 Suspense, and the producer of radio's outstanding theatre of thrills, the master of mystery and adventure, William M. Robson. A man must be born to be a king or trained for it. Daniel Dravitt and P. C. Carnahan had neither qualification. Indeed, all they had was ambition, but they made it, and they learned the hard way that uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Listen, listen then, as Dan O'Hurley, he stars in Rudyard Kipling's great story, The Man Who Would Be King, which begins in just a moment. This is Frank Knight speaking for Lawn Jean, the world's most honored watch. It's wonderful to win a Nobel Prize in Science, a Pulitzer Award in Literature, and Olympic gold medal in sports. In the field of time, did you know that Lawn Jean watches have won more great public honors for excellence, elegance, and accuracy than any other watch in the world? This is true. 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His cheeks were deep hollows above his staring round eyes, and his clothes were rags hung on a frame of bones. You don't know who I am, do you? No, no, I haven't the faintest idea, but here you'd better sit down, old fellow, you're looking a bad way. Yes, sir. Thank you. It's a whole year I've been walking. Right here in this very office, we settled it. You're sitting right there giving us the maps and laughing at us because we wanted to be kings. And so it was, we were kings. And you've been sitting there all that time, three years. No, no, a man couldn't change that much in three years. You're not Pichy Conner. Yes, and I was the king of Kaffiristan, me and Daniel Trafford, real crown kings we was, just as true as gospel. What in the name of heaven have they done to you, Pichy? Pichy? I knew Pichy Conner and was, he's a king, wears a real golden crown on his head. So help me, he does. He's dead now, though. No, no, no, you are Pichy Conner. Yeah, yeah, look, you've got to keep looking into my eyes, and maybe everything won't go to pieces. All right, now tell me what happened to Pichy. Well, we left that caravan we was travelling with at Jagdalla. We, uh, struck off into the hills alone. Oh, weeks it was, we traveled. First there wasn't no roads, and after a while no food. But there was always the throms. Yeah, move along there. They're done in a star, the same as their cells. They'll go no further. Well, then we'll go on without them. I've not come this far to die on the side of a mountain. Wait, wait. Look, Daniel, over the edge of the rocks. What? Men they are. There's a score or more of them. And look, one has gone ahead of the rest, and nothing but bows and arrows. Break out a pair of the rifles, Pichy. Break out, Daniel. It's now that we start to become kings. Here you are. Now then, Pichy, I'll drop the straggler at the rear first, and then we'll lay a few at their feet. No arm to the one in front. We may need him. Blat on their blooming faces. Their leader is coming out alone. I await your command, O ye who speak in the voice of thunder. By the Lord, Ari Pichy, we're in luck. That's the old Afghan tongue he speaks. Speak up! Who are you? Where do you come from? I'm high priest and chief of the village of Baskai, a journey of only a few heartbeats. What's your name? Mazu Kanjabdalo. That's too long. What do we call him, Pichy? He has the look about him of an old soldier and friend of ours. Billy Fish? Oh, so he does, ye. He bestow an aim on you. From now on, you'll be Billy Fish. As you command, I obey. All right. Then put this on your drums. Tell them two kings have come out of the mountaintops. Two kings that speak in words of thunder so the earth trembles. Tell them two kings have come to Kapiristan. You need lots of dollars for an accident. You need the kind of protection that only Mutual of Omaha sells what you need. You need Mutual of Omaha's longer, stronger hospital insurance. 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Look at him, Peachy. Look at him blinking campfires, gleaming in the dark like the jewels in a crown. Ah, yes, Daniel. You've done a fine job for sure. All 23 villages get joined together as one. There are hours now. Every man, jack, woman, and child, we own them, body and soul. We're kings now, Daniel. Not proper kings yet, but we will be. Sooner than you think, Peachy. Huh? How's that? Billy Fish told me something today that fair amazes me. These people know the craft. What? You mean the... the Freemasons? Oh, Daniel, it can't be possible. So won't it? It's gospel true. He gave me the grip and everything. It's old, masonry is. It's older than the memory of man. Then up your emils, they've been preserving it all these years. Well, why, some of the high priests know up through the fellow craft, but they don't know the third degree. See, if, Peachy, they don't know the third degree, but we do. Daniel, what is it you're fixin' to do? Do? We're gonna be proper kings. We've got them going and coming. Now, I'm gonna turn the whole country into one grand lodge, and some of the priests to third degree. And for me, I'll be the grand master of Kaferistan. You haven't got the right to. We've never been officers in no lodge. Yeah, right. What's a king got to do with asking for a right? I'm against it, Daniel. It's no good to go foolin' around with the craft. Ah, you talk like an old woman. The thing will work. I know it will. We'll make it a blooming ceremony. The symbols and the marks? Oh, for us, Peachy. The kings of Kaferistan. Everything is prepared, and the priests and the people wait. Well, they haven't much longer, Billy. Now, Peachy, how do you like my apron? It's a wondrous sight, for fair, Daniel. It made a white ermine skin, it is, and a master's mark with emeralds. You ready, Peachy? It's a bit rigid, Daniel. Then half we go and under the temple steps. Oh, we'll give them what for. Knock their blinking eyes out. That's what we'll do. They turn and they're blooming leaves and yelling their full words. Oh, it's just a good thing to be a king, Daniel. Stand where you are, master. They recognize the mark. That great stone in the floor. Why do they turn it over? Wait. Speak up, Billy. What's the meaning of it? See for yourself. Look. Daniel, carved on the back of the stone. Yeah. It is the master's mark, all right? And the same as the sign you wear. Only a few of the priests have known of the hidden mark on the stone. What does it mean? Many who have doubted you were a god. Doubt no longer. And, and you, Billy, what do you think? I, master, I think that now it is the time for these gold crowns. How they glitter. They fit for the brow of a king. Oh, it is what we come for. Here, here now. Put them on. We'll crown ourselves in our own right. Listen to them. Here now something fishy. We come here to be kings and that's how we are all right. But, blame you, we ain't a couple of blooming gods to boot with a million people bowing on their knees. Let wind outside, bitchy. Winter's about due to strike and fill the trails with snow. There'll be a little movie in about before spring. You're right. Yeah, I've been thinking. A man gets lowly in the winter and cold. Why? So, bitchy, I've decided to take a wife. A, a wife? Who? Marum, the girl who brings the food. Oh, she's a well-favoured wench. But you can't do it, Daniel. We made a contract with each other. That was until we were kings. Well, kings, we've been these many months now. It's no good, it's no good. I'll tell you now I'm against it. Against it? You was against using the craft, too. But look what it done for us. This is different. Billy Fish will tell you all the same as I do. Billy Fish, yeah. Who's the king here? Him or me? Me, mine's made up. Three days from now, I shall have me a wife. And you can put it on the drums until every blighter out there in the hills. The kingdom of Kaphiristan is going to have a queen. Just keep in there, P.G. They should have bought her in here half an hour ago. I don't know, Daniel. How about you, Billy Fish? You put them up to stall and off deliberate like? Certain preparations must be made, master. She's across the court with some of the priests. Maybe they're trying to hearten her up a bit, Daniel. She thinks she's going to die, you know. Die, indeed. Master, it is against the laws of heaven for a woman to marry a god. I'm not a god. I'm a man. You know that by now, Billy. I should not want to think so, master. But either way, this can mean only trouble. I beg you to reconsider. I beg you to shut up, Billy. I'm through with waiting. I'm going over there. Master, please. We've got to go with them, Billy. Come on. Now you're bundling fools. Bring out the girl. Oh, now that's better. Here, girl. This is no way for a bride to behave. Oh, and a smile. Give us a kiss. Yeah, which has bitten me. The blood, master. Don't let them see the blood. No! 130 people killed by fire at sea. The captain dead, perhaps poisoned. The chief engineer sat helplessly moaning and wringing his hands. Was there a murderer on board? Now, read in the latest issue of Look Magazine, the mysterious and incredible story of the ill-fated vessel, the Moro Castle. You folks who enjoy the action and thrills of suspense will be particularly fascinated by Look Magazine's detailed report of the death of the Moro Castle. Did the chief radio operator deliberately touch off the fire, or was he really a hero? Were 130 people murdered and the Moro Castle burned to hide evidence that the captain may have been poisoned? Get the chilling answers in Look. Learn in Look about the one man on the ship who was acclaimed for superhuman devotion to duty and how he was later imprisoned for the bludgeon murder of two of his neighbors. Find out in Look how it was discovered that there was a pathological fire setter aboard the Moro Castle. Don't miss Fire at Sea in the new issue of Look Magazine. It's on your newsstands now. Get Look today. And now. Starring Mr. Dan Poherlahy, the three of the man who would be king. Confounded, heathens. I'll come back. I'll come back and beat their blasted heads in. That's what I'll do. Oh, yes, Daniel. Yes, we'll be back. All right. So much further, Billy. Only a short way beyond this ridge, Master. Well, so far so good. At least them blooming drums have stopped. At the top now, Daniel. And our right good climate's been. Wait. Look. It seems the drums have come before us, Master. Cattle. Now, less than a thousand of them standing there. Quiet like with them. Wicked long knives in their ends. There'll be no getting past them, Daniel. No. We're done for. Go on back, Billy Fish. Take your men away with you. Go with him, Pucci. It's me they want. I did it. Me. The king. No, Daniel. We made a contract, you and I. Billy Fish, you clear out. I am your friend. I stay with you. No. You're a good man, Billy. A common no, Daniel. Pucci. No, no, no, no. Forget it, Daniel. I forgive you freely and fully. All right, then let them come. There's one thing they can't change, Pucci. We've been kings. Kings in our own right. Kings of all Kaffiristan. Yes. The sliced open poor Billy Fish. Like a bloomin' heron, they're dead. In the snow and the rocks. Oh, Lord man. But you, Pucci, you got away from them. Got away from them, did I? Oh, no, no. Strung me out on a tree, drove nails right through me hands, they did. See? But I fooled them all right, because morning came and I wasn't dead. Then I made them think that I'd lost my senses. And I was afraid to harm me, because crazy men is protected by Allah. Well, they cut me down then, and after a while they let me go. You poor devil. What have driven it? What happened to Daniel? Daniel's a king, and he wears a golden crown. But now what happened to him? He's never left me. All them long months walking on the road back, he kept me safe. The mountains, they danced at night. But Daniel held up his hand, and Pucci came along, bent double. I never let go of Daniel, and Daniel never let go of me. He's with me now, here. In this bundle, you knew all Daniel, sir. He was a king once. Look at him now. Oh, Mark. And now, you've seen that we wise, really kings. I'd be on my way. You'll pardon me, sir. I'll let him go. There was little else to do. He was only hours away from his death. I sat there and stared at the contents of the bundle he had left lying on my desk. Stared as the pale sharps of dawn struck fire in the red beard. Stared at the golden crown, sitting too large and too heavy, upon the wrinkled, mummified head of Daniel Dravitt, the man who would be king. Suspense, in which Mr. Dan O'Hurlahy starred in William M. Robson's production of The Man Who Would Be King, adapted for radio by Les Crutchfield from a story by Rudyard Kipling. In a moment, the names of our supporting players and a word about next week's story of suspense. A bunch of the boys are whooping it up every weekday on CBS Radio. Variety spices the airwaves with fun every time CBS Radio turns them loose. The boys are Pat Buttrum, Art Linkletter, and Galen Drake. Here's a threesome that's really awesome for its total output of sheer pleasure. The remarkable wit of Buttrum, Linkletter's unending imagination in creating stunts and surprises. Galen Drake's way with words and stories. Put them all together, and you have a distinctly flavored different sound. Only a network could assemble for your weekday pleasure, and only the CBS Radio network does. Listen in daily, or as often as you like. With these boys whooping it up as you move about the house, one thing that's out the window with the dust is boredom. The Galen Drake show, Art Linkletter's House Parties from Hollywood, and Pat Buttrum's Just Entertainment. One at a time or altogether, they're good, clean fun in every weather. Try them often. Bring then O'Hurlahy and the man who would be King, where Lillian Bief, Ben Wright, Jane Avello, and Richard Peel. Listen. Listen again next week when we return with Mr. Raymond Burr, starring in Edgar Allan Poe's great classic of terror, The Pit and the Pendulum. Another tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. Get the complete news first on the CBS Radio Network.