Marshall hoping once again to keep you in Suspense it happened very simply one Monday morning. I Woke up and there was a slight numbness all down my right side The arm fingers a good deal along the leg rather less in my Foot and just a little in the head I They still for a moment would let it pass off, but it didn't and I suddenly knew that it wasn't going to I'd heard about such things other chaps of the club the office Now that happened to me I remember getting up I could still stand walk dress and shave But the numbness went on That morning instead of walking I took the tram to the office. It was a pleasant autumn day And there were a lot of young people aboard healthy young people The conductor moved down the passageway collecting fares Wellington Avenue, please. That's certainly sir. I do well. Oh now we don't take buttons, sir I am sorry, I thought that's quite all right, sir does rather look like silver and Is it's not me, but sir. Thank you His tact and sympathy were perfect And I had a new care now site to was that going? site touch the whole sensory business losing precision entering on the long slope to decay I Don't think I got much work done that morning going away. What I did was good for me kept my mind off things I Had a call to the one appointment with an old friend Adrian till it when I hadn't seen for a month or two We'd arranged to meet at my club. I Was a little early and sat in my usual place to wait for him. I Say bell Yes, did you hear about Cheetah house? They brought his birthday back to England yesterday. I know yes You've done some mountaineering yourself. Haven't you a bit lost if I know what you fellas see in it Bloody awful way to die if you ask me fallen off a mountain. I suppose there are worse ways try to tell that to his wife Well, I'm feeling a bit pickish. Will you join me for lunch? Thanks very much. I'm waiting for someone. All right, sir Hello, Ben. I'm sorry to keep you waiting. No, you haven't just got here myself Hold on teddy I Say you look seedy Feeling all right. Yes splendid. Come along. We'll have a bite to eat. Good. I'm famished That's better. Yeah, thanks. What about you? I don't think so Look here. Well, it's anything wrong. I mean well you you look like a dying duck in a thunderstorm Something I can do. I'm afraid not serious. I suppose it is In a way If you want to talk about it, I might as well. I Woke up this morning And I thought numb The right side. I had some sort of a stroke during the night. Have you been to the doctor? No, I don't think I show You know as well as I do what he'd say my dear boy. You can't let a thing like that Just go I don't intend to be an invalid for the rest of my life till it I've seen this happen to people so view End up in a bath chair being fed by some heredon nurse who won't even let you wipe your own nose. No, thanks What are you going to do? I don't know yet The big thing seems to be How long? How long does a thing like this take men like you you live to be a hundred you're an active Chap there's no reason on earth why you know, that's just it I don't follow I don't want to live to any age like this Say why not come up to my place on Friday spent the weekend change of air will do you good? No, I really don't think I don't be an idiot Marjorie's dying to see you she always complains that you've given us up now I'm going to expect you that the streams awfully good this year will do some fishing, right? Right thanks. Thanks to it The rest of the week passed and the sensation of numbness remained with me Sometimes a bit more or less at nights. I thought I thought a great deal On Friday, I drove down to waybridge It was obvious that till it had told his wife about me. It didn't matter much except I found myself annoyed at her solicitude I Suppose she couldn't help it But it was one of the things that definitely made up my mind And you what I was going to do And I told my old friend We were on the bank of the stream. He just landed a nice trout And we sat down for a smoke I've made up my mind what to do tell it oh Yes, I wonder Had an idea you were up to something you Not a quiet you know I'm sorry Is it any better? No, no, not the same. I Had a dream just before I came down here. I was climbing It was on a crag that became steeper and steeper as I went up First it was vertical and then it overhung more and more until I was actually Climbing a reverse slope must have been awkward. It's been done. You know as it Yes, I bet about it, but I've never done it myself. What happened in your dream. I fell Woke up. I thought a lot about it. It's that margin of safety, you know One does a lot of climbing if you're any good at all you don't slip in the really difficult places But supposing you you pair away at the margin of safety an experiment What could you do before all the margin was gone if you didn't care I don't know Haven't tried climbing if one cut out the old fear of death One could do some amazing things. Is that what you're going to do? I think so Yes, look for one of those crags. Yes. I've never done that. I Know of one. I'd like to try the now the Charlie Hawk It's a ridge of the vice horn sounds impressive. There are higher mountains But not many more interesting if you want to be a human fly Why not try the chalk it down the road straight up and down not so far I wouldn't do No It wouldn't would it I'm not going to say anything to bear. There's nothing one can say really I Wish you wouldn't do it and I understand why you think you must Then will you leave next week the snow is will be coming at the end of the month Not much sense in making it too dangerous, is there no Not not since in that Ten days later, I arrived at the now and met a little guide I'd known for many years. His name was gaspar And he knew the mountains of the Alps is very few men know them He and his wife ran the hotel and after dinner was my first night there We talked over a cognac. It is good to see you again my friend I repeat what a surprise and so late in the year. I remembered you live with my month, wasn't it? Those days we did some fine climbing you and I find and where shall we go this time? My time is my own and now yours the amateurs have gone. We shall climb for sport, huh? Perhaps so. I I Want to try the west side of the shawley hook good good Hope you won't be upset gaspar First time I go up. I mean to do it alone Alone yes Did you say the west side? That's right May I speak of something I've noticed of course When I saw you today. I noticed something a slight limp You have been in an accident. No, they're just a little stiffness. You have done some climbing since we last were together Not much but the west side of the ridge for a man out of condition Is that why I don't see why not? When do you plan to start tomorrow? I Have never tried it myself. I'll give you a full report Yes, I hope you will The last man who tried it never came back He fell and we still have not found the body Auto light is bringing you mr. Herbert Marshall in Action tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills Suspense Frost is coming so be wise now is the time to winterize right Johnny plug check time for that winter Tune up change of oil grease and some anti-freeze and check those important spark plugs, too I have spark plugs at the very heart of your car's ignition system And when they're right you'll start quicker and sureer every time even in coldest weather If replacements are needed your auto light spark plug dealer will recommend a brand new set of ignition engineered Auto light spark plugs like the double life resistor spark plug the greatest spark plug advance for automotive use in the past 25 years It gives smoother engine performance and quick starts for twice as long as spark plugs without a built-in resistor And the resistor spark plug is only one of a complete line of auto light spark plugs Ignition engineered for every use so when you're getting your car winterized make sure to check the spark plugs, too See your nearest auto light spark plug dealer this week and remember from bumper to tail light You're always right with auto light And now auto light brings back to our Hollywood soundstage mr. Herbert Marshall in Elliot Lewis's production of action a tail well calculated to keep you in suspense That night before I went to bed. I Sat for a little while alone in the smoking room I had nothing to do no goodbyes. No last letter to write No will to be made that was done and accounted for I Felt my right arm and leg with the fingers of my left hand still numb That's strange Unfeeling feeling After that I read for a bit then turning out the lamp Went to my room The next morning was dazzling the soft green valley middle and sparking and above against the bluest of skies the mountains The autumn Sun was warm And as I decided to travel as lightly as possible. I was glad for that Leaving the hotel. I made my way past the cow barn the tiny post office and on toward the past Which led gently upward. I Must have been walking for about five minutes when he caught up with me I nearly missed you. You were gone before I knew it. Good morning. Yes, but a Beautiful morning for your climb. I Thought if you did not mind that I would walk with you to the bridge. I don't mind on the least My wife was worried. I'm sorry to hear there about you. My wife is a woman who has premonitions You know women. Yes, she needed to what did you know as I told her you are one of the best Still she could not understand why you would suddenly appear and decide to climb the most difficult place on the mountain Sorry, she knows mountaineers. Yes She knows them and she knows they do not attempt such things without a little practice of flexing of unused muscles I'm in splendid form gaspa Up there That is where you go the bulge. Yes And when you have conquered that You will come back What an odd question exactly what I told my wife She had a premonition that always not well with you. You will have to reassure her won't you gaspa? Yes, I shall my friend I'll say goodbye here Yes, I I wish You will be all right. I bear remember to conserve your energy and when you reach the top Come back to us You will come back Yes Good luck. I left the old guide of the wooden bridge and walk on The place I picked the climb is on the west side of the shawley hawk It's a dip in the ridge that joins the vice horn to the shawley horn The lowest point of the dip is over 12,000 feet The last part of the rise to the ridge is a wall of ice that undurates like a sheet of hammered copper concave at one point convex at another And the two or three parts it overhangs how much I did not know but you could see it and It was the underside of that overhang. I was going to climb I Would try to do it honestly get to the ridge and prove that in this small matter where there is no fear of death a Man can do more than he knows My timetable began quite on schedule Three hours work up to the upper that are out from senile Three more up from the out to the foot of the ice wall Half an hour for food another half an hour for final preparations Then I was at that point the wall of ice and above the great overhanging bulge It stood out above me like like a gigantic blister on the face of the ice Must have been 40 feet in diameter And it jutted so much that a stone dropped from its outermost point would only have touched the slope again some hundred feet lower To reach that outermost point I knew I would have to climb for about 20 feet as you climb up the underside of a ladder that leans against the wall And I would have to make the ladder run by run Fashion each one out of ice with my axe held in one hand why with the other hand on both feet I'd cling to the three rungs already made Each rung would have to be like a letterbox in a door Big enough for the turn my boot to go into but shape so that When my hand entered the fingers could bend down inside and grip as you grip the top of a fence Then I was there and the overhang was before me The work was amazingly hard I'd only cowed Five letterboxes and use them and an hour have gone Five more and daylight was failing My left hand was chilled almost dead with the ice it had gripped And my right hand swollen and sore from the constant use of the axe My right knee began to shake and controllably and I almost laughed Chattering teeth I looked up and some eight feet above was the goal Beyond it I could see nothing but a tranquil sky with a rose-colored flush dying out of it and suddenly very clearly as a complete metal effect I knew I couldn't get up those eight feet My strength was going I Was about finished and then Because the bull is there until the end I I tried again Tried with the axe baddest scratch the ice My left hand was frostbitten fast feeling Only five more feet to go But five more than I could drive myself to This was the finish then What I'd set out to do I know it was the end. I'm done. I didn't know why I Was still holding on and it was queer Something was very queer. I Felt little chips of ice stinging my cheeks as they slid down from above Was an ice avalanche coming? noted it matter Let the ice do what it wanted My business was it was done Then Then there was a sound Annoying a hissing sound I saw the ice axe slide over the bulge overhead and move out over my head to drop farther love Someone was above me and Suddenly I don't know why there was there was a lightness in me No more dream No more dying. I have to go up Quickly no longer the care in cutting the steps now. They were marvels of inadequacy. I Didn't think about it just ice cuts deep enough for a footing to raise up to cut the next and the next And it must have been three minutes Perhaps less when my chest came up to the dead central the bulge and I I Saw what I've come for It was a woman dangling at a long world's end Her body revolving a little bit hung against the steep ice and holding the rope perhaps 80 feet above her the man His ice axe driven well into the slope behind holding well with one hand The other gripping the rope Well, sir, hold on. Sorry. I'm coming hold on I Felt like a fool Absolute freedom from uneasy is concerning my own plight For I still wasn't up myself But I've never liked heroics and this sounded horribly disgustingly heroic And I kept it up and I have to They're in two minutes hold on one minute more Just one almost half a jibbit I'm just there and I arrived over the bow move on an upward slope. I Cut a big step close to where her feet hung Planted my own firmly in it and took her weight on my shoulder bow paid out the rope So she was by my side Standing is safe. You're You're quite a happy moment or two Then dig in we'll come up the last day light was gone when the three of us stood on the level roof of the ridge I Tried my best not to look at him or at her These are things best not observed. I Think she stayed in his arms for a long moment early on the stem Thanks Thanks for our lives Lord. I just happened to be there luck. That's all Yes luck I Suppose we'd better push off Getting a little chilly. It was luck There was a full moon and the downward trail was something else from the way I'd come up We none of us spoke. I don't think a single word all the way back and then the village the hotel and She was put to bed Alive Tired it was only after that in the smoking room that I learned their names his name was gone and feared or gone The woman upstairs his wife Hillary and because he seemed to fear himself under some sort of obligation to me. I Told him about myself my climb Why and when I finished he said Look here. I'm a doctor and I know about such things tell me When you were making that last climb over the barge did that numbness cramp you or did you notice it? No It had been there, but not for the last 10 minutes and you're in action Action. Yes. I mean doing something something you're absorbed in lost in Yes, I See That's the way it should be you know What you've got the numbness that will stay with you, but does it matter quite as much as you thought No, I Don't think so You won't try that sort of thing again No Then it's going to be all right Yes It's going to be all right Suspense Presented by auto light tonight star mr. Herbert Marshall This is Harlow Wilcox again speaking for auto light. It's always good to welcome back our longtime friend Herbert Marshall Bart we enjoyed every minute of tonight's story. Thanks, Harlow And may I compliment auto light for the excellent programs to come? Next week Van Heften in the shot and the following week Jeff Chandler in an exciting story my true loves hair We can certainly depend on auto light for wonderful entertainment and friends the greatest names in industry Depend on auto light for over four hundred products for cars trucks tractors planes and boats In 28 plants from coast to coast auto light makes such products as the famous auto light stay full batteries Ignition engineered auto light spark plugs both standard and resistor types auto light starting motors generators coils distributors voltage regulators wire and battery cable and Auto light original service parts for all auto light electrical systems So from bumper to tail light you're always right with auto light Next week the story of a duel an incomplete duel since one of its participants chose to wait and Oh his adversary the shot our star mr. Van Heflin that's next week on Suspense C.E. Montague's action was adapted for suspense by Antoine Ellis Suspense is produced and directed by Elliot Lewis with music composed by Lucian Morrowick and conducted by Ludblustin featured in the cast where Ellen Morgan Marley Bear her Butterfield Richard Peele and Ben Wright Herbert Marshall will soon be seen in writers to the stars Ivan Tours technical a production for United Artists And remember next week mr. Van Heflin in the shot Autolight resistor or standard type spark plugs auto light electrical parts and auto light stay full batteries at your neighborhood auto light dealers Switch to auto light. Good night This week and every week is a good time to hire the handicapped Surveys have proved the properly placed handicapped workers are steady and reliable consult your state employment service and hire the handicapped This is the CBS radio network