 Welcome again to the inner sanctum. I'm Raymond, the host. Come in, won't you, and sit down? Very nice to see so many of you here. People who believe in black magic, haunting and ghosts. Oh, you don't believe in them? Our story tonight is about some sailors who didn't believe in the media. But it didn't take very long to find out that such things did exist, that they were wrong, that it's wrong. Inner sanctum mysteries brings you one of Broadway's and radio's best-known stars, Arthur Vinton. Tonight, Mr. Vinton appears as Captain B. in Dead Reckoning, an original radio drama by Robert Newman. When you have that all-in-down-and-out feeling, you may be a victim of irregularity. Then you can help restore your usual cabin figure by taking one or two Carter's Little Liver Pills with a glass of water when you go to bed tonight. Carter's Little Liver Pills help you feel better by providing remarkable two-way relief. Relief you cannot expect from a simple luxury below. Here's what happened. First, Carter's Little Liver Pills wake up the floor of a vinyl-digested tube, and they do this usually within 30 minutes after taking. Second, they help restore regularity. It's this two-way relief that works so fast and so differently to help you feel up on your toes again. So don't go on feeling way below par when you can get this kind of relief with Carter's Little Liver Pills. Get a box from your druggist now, only 25 cents. And now I think we're ready. Ready to begin as weird and eerie a tale as I've ever made a sailor wish he'd never seen saltwater. A story of...of something that came out of a fog that drag men to death in watery graves. So if your nerves are good and you're not afraid of nightmares and turn down the lights and listen to dead reckoning. The great banks would fly off our eastern seaboard with perilous waters shrouded throughout most of the year by heady fog, flipping through the thick grey fog with fog on wailing like a lost soul with a small cramped steamer. It is late afternoon. There are two men on the bridge. Suddenly, the door of the quill house opens. Afternoon, Mr. Ross. Afternoon, Kevin. Well, this film is pretty dirty, eh? That's, uh, second of the never. You've got to look out for us. There's one man in the bow and one along. Good. I've been sailing these waters for 20 years and I'm never really happy till I'm off the bank. I know, sir. I guess it was far. But knowing what's ahead of you looks like we'd have come out of it. Nothing's ahead, sir. Just off the port bow. What? Where? There it is. The school is. It's almost dead ahead. Put your helm over hard. Hard over it, sir. It's so Hollywood. Ah, there. Well, just clear it, sir. About a half a minute. We'd have cut her in two. Ahoy, you lovers. Nothing's under the matter with you. Why aren't you sounding above horn? Nothing does seem to be the matter, sir. There's no one in the wheel. Yes, you're right. No one at the wheel, no one on deck, and... Look there. A distress signal. You'd better look into this. Half feet of stern. Half feet of stern, sir. Half feet of stern. What do you think it is? I don't know. What she looks to me is that she's been abandoned. Maybe you'd better lower her boat, Mr. Ross. There is someone aboard it, sir. Look, just coming up from below. Great. Scott, he's dived overboard. He's swimming this way. Up forward, Mr. Ross, and hit my line. And when you get him on board, bring him up here. Aye-aye. Banged up with that before we call him on board. They'll get you there. No. I'm all right. Get away from here fast. Get away? The rest of the crew. Dead. Every last man. Dead? I'm the only one left alive. Dead or what? That scene got them. Went after another. That crazy thing from the sea. So I had to lock myself in the galley. What are you talking about? Oh, I'm sure you'd better lower her boat. Take a look, Stephen. Aye-aye, sir. No, no. No, you fools. Don't you realize that it's still there on the schooner? Do you want it to follow you back here till you want one that I want to do? Don't you realize? Oh, here. Catch him. All right. I've got it. Good. All right. He's out of his head, sir. All right. Put him in on my bunk. Yes, sir. Oh, Scott. That's it? I don't know. It might be all imagination. On the other hand, we should investigate. I'll take a boat over and see what I can see. Come on, man. Let her out. Come on. There's her name, sir. The sea spray. Uh-huh. Grab that line. Make it fast, Scott. Aye-aye, sir. That's it, ticket. Now hold a steady, man, while Garson and I climb on board. Uh-huh. I will. You want me to come with you, sir? Oh, I'll just be able to search her that much more quickly. You're right out. Aye. I don't know, sir. I mean, nothing, sir. Come on. The steel got all her sails, sir. And everything spattin' down. Just as if there was nothin' wrong. Hey, anybody around? It's the need of that, sir. If there was anybody down there, wouldn't they answer it? Well, there's sex. Well, there's the plague or something. You'll sit down here, too. You always go through. Feel under all the books? That must be the galley. Take a look at that, Garson. I think. Nothing in here, either. I'm still on the stove, like the cook had done to fix some slippers. Couldn't have been a pirate ship. No sign of it anywhere. It couldn't have been a leak. A crew taking her to the boat because they thought she was sinking. She's not riding as if she was watered long. Let's get out of here, sir. Hey, what are you so jumpy about? Jumpy? Who's jumpy? He's just a... Well, suppose I am. A crew don't abandon ship out in the middle of the banks for no reason. No, that's true. They don't. It's just funny to know what that reason was. Well... Well, okay, Garson, come on. Let's get back to the ship. It's in place, and everything's so properly before we get on the way, then. Right where we will. What'd you find out? Nothing, sir. Nothing? Now, what do you mean? Just that, sir. We didn't find out a pleasant thing. It looked almost as if it turned. Everything was ship-shaped. There didn't seem to be a single reason why they should have abandoned us. But there wasn't a soul on board. Strange. Mighty strange. Well, let's go inside and see if our friends come through yet. Yes, sir. They signed us for that. Oh, yeah, now let me help you. Yeah. Are you sure you're all right now? Yeah, I feel a little bit, of course. I guess that was in Washington. I thought I was. You'll feel a little better. I'll forget it. What's your name? Fanny, sir. Joe Fanny. Fanny, yes. Excuse me, sir, but are we underway now? Yeah, it's just got started. Why? Well, at the school, then, we're away. Then we're away from that cursed ship. The half-year I'll be. You hadn't come along when you did. We'll have to spend one more night on board that ship. Yeah, easy, Fanny. Easy. There's nothing to worry about now. The road began two nights ago. People out on the bank were fishing for about three weeks. Food just starting back to port when the water went funny. Funny how? Turned salty and red. Red is blood. Well, that's erosion in your tank. That's what we thought at the time. But that night, men started disappearing. Disappearing? Captain bastard himself was the first. I left him at the wheel. I went below to get some growth. And he came back a decade was gone. Gone? Gone where? We didn't know. We put about, went back looking for him. We never found him. The students were late to go over and took the next trick at the wheel. And it was time to change watches. We found that he was gone too. What are you getting at? The truth. Well, we figured we could still make port, even though we were short handed. Anyway, we were pretty sure we'd be off the bank, out of the park, out by morning. So that if we flew, it would just as good as it would be seen. But in the morning, there were still clouds all around us. It was like we couldn't get away from him. And the other man was gone. I don't care, Fanny. I just respect you, Mr. Ross. Let him finish. That's the way it went. One man after another, just appearing, with no way of telling where they'd gone, or what had happened to them. How did that happen? Two more men went that day. Another that night. That left only two of us, Ross and myself. It was crazy by that time. Probably shit together. But we had to have someone at the wheel, and we had to weed. I went down to the gallery to get some hard drink. While I was down there, I heard Larsen scream. I went back to the bridge. And there he was fighting with... Who was it? What? I couldn't really see it. Larsen let out that one yell. Then went backward over the rails. I stood there staring. And then there was something I couldn't see. Something salt and slimy trying to take over me. I died back down at the gallery. Climbed the door. Something had come out of the fog and boarded the school. Something you couldn't see. It got all the rest of the crew, and if you hadn't come along when you did, it would have gotten me too. How long has it been since you had anything to eat, Vanny? I think you had me real red. How about a few days? Well, I suppose you see the croquet. Give you something hot and then go for it and get some sleep, eh? We'll talk about this again in the morning. We don't believe you said that. Do you think I'm out of my head? Oh, no, no, Vanny. You run along, and like I said, we'll talk about this some more tomorrow, eh? Yes, sir. You don't believe me, sir. You mean you do? Oh, I don't know. But I won't be sorry when we get off the bank out of this fog tomorrow. Well, good morning, Vanny. Oh, you feel well enough today to stand and pick up the wheel, eh? Yes, sir. I'm no deadhead. I don't mind working my passage. Good. Fine. Have breakfast yet, Mr. Ross? No, sir. The fog's still so thick. I thought I'd better stay on the bridge until you came outside. Funny thing, I thought we'd be clear of the things by now. Me, too. Well, I asked the cook to bring some coffee up here to it. And later on, the weather starts clearing. Oh, sit it down here, cook. Aye, aye, sir. Anything to matter? What are you waiting for? Yes, for you to try the coffee, sir. Try it? What's wrong with it? What is wrong with it? It tastes terrible. What did you put in it? I didn't put anything in it, sir. It's the water. It's gone funny. Funny? Sir, in kind of red and queer, look at that. That's what happened on the sea spray just before. Not quite, Vanny. It's probably just rust, cook. Is it, sir? Does rust taste salty? I say it's rust. I don't want you to mention this to the crew. Very well, sir. So how are you going to keep him from finding it out for himself, sir? Oh, I almost forgot, sir. Well, it's all right. I need to give you these. Oh, yes. A radio check on our position. Uh, check it with a chart. Will you, Mr. Ross? Yes, sir. Just finished taking the log reading and working it out on it. Great. Got it. This doesn't make sense. What doesn't? Look here. Here's where I figured we should be. There are the banks. And here's our radio position, still in the middle of the bank, like where we were yesterday. What? Well, that's impossible. We've done it for 200 miles since yesterday. Of course, that's just by dead reckoning. Dead reckoning? That's just what it is. Fanning. You fools, I warned you, but you didn't believe me. The water turning to blood, the ship sailing around and around in the park, unable to get away. That's what happened on the sea spring. That's what's happening to us. Don't you realize what that means? That thing from the sea. It's here and bought this ship. On the sea, the, uh, thing that can't be seen that came out of the fog and dragged an entire crew to its doom has taken possession of enough? Yes. Well, the same thing that happened to the sea spray happened again in just a moment. We will find out, meanwhile. Doom said back at envy the life of the party, all that pep and ginger. You may suffer a headache-y sluggish feeling due to irregularity, but thousands of others do, too. And many of them shake it off by taking Carter's little liver pills. Try them tonight, according to the directions on the package. Then tomorrow morning, see if you don't feel you can lick your weight in Wildcat. Here's the sound medical reason why Carter's little liver pills are so effective. They can give you two-way relief for sluggishness, something you cannot expect from a simple lack of this. First, Carter's little liver pills wake up the floor of a vital digestive tube, and they start to do this usually within 30 minutes after taking. Second, they help restore regularity. It's this two-way relief that helps you feel better. How are you feeling now? Have you had a chance to catch your breath? White's the cold perspiration of your brows? Oh? Oh, what you've heard so far hasn't bothered you, you know? Wait. Just a moment later now, in the three minutes, fill him the bridge. Vanning at the wheel, Ross and Captain Grave are staring at him incredulously. All right, how do you do your mat-vining out of your head? I still don't believe you, eh? Did the water turn into blood or not? Of course it did. That's not a thing. It's just rust, corrosion, and a tank. And the fact that we're still in the same place you were yesterday after sailing for 24 hours? Our figuring was just off, that's all. That wrecking's never completely accurate. All right, Captain. That's the way you want it to run. I wonder what you're going to say when the men start disappearing. Enough, Vanning. Who else is on watch, Mr. Ross? I'll go get them. Tell them to come up here and take Vanning's place at the wheel. Aye, sir. Buddy, hi there! Now, as for you, Vanning, you'd better get back to your bunk and lie down. Yes, you're sick, and the Ross should never let you stand to watch. Oh, I'm sick, am I? Is all my imagination okay, Captain? Let's tell you right about the water. Our position. What about the sea spray? What happened to my shipmates? The rest of the crew. I don't know, and I can't worry about that right now. That's only because you're out there looking. But I'm not going to have you scaring the wits out of my crew. So if you say one more word about this to any of my... All right, Captain. I won't. I've got a hunch I won't have to. What do you mean? Nothing except that... Captain, but he's not there. He's gone. He's gone where? I don't know. He reported here at 8,000. He must have dropped off to sleep or something. Fallen overboard. That's what we thought on the sea spray when Captain Bassard disappeared. Well, he didn't fall. He was dragged overboard by that thing. Will you shut up standing here? What can I say to make you believe me? I said it was here, here on board the ship, and it's going to get the rest of us one by one, unless... There's only one thing to do. Take to the boat. What? No, I know you're mad. Get off board and stay there. All right, Captain. I'll go. But remember, I warned you. Anything that happens from now on is on your conscience. Deeper as she goes, Garth, south, southward. Aye, sir, south, southward. Aye, sir, the fog goes thicker than ever. That's the ship's length ahead. Oh, sir, making you pardon, sir. Yes. Shouldn't we be off the banks out of the fog by now? I know, Garth. We haven't really made a mistake in our election. According to the radio compass sparing we got this morning, we're still around the middle of the banks. Won't be clear until tomorrow. I see, sir. Oh, by the way, Garth, one of the men's spaying about Smitty is just sparing that way. Why, nothing, sir, except... Well, sir, they can't understand how he could have fallen overboard with the sea to come. And then there's this huge business of the water turning funny. That's even kind of jumpy about that, too. Hmm. Yeah, well, what's that? It's like a small craft fishing boat, and Becky is off to starboard, sailing the town out of it. A scola? Who's up at the bowels? Look out. Well, what's the matter with him? Why didn't he sing out when he saw us? I don't know, sir. I thought I told you to stay below, buddy. You did, but... Do you recognize him? Recognize him? He does look familiar, though. Great, Garth. It's the sea spray. What? You're not expressing as a 200 miles from here. You only think you're not. Besides, when we left her yesterday, she was deserted. But now, she's just out of the farm, and they're men aboard her. You can see them. Yes, men. But what kind of men? Look at them through your drawers, Mr. Roberts. That's what I'm doing. Good. Good. Their faces. They're all green-closet. What a... They look as if they were dead. Drownsmen, come back out of the sea, sailing on and on through the park, following us and waiting until... One more. Where are you, Barry? And I'll put you on iron. Give me that glass to us. To the left, sir. Don't let it scorn you. Well, come on apart with me, and let's see what's wrong with Blake. I'm coming, too. How's that? He'll stay on course. If anything has happened to Blake, I want to know it. And the rest of the crew will want to know it, too. Well, all right, then. Come on. I don't like this, sir. We may be in trouble. God, we won't take orders. We'll have a hunch we're all getting something out of hand. All right. There's Blake, leaning against the rail. Blake, look again. He's not Blake. He's... Smithy. And look at him, sir. He's... Bringing weapon with seaweed in a pair. He was drowned. But he came back from the sea just like my mates on the seaside. Bless you, Penning. I warned you, but you wouldn't listen. Now when you abandon ship, take to the boat. Now I've had enough of this. Enough of you and your warning. I won't go to the boat again. I can't. I'll be one man after another. I can't. He's rather commit suicide than stay on board this ship. We're not going to stay either. Come on, men. You can't do that. Who's going to stop us? Oh, no, you don't. Stay, men. I think they killed him. Hey, leave him there. This is life. Take him to the boat. The banding comes from above. They went crazy. Really, go? Abandon ship? They're the last men. We're all alone. They didn't take the life raft. They got one of them over the side, and you mean you want to abandon ship too? Well, not exactly, but after all the two of us couldn't get her in the boat. Is that the reason or is it because you're afraid? Because you're starting to believe in that thing from the sea also? About half and half. I mean, after all, everything that's happened so far, finding the sea prey decided. Smitty and black disappearing. Then Smitty coming back. I'll help you launch your life raft. If you like, you can go. But I am staying with my ship. Well, that kid... I'll stay with you, sir. What's our first move? Up to the radio room. We'll send out an SOS. That's what happens, right, sir? Even if you do think there's some explanation for everything that's happened, the ship is kind of spooky now, isn't it? Fog, dead light. What's that? A young telegraph. Someone ranked by half speed ahead. Why, we're moving, getting on the way. There's no one on board with the two of us. Maybe one of the engineers didn't go. Stay below. No one stayed. I tell you, no one. There's just the two of us on board. Don't like it, I... Smitty was dead too, but he came back. Where are you going? I'm going to get to the bottom of this. I'm going to see if I can fight back. I don't know what you mean. You listen to me, Banny. That's part, please. Easy, you talk. Tell me what you were up to, how you did it. I'll let you have it right between the eyes. You wouldn't dare. Oh, I wouldn't, eh? Give me that gun, Ross. No, no, don't. All right, I'll tell you. It wasn't me that was behind it. It was Anthony. Yes, he told us this idea. Scaring a crew into abandoning the ship and picking it up and claiming salvage. Oh, of course. Why didn't I think of that? How did it work? That wasn't anybody on the sea spray when I boarded there. Of course not. Soon as we spotted you, being in the rest of the crew got into the doorway and pulled away into the fog until after you searched the schooner. Meanwhile, I had two jobs to do. I came from the ventricle to throw your compass out so you'd sail in a circle and drop the chemical into the water tank so we'd turn the water red. And what about the city of Lake? I killed him. That's why you're cold. Blood is migrating. What? It's the sea spray. They're cruising around waiting for you to pick them up. So there they are. Get ahead. Run them down. Duke, do you think? Yes. I'm afraid so. The propellers must have gotten those that didn't go down with the schooner. But maybe it's better that way. They say that crowning is easier than hanging as you'll probably find out to yourself. Do you think there was no such thing all the time? Ooh. Of course, you did. But just the same as I were you, I wouldn't try to stand up just yet with your knees knocking together like that you might find it a bit difficult. Huh? But I do hope you enjoyed tonight's story. Glad to be with us again next week at this same time. And if in the meantime you should have to take an ocean cliff and if while you're out you should run in the heavy weather and while you're standing alone on the tech at night something should reach out of the darkness and grab hold of you. But don't worry. It won't be the thing from the sea. It'll just be one of the other passengers trying to find his way to the whale. Uh-huh. Oh yes. If you haven't done so, be sure to read this Month's Inner Sanctum Mystery. What's Steps Behind Here by Mr. Wilson. Will you wake up tomorrow morning feeling chipper and spry? Or will you crawl out of bed with that sluggish headache? What's the use feeling due to irregularity? Well, try this. Just before you go to bed tonight with a glass of water. Then see if tomorrow morning isn't rosy and bright. See if your usual pep and cheerfulness aren't bad. There's a sound medical reason why carters bring you these remarkable results. Carters with liver pills provide two-way relief. Relief you cannot expect from a simple laxative alone. First, they wake up the flow of a vital digestive tube and they start to do this usually within 30 minutes after taking. Second, they help restore regularity. It's this two-way relief that helps you feel better so fast and so differently. Good night. This is the Blue Network.