 Travelers, is the mysterious travel inviting you to join me on another journey into the realm of strains and the terrifying. I hope you will enjoy the trip and it will thrill you a little and chill you a little. So settle back, get a good grip on your nerves and be comfortable if you can. For tonight, we're going on the strangest journey we've taken yet. We're going down into the dark and fearsome depths of the sea to watch fate that will encounter with the arch enemy of mankind. In a story I call, Death comes for Adolf Hitler. My story begins in the radio room of the American destroyer, Spindrift, on patrol duty somewhere in the Atlantic. It is late at night, Chief Radio man Mike Williams, headphones over his ears, is checking on a dozens of messages whispering through the ether. Beside Mike is relief man Joe Norman sitting back with his feet up, working a crossword puzzle and mournfully humming to himself. Joe, Joe, cut it. What is it, Mike? Cut it, Joe, cut it. I'm getting something. You can just barely hear it. Is that my breath, Joe? Shh. Wait. I'm getting it stronger now. There. It's clearer. Holy cow. Yeah, what is it? It's a German sub on the bottom and calling for help. Uh-uh. Ain't that something? Shall I notify the skipper? No, no. Nothing we can do. Get a pencil on. Put on those headphones. We'll take down the message, whatever it is. OK, I got a pencil here. I got the phones, haven't I? Are you kidding me? I can't hear a thing. Of course I'm not kidding. I tell you, I had it just now. Let it fade it out. Wait a minute. It's coming back in again. This is Oberleutnant Reiner, the undersea bought worth. Listen to me. Anybody who may be picking up this message, he can do to help us, but... Particularly gratifying after our long submersion. Yes, Your Excellency. Pardon me, Herr Schmidt. But we could take no chances on surfacing until we are safely past the area of Allied patrols. Course not, Captain Metz. You must not take the slightest risk as long as I am aboard. I am aware of that. Do not worry. You will reach your destination safely. Hey, it's to me that tomorrow midnight we will take our contact with the South American coast. And our journey will be over. Good. Understand, Herr Capitan? No word of this trip must ever be preached to the world, or yourself, or any other member of your crew. It is understood. You may rest assured. My crew is well seen. The world must not know or guess. But back in the Fatherland, this is a double who rules. They have lost. But I shall yet win. It would be disloyal of me to believe anything else, Herr Schmidt. South America will make my plans. The world will think me dead. Suicide. On the day Germany falls. But instead, I will be safely hidden. So I can direct our rebirth. Quite so. Our enemies will yet feel the might of my vengeance. I will return to lead my people to victory. However long it may take. Of course, Herr Schmidt. I vote three points off the starter bow. I vote three points to starter. What is your name? What ship? What cargo did you carry? What birth will you play for? Captain Peter Jensen of the Mountain. Knowledge yourself. We will reach it. Carrying food and medical supplies to Greece. When one of you is murdering others, they don't trust me enough. Ladies and gentlemen, Captain Jensen. You may follow me now. A nearest land is 300 miles to your west of you. I will go away. Pullman. Let's get where we can breathe air, not contaminated by this scarf. You see that shrinking rat in the ship, or man trying to hide his face? You know who that is? That is so you can tell your children. You've seen the murderer of mankind himself. The arch-several who really gave the orders that sent our comrades to the bottom of the water. I fear you have been recognized, Herr Schmidt. Stop them! Turn your guns under! Destroy their boot, Herr Captain! Pullman must lift the reports. Having seen me? Very well, Herr Schmidt. All guns appear to fire. All guns, thanks to fire. Give them two arms. All guns, fire! All guns, fire! Those will be waiting for you when you're... There will be no eyewitnesses to tell us seeing you aboard a submarine in these waters, Herr Schmidt. It's good. You'll never know that I've left Germany. Must never guess the whole future, the fatherland. How does that sound? From us. Patrol bombers coming this way. Get below us, one. We are going to the march. Yes, now, Muller. 75 feet short. We have a laster. We are bombing at random now. We are safe now. Yes, Muller. 90 feet short. 90 is good enough. Level half. Level half, sir. We will take course 180. And... Level half, sir. We are still making a 5 degree dive. The lovely trains do not respond, sir. The bombs lift! The bombs lift! Impossible. One of those bombs was close enough to break an egg. Muller, our depth. 100 feet short. Leuchttin Reiner. Order half speed ahead. Half speed ahead? The ship to hand operation of the diving plane. Hand operation of the diving plane, sir. Now level half. Level half, sir. Well, what's the matter? Captain, it's the operating wheel. It will turn. The actual... The diving plane must be jammed. It will not move. Captain Mitch, I demand that you hide through the surface. Something is wrong. There are my sisters. Captain, I am captain of this vessel, and I am giving the orders. Well, our leveling planes are jammed. We will surface and clear them. Muller, depth. 120 feet, sir. Stop, Captain. Load of forward ballast things. Load of forward ballast things, sir. They are leveling off, sir. Hold her as she is. Hold her as she is. Muller, how fast are we going up? We... We are not rising at all, sir. Not rising? No, we're the most of off. We must be. We should be. We are still descending. It's about 20 feet a minute, Captain. Captain, I demand to know what's wrong. I order you, take me to the surface. I am just as interested in reaching the surface as you are here, Schmidt. Load of main ballast tank until we start to rise. Load of main ballast tank until we start to rise. Lieutenant Rainer. Yes, sir? What depth does the chart show? 50 feathers with gravel bottom, sir. But there's a fault in the ocean. They're just east of our position. A crevice. 1,000 feet deep, sir. We are safely beyond that. Muller, our depth. 200 feet, sir. Are we going to descend? 10 feet a minute, sir. But our main tanks are empty, sir. We should be going up, not down. Nevertheless, we are going down. And as long as we are, we will bottom and lie quiet until the destroyers leave. And we will surface for repairs. Muller. Yes, sir? What are the destroyers doing? They seem to be still circling, sir. Perhaps they are trying to pick us up on their detectives. We must see that they failed. Our depth? 220 feet, sir. It's almost as if... As if what? Nothing, sir. What? As if what? Excuse me, sir. I was just going to say as if something was pulling us down. Ah! But you thought better of saying it. Yeah. See that you continue to think better of such remarks. The same applies to everyone on board. Lieutenant Reiner. Yes, sir? We will bottom in exactly seven minutes. Prepare to make an inspection of the ship when we do. Lieutenant Reiner. I have finished the inspection, sir. And your report? Everything is in perfect order, sir. There are no leaks. The batteries are fully charged. All motors in working order. All pumps operating. Then, obviously, there's no reason why when we choose to surface we should not do so. No, sir. Muller. You have to cut about the bloodhounds for trying to sniff us out on the surface. Those destroyers. I have heard no propeller sound for 20 minutes. Then we will surface. Load the auxiliary tanks. Load the auxiliary tanks, sir. All remaining auxiliary tanks are empty, sir. All tanks empty. Captain, your pardon. Do you hear? We have blown all our tanks and we have not written at all. I am well aware of it, Lieutenant Reiner. Do you take me for a name or two? No, sir. Of course not, sir. It is those that did. It is impossible, sir. Since it is so, it must be possible. Obviously, we are stuck in a mud-bottom. But the bottom here is gravel, so the tracks are so. Let's cut it off. I see it as mud. Do you hear? Yes, sir. Mud. So we shall have to use our motors to pull ourselves free. Signal full speed ahead. Yes, sir. Full speed ahead? Now what is it? Why have the fools cut the motors? Excuse me, sir. Engine room reporting. Yes. What is it? Well, what had the idiot to say for themselves? They say the propeller is fouled. Fouled? How could it be foul? It is impossible for it to become foul on this bottom. Yes, sir. They say it is not entirely fouled. It will turn, but only very slowly. As if... As if what? Well, sir, they say it turns as if... as if something were holding it, trying to keep it from revolving. Of course. When we get back to our base, I shall court-martial every man aboard. Perhaps the propeller is tangled with some seaweed. That is all. In that case, we may be able to reverse and flip. Full speed ahead, sir. Full speed ahead, sir. Your pardon. The engine room reports the propeller is still fouled. It behaves as it did before. It turns, but as if something is holding it back. And to think that I, Hans Ludwig von Metz, thought I had the finest of my crew in the world, a brainless pack of idiots who become stuck in the mud on the bottom and they go to pieces like old women. Now listen to me, all of you. The next man who shows... You copy that Metz? Ah, Herr Schmidt. I trust you have not been lying. Everything is quite under control. In my captain... I... I've been hearing sounds from outside the submarine. Sounds? What kind of sounds? Scratching sounds. Tapping from the middle. It sounded... It's someone trying to get into the submarine. Oh, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very... Now, dear Herr Schmidt, you've had nothing except the noises made, perhaps by pebbles being swept against our sides by the cars. That is all. But I tell you, it sounds like... like hands wrapping and tapping, scraping at the hull, trying to get in. Why are we staying down here in the bottom? Surfered at once, you hear me? I order you, surfered at once! That, your exterance, is what I am about to do. Now, all respect. May I suggest that you return to your cabin. Your presence here may impede our efforts. Aye. Hey, real captain, let's see that you take me to the surface at once. You have no fears. Like in Reiner, perhaps you will assist Herr Schmidt to his cabin. Yes, sir. Certainly. If I may open the door of the access. Captain! Captain, the net! Well, what is it? Captain, we hear them too. Sounds! Sounds coming from outside our hull. I hear no sounds. Captain, I can hear them now quite plainly on my detector phones. It's not possible to identify them, but they sound as if many people were climbing up our sides and... There. Perhaps that will bring you to your senses. Listen to me, all of you. Temporarily, we are stuck in the mud. The current is sweeping debris or pebbles against us. You are all acting like children who think they see a ghost in a graveyard. In an hour, we shall be on the surface. You have my word for it. To get free from the mud, I shall fill the bow tanks, then blow them and fill the stern tanks. We shall see-saw ourselves loose. Do you all understand my scheme? Yes, all of you. Very good. Let the forward ballast tanks. Let the forward ballast tanks, sir. Captain, net. Yes, Lieutenant Granner. The main pump shark in operating, sir. The failure was caused by Hans Jäger. Jäger? How? He went crazy, committed suicide by grabbing the poles of the main switch. The short circuit electrocuted him. Blow out the fuses. Nah, Jäger was always a fool. How have the others reacted to his death? Very badly, sir. You are very nervous. Nervous, are they? Yes, sir. That scraping and scratching outside of a hull. Has affected them, sir. They stopped for now, but the crew says that it's just because they are planning something else. They? Who do you mean by they? The crew says, sir, that there are hundreds of men in the water outside trying to get in at us. Dead men, sir. Lieutenant Granner, do you wish me to place you under arrest? No, sir. I'm just trying to explain the state of the mind of the crew, sir. Despite all our efforts, they are still on the bottom, and the men... the men are getting very chumpy, sir. I shall have to teach them a lesson they will not forget. They are taking their cue from our elusive passenger, of course. He had not come out here, and I'm raving. Never mind that. He's quiet now. They gave him whiskey with a sedative in it. Your pardon, Captain. I may make a suggestion. Well, what is it? There is one thing we have not tried. Huh? We have to try it, sir. Discharge our torpedoes. Discharge our torpedoes? A submarine without torpedoes? Lieutenant, there's no more use than an airplane without wings. Well, we must, sir. We have 10 torpedoes to pull. 25,000 pounds of dead weight. Get rid of that, and we have to rise. We have to. I see you are beginning to share the hysteria of the crew. When we return to our base, I shall not fail to include that fact in my report. However, I accept your suggestion. Order the discharge of our torpedoes to begin at once. Yes, sir. At once. It's no use. It's no use. I tell you, it's no use. We are going down the docks. Down! Yeah, hang on here. What are you man-mumbling about? Maybe not discharge the rest of the torpedoes. You know what is going on here, Haroldoid, man? We are five, six torpedoes to lighten ship and what has happened, we are sinking deeper. He is right. Yes, we are going deeper. Our planes will not stand it. We shall be crushed. Drown like rats in a trap! We are not going deeper. We have come to a stop already. Even if we should slide a little further, we still have a margin of safety of at least 100 feet. The effect we have moved proves we are breaking free from the mud. No, it is not true. We are not stuck in the mud. We are not. Batman! No more of that. No more of that. Why should I be quiet? We all know we are not it any much. We all know our tanks are empty and we should have been on the surface long ago. We all know why our propellers will not turn and we all know why we cannot rise too. Batman! Because we are being held down! We are being held down by a thousand dead men who are crawling all over us, scratching at our plates trying to get in. They have come from all over the seven seas just to hold us down just to see we do not get away. Listen to them. Listen. You can hit them now. Listen. Ah, what nonsense. Watson, come to your senses. They are only our plates cloning under pressure. That is not true. You know better. We all know better. Who dragged us down here to the bottom? Whose hands are keeping our propellers from turning? Whose bodies jammed our diving plane? Whose weight is keeping us on the bottom? The dead. Batman, I owe you to be quiet. It is too late for us. There is only one way we can escape. That is to keep the ones outside, the men they want. They want our passenger, the one who calls himself Herr Schmidt. We all know who he is. And so do they. And they have come to get him. Batman, you are under arrest. Listen. Listen to all of you. Let us get this Herr Schmidt with his polymer sight. Put him in a torpedo tube and send him out to the dead. Outside. Let them have him. Then they will let us go free. It is our only hope. Yes. Batman, Captain Netsch. I have your interesting little speech just now. And this is my answer. Does anyone else want the same medicine to bring him to his senses? Enter your stations. Lieutenant Reiner, continue to discharge our torpedoes. Our enemy, Adolf Hitler, I do not know. So I cannot tell you. The man who told it to me is who perhaps he was joking. You can say. You must make up your own mind. What it is interesting to think about. Yes. It reminds me of another strange story I heard recently. Oh, you're getting off at the next stop. I'm sorry. But perhaps we'll meet again soon. I take this same train every week. In tonight's story, death comes for Adolf Hitler, Tony Barrett played Lieutenant Reiner, Phillip Clark played Captain Netsch, and Lon Clark played Adolf Hitler. The Mysterious Traveler is written by Bob Arthur and David Cogan, and original music is played by Henry Silverne. The entire production is under the direction of Dr. McGregor. You've been listening to Theatre of the Mind. Join us again next Sunday night for more vintage radio drama The Haunting Hour and The Mysterious Traveler on 104, Schumann.