 Kinner's Sanctum Mystery is brought to you right through the summer by Braumont Helter. I had a three-way... Braumont Helter, Braumont Helter, Braumont Helter, Braumont Helter. Friends of the Inner Sanctum, this is your host to welcome you through the squeaking door. Tell me, fellow ghouls, did you ever take in the fright staff at dawn? Hmm, I did the other night. Father Todd, this is a state called Nightmare Avenue. Just two blocks long and a scream wide. Begins with a small cemetery and ends with a bigger one. There's a freakish sort of shaft in the alley. Ideal for those of you with a lying fever. It's time to read Gadget, Ghost, and Greyguard Geegor. It is deep night on the raging ocean. The fog is a thick grey wall and the wind is sharp. A boat tosses drunkenly in the deep at the mercy of the storm. It's unlighted except for its cluttering naps of flares. We're aboard the Gypsy Princess, beside its captain, the notorious Captain Hinty. A few feet away, warming deeper in the shelter of the fog, backing away from Captain Hinty's guns, is another man. A younger man wearing a first mate's cap. Mid-ocean. Braumont Helter, Braumont Helter, Braumont Helter, Braumont Helter. The maroon just off the island is a sandbar on the... Not food or water with an island, just an island. Island, are we, or? Dead man's island. Even if you knew where you were, sir. There'd be nothing on the island for you. No food, no drink. Just a place to bury the dead. Abort your ship. How do you know they're a dead board? I heard some shooting. How many dead? Corky. McDonald. Weatherbee. It's five. Captain Hinty jumped over. And McGurley, an navigator? And Jensen? Dead. Then you're the only survivor. I'm chambered with me. I expected it would be Captain Hinty, I'd find a lie. Delivering his cargo of dead men. Hey, wait a minute. How'd you know about Miguel, the navigator, and Jensen? Where'd you get your information from? A man to seek logic after the events and the gypsy princess. That's strange as to all. Yeah. After two weeks on this floating and famous island, I shouldn't get gargolied over any... You boarded the ship at this rate. You know that too, huh? For years since I was a kid, I'd heard stories. Unbelievable whoppers about Captain Hinty and the gypsy princess. About a ship being haunted. About a girl. A beautiful vision named Princess after the ship. Who followed the boat wherever it stayed. I wanted to write it all up after seeing it all for myself. Shall I stop? No. Go on. Those tall stories started coming to life a few hours after we'd put to sea. I think Captain Hinty's court is going over some pages when Corky came by. Corky handled the business details of the ship like a steward. Captain Hinty? Yes? I was checking over the crew list here. So, Corky? I can't make it out of. But Donald, coach, whether they... ...Manicor, Miguel, Jensen, ourselves... ...Chambers here... ...Waltz found in L.K. Ladies and gentlemen, that's your crew. Thank you, sir. But there's a Ninth in this room, Litz. But nobody answers to it. Here's the Ninth name. Bellows. Bellows! Lead the list and get out of our hoist, sir. Come on, boys, sir. You've seen the signature before? Yes, from Cape Hatteras to Singapore. You will in time. You'll know what it means to sail with Bellows. Who is Bellows? was once his ship before he died. How long ago did fellows die? Ten years ago. And you think a dead man signed the cruellest tax? Ah, and you'll believe it too in time. In time, you too will believe fellows is aboard the gypsy princess. Chambers, I say, search the ship from Stenderson, search the lifeboats of passageways everywhere, then do it again and again, spend every minute around this ship, searching for fellows. Understand? I can't find fellows. Find fellows, or you gypsy princess. That was my first flush with the crazy legend of the gypsy princess. I was to spend the whole voyage looking for a dead man who'd signed the cruell, right? Fellows with master of this ship once, everything was fine until they both went tapped over a dream lady who was supposed to be following the ship. Then she killed fellows, got all scot-free by pleading self-defense, then bought the gypsy princess, and went silent to find the girl. Dollar's done is just something in the captain's guilt in his imagination. No, sir. It's not all in his imagination. Your sounding as balmy as heady. You don't believe in the fellows' ghost, do you, Corky? I do, indeed. Just you wait, sir, and you'll know fellows are somewhere aboard the ship. It's Captain Antion the tube. He ought to be gone, I'll bet my pay. Corky speaking, Captain. Take the wheel at once. But it's Miguel's turn at the wheel, sir. Take the wheel at once. Aye, sir, at once. Is Chambers there? Aye, sir, I'll put him on. He wants you, Mr. Chambers. Chambers speaking, Captain. Turn the ship inside out and stop for nothing, Chambers. Find fellows or we won't have a navigator left aboard. We've been offered cost training in circles with our instruments made to fit for an hour. What happened to Miguel? Sir, I told you you'd know fellows went aboard in time. See, Princess is adept. What started as a pleasant ocean junket is becoming a nightmare. A ghost looks happy. The captain goes white as his sheet and poor Chambers has handed the hard job of trailing the little man who isn't there to his home. Let's see, where did we stream on? Oh, yes. Miguel, the navigator, had just gone the way of old fidget. What? Miguel was at the boat's wheel, clutching it and staring out into the ocean with dead eyes. A dead man had been steering our course. How was the fool killed? I can't say, sir. His face looks as if he had seen the devil himself. But there isn't a mark on him. A fellow's, children. I hate taking issue with you, sir, but I'm sure that there's a simple explanation and a mysterious attack by a ghost. A heart attack, perhaps. If an autopsy could be performed... There'll be no autopsy! But we've got to establish... I have no interference, Chambers. I've got to take immediate steps so you'll all be dead. Assign, gentlemen, to once the ship's food find your duties and ask no questions. Make prompt arrangements to throw Miguel over the side. Without servicing? Just like that? Just like that! We'll throw Miguel as an offering to the prince. Maybe. Maybe she'll reappear. It's been so long. I've gathered garbage to watch the dead Miguel dropped over the side. The storm was brewing. There was a blinding fog. Ready, Chambers? All ready, sir. Let him go! You Miguel. Now come wash the blood off his crew back the way like men frightened by the face of insanity. And then, over the sound of the ocean, we heard her. I watched, spellbound, my eyes burning into the mist that swirled around Captain Hensey. I saw her. Beautiful. The most complete illusion of beauty the mind can imagine. Beautiful beyond words, your language. Seeing her, I could understand what drove Captain Hensey. Captain Hensey's side. I knew scorching jealousy. Chambers! I said, my bride has come. You see her, don't you? I said, she's very beautiful. Chambers! Marius! I have such authority. As captain of the ship, I give you the authority. You'll find my service book in my quarters. I, sir. Corky. Hi, Mr. Chambers. Oh, fetch the book of services from the captain's quarters so we can get on with the ceremony where the crew sends Captain Hensey to his vision. It's such lines as, let no man put a thunder and until destiny imparted a madman standing alone with a miss curling around him. The captain said, I do. And the wind answered for her. The captain had his bride at last, but not for long. After that brief visit, we no longer saw her, even fancy we saw her. The captain started looking out to sea for hours, days like a man whose bride had forsaken him right after the wedding. Days passed. And then, fellows struck again. I was with the captain going over some charts when the door opened. But Corky, his face was strained and frightened. Captain Hensey. What is it, Corky? The food stores. What about them? They're gone. Our food and our water. It's all disappeared. Jensen must have signed the watch. The food stores. Send the food to me. I can't. Jensen's gone. What Miguel got? We can put into the nearest fort. If you look at the charts, we get the two-day sale from Winter. It's the only thing to do. Put our food on. Right after we go on. And without fuel. Fuel? Without coal? How can we go anywhere? I don't get it. Then go down to the engine room and see for yourself. Our coal. Every blasted crap of it was pirated by fellows last night. The men lay in the hatch, dying of thirst and no food. Captain Hensey was a complete madman now with every pretence to sanity fallen. He prowled through them like a wild animal with me behind him watching. Then last night in the pitch dark, I watched him climb to the lookout tower. Corky was up there waving a map of flair in the last desperate SOS. I watched the captain come up behind Corky and circle his arms around Corky's neck. Help! No! Help! I hurried to the control of the captain away. Let him go! The strength of the character. No, you were exactly for what you are now, Captain. I know about those murders and the disappeared scores. There are explanations about a woman following you and everybody's pockets right now. I mustn't fail, or I'll... including you chambers. The crew is exactly six now. You see, I must waste a single bullet. You're going to shoot us in cold blood. Personally deliver one bullet. You are never out there. Look again. And the same indescribable pleasure and indescribable pain I'd seen on Captain Henty's face flushed all through me. I was in love with him. And burning up with jealousy. I've only two weeks to even raise a finger, but I went to the bell. I didn't want him to have the princess back. I don't know what it did to you, brother whale. Look down this side. If the old blood has less terror in terror, dry land to you, Bob. And say, if you must get the nautical urge compromised by diving into the bath tub. Add if a strange hand passes you the wash, wagon, soap. Don't take it. Ignore it. Stay underwater in place. Time to close. Until next week at this time, when Bromo Seltzer brings you another in a sanctum mystery directed by Hyman Brown. By the way, this month in a sanctum mystery novel is Report for a Court by Henry King. Next week, you'll hear our answer to the housing shortage. Because we've got a story about a little home in the country that will kill you and anybody else who enters. It's called the House of Doom. And behind its walls, some of the most charmingly gruesome people you ever met will die in haunt and howl and murder to your hearts content. So be sure to listen, won't you? Until next Monday then. Good night. Pleasant dreams.