 And now, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. Listen now to act one of the Black Door, starring Robert Redick, featuring Ralph Camargo, and written especially for suspense by Robert Arthur. The mistake I made was going through that Black Door. If I'd left it shut the way it was sealed tight, everything would have been fine. I'd have married Marsha, become a full professor, had my name in all the papers. Well, there's no use telling the story backwards, is there? First things first, as old Professor Wentworth always said. And the first thing in this case is the grant I received a hunt for a lost city in Central America. The city of the fire god. Which might mean something, or might mean nothing. Anyway, I got the grant from the university, charted a modern helicopter for three months, flew it down to Central America, got the necessary government permissions, and made my base of operations the tiny little town of San Marcos on the coast. As nearly as I could figure from the manuscript, the city of the fire god was someplace among the mountains in that area. So I flew back and forth over the mountains and the helicopter, keeping a lookout for runes in the jungle, for the mountain valleys. For two and a half months I saw nothing except trees and rocks. In the town I was charitably looked upon as a crazy Yankee. And finally even the children stopped staring at me. And I was getting pretty discouraged and trying to forget my troubles with a glass of tequila in a little garden outside the town's only cafe, while some native with a guitar serenaded his girl nearby. Waiter, wait, oh there you are. Pardon, señor. I am not the waiter. He's busy. Busy. No one's been busy in this town since Columbus discovered America. That's very true, señor, but I have paid the waiter to go somewhere else. That's why he's busy. Look at this, señor. Well, let me see that. It's a tiny statue, very old. Statue carved out of volcanic basalt in the style of the oldest known Mayan carving. Where did you get that? Oh, that is easily answered, señor. Well, and tell me, my grandfather, he gave it to me when he died. Well, where did he get it? Uh, señor, that is a harder question. Now look, if you came here just to play games with me, I... No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That is why I send away the waiter so we could talk confidentially. Yes, well, let's talk confidentially. Where did that little statue come from? From the mountains, señor. But the whole country is mountains. See, see, that is true, but you see, my grandfather was a great hunter. Once he followed a wounded jug, we're high into the mountains. Some savage natives then followed my grandfather. Yes. Well, he was wounded and to escape, he climbed a great cliff. Go on, go on. And he reached the top and on the other side, he saw a dead city. A dead city? See, señor, silent, lifeless, far below him. Yes. He tried to climb down to it and he failed, señor. For three days he lay unconscious and when he recovered his senses, he had the fever and somehow he found his way out. He does not know how. He staggered back to his home and they found him in a jungle, crawling on his hands and knees, clutching this little statue and saying over and over, la puerta negra, la puerta negra. The what? The black door, señor. The black door? Sí, señor. And my poor grandfather, he was never strong enough to go hunting again, but he kept this little statue and he said he'd had safety's life. What did he mean by the black door? Oh, one cannot say, señor. He could not remember. Surely he went back to the lost city? Well, no, he was not strong enough. Besides, there were the savages. But you mean nobody ever tried to find a city again? Well, why should they, señor? He belonged to the dead. Or they might be angry if the living came to disturb them. Those old superstitions. Sí, señor. Now, me, I am not superstitious. I speak American well. The señor wishes to find this lost city. I, better Ramirez know where it is. Go on. You see, my grandfather described it to me. The mountains where it is hidden. Yes. They are three days' walk from here. Three days. That's 50 or 60 miles. What direction? Señor, that is the question. What direction? A most important question, no? I get it. How much? A mere pittance for a rich Yankee, señor. One thousand dollars, American. A thousand dollars? And one half of all the treasure. What treasure is that? Oh, there must be treasure, señor. Who else would you seek this lost city? Because I want to become a professor at a university and marry a girl named Marsha, whose father is head of the Department of Archaeology. All right. A thousand dollars. If you actually guide me to the city, you say your grandfather found. And half the treasure? Yes. Half the treasure, if any. We seal the bargain with a glass of taquilla. And the next day, Pedro came with me in the helicopter. He directed me to fly to the southeast, and I did, hovering as low as I dared on the rocky edges and jungle. Oh, we've come more than 50 miles, Pedro. No sign of that city yet. Oh, yes, señor. There to the left. There is the mountain. That? Are you crazy? That's the tone of an extinct volcano. Si, señor. And the lost city is inside the volcano. Oh, now, wait a minute. How could that be? Well, I know I do not know. I was not there when he was built. On the other hand, city of the fire god. I wonder. Well, I haven't looked into that volcano yet, so here goes. It's high in the air over the top of the old dead volcano. And we came out over a deep circular valley, grown up with jungle now. But there, in the center of the jungle, was a group of stone buildings dominated by a vast, ruined temple. Señor! Señor! They lost the meaning of my grandfather. Oh, it is a great treasure. I have the feeling. Well, even if it isn't, this is one of the biggest finds in the history of Central America. Are we going down now? We'll sit down in that level spot right in front of the temple. We settled in front of the old temple. I got the motors. And for a moment, we just sat there taking it in. The stone towers, the ancient carvings, the massive walls that have been put into place by men whose bones had turned to dust maybe three, four thousand years ago. And then we climbed out. We were both armed. We had flashlights. And I had a small hammer and chisel tucked into my belt. On board the helicopter, I had a case of dynamite if any blasting was necessary, but this was just to be a preliminary survey, so I left it where it was. Pedro and I found ourselves on a big stone plaza, with a partially ruined temple in front of us. The entrance was flanked by two tremendous stone carvings. Hardly enough, very like something from Egypt, human figures with heads that were vaguely dog-like, which made them seem most unhuman. Senor, those statues, I do not like them. Yes, they are rather odd. But I'm more interested in those designs carved in the rock above them. Design, senor. Oh, they but show the moon, the new moon and the old moon. Yes, and there are more moons all over the front of the temple. And that's unusual. Most of the old civilizations in this area worship the sun. See, senor, but I cannot help wondering. Wondering what? Why the man who made those statues put the heads of dogs on them? It was dark inside the temple. But our flashlights gave us enough light. Vast stone pillars supported a roof high above us as we moved down along a lengthy corridor. And then we came into a central rotunda and got some sunlight through a crack in the roof. Look, senor, gold, gold, 10 statues, 12 statues, and each of them solid gold. Come, come, look, senor. Gold, gold, I have reached. I have reached. Tato was right. Ranged in a circle in the middle of the rotunda were 12 golden statues about five feet high. They're all human figures with dog-like heads. And they were all looking at a spot on the floor in the middle of the circle they made. Trolls, look, jewels, jewels, baskets of them. Oh, senor, senor, I am the richest man in the world. The foot of each statue, a carved stone basket. Each one has a handful of gems in it. Obviously, these statues were worshiped. And the gems were tribute. Pedro, have you taken a good look at these statues? Shine your light on this one. Mother Mia, again the head of the dog. Yes, they're all dog-headed statues. And all their eyes are focused on one spot over there. It seems to be something carved on the floor. Let's see what that is. Ah, senors. That is more strange. A round black carving on the floor. Almost like a globe or a map. Good lord. You know what this is supposed to be. No, senor, I cannot guess. It's the moon. Carved on the floor in black basalt, the moon. Ah, si. Oh, that is more strange, no? You don't know the half of it because the formations carved here, they're not the formations our astronomers know, unless the Russians have some new pictures they're not talking about. If this carving represents the real geography of the mo- Pedro? Si, senor. The artist who carved this must at some time have seen the real geography of the moon. Must at some time have seen the dark side of the moon. Which no human being has ever glimpsed. I know it sounds crazy, but the more I studied that round black carving, the more I was convinced it was an accurate relief map of the dark side of the moon. And then we discovered something else. Around the rim of that black disc was a series of crevices filled with tar. I dug the tar out and under it, in each crevice we found a small basalt statuette like the one that Pedro had originally shown me. In each crevice, but one. Which was empty. Senor, see? The story of my grandfather is true. This little statue he brought back. Look, he just fits into this tiny hole. Yes, yes, it does. Black door, this must be the black door that he talked about. Si, senor. The black door. But they... how does he open it? I don't know. Now wait, wait, suppose we stand each of these little statues upright. Yes. Yes, they fit tightly like handles. Now if we push them. Please, senor, we push. And it's turning. The black disc is turning. And now it's loose. Now we can lift it up. Let us lift it down there. Maybe more treasure, more gold, more jewels. All right. Come in. There. It's open. And there's a well-worn flight of steps. Leading down to the heart of the old volcano. We stood there, staring down to that black passageway that seemed to go down, down endlessly. I didn't like the looks of it, but Pedro had gold fever. He thought that there might be whole walls of treasure down below. I couldn't talk him out of looking, so I went along, too. The tunnel sloped down whatever down into the heart of the ancient volcano. We came across evidence of much usage, broken pottery, strange carvings on the wall. Curiosity led us on until presently we came to a cavern whose walls seem to be lined where curious growth. Senor, look. There's not much room. Solid sheets of it, all lining a wall. No, no, no, Senor. That is not what I mean. Look here. Look through here. Oh, the narrow crevice. There's a room in there. It's not a room. It is what is in the room. Come, shine your light. Then let us leave, Senor. What has got you so worked up? It can't be treasure. I see. Skeletons, Senor. Many skeletons. Hundreds, many. Lying one upon the other. It's full of human bones, as much as I hate to say it. The ones I can see best have tooth marks on them. Senor, let us leave here swiftly. Let us return to the airplane. Let us take the treasure and go. Crazy now, Pedro. These bones have been hundreds of years, maybe thousands. All bones are new bones. I do not like these bones. There's no cause for alarm. I don't know. Why does the Senor study so hard the mushrooms on the wall? These mushrooms certainly haven't been here as if big handfuls of them had been broken off. Broken off? For why? There's only one thing I know of you can do with mushrooms. And let's eat them. Pedro and I stood staring at each other. I was pretty sure that something, or somebody, had recently been eating that mushroom like fungus. And I was beginning to wonder what, or who, when we heard it from somewhere far down below us. Senor, what is that? It sounded like a dog howling. A dog? No, no, no, no. There is no dog. What if it's not a dog? What is it? They demon, Senor. They devil. Forget that superstition. Something down there impossible as it seems, something living. And if we do not leave, there will be something dying down here, Senor. Please come, come, come. Yes, yes, but I'm trying to figure out what on earth that could sound... Those are not dogs upstairs. The statues, the people with heads of dogs upon them. Does the Senor not realize where it is that is howling? Until that second, I hadn't made the connection. And then I realized the full significance of those statues. It couldn't be, it was impossible. But what other answer was there? We turned ahead to the surface, and just as we did so, I saw something coming up the tunnel taught us. Something that was a pallid white shape in the light of my flashlight. Something running on all fours and howling hungrily as it did so. Now let's get out of here! We didn't even stop to look at what I'd shot. I'm not sure I wanted to look. We just turned and ran up that long tunnel to the surface. And as we went, the howling things pursued us. We could hear them behind us like a pack of hungry animals. From time to time, they found the pallid gun. And I seemed to scare them. We finally popped out into that ruined temple with a twelve dog-headed gods. And I understood at last what that black door was for. It sealed the entrance to the underground world where they lived. Pedro and I flung ourselves on the ground, the great ground slab of black rock was, and we couldn't move it. It was wedged open somehow, and we couldn't get it closed. Senor, Senor, quickly! They will follow us in a moment! Gathered down there beyond the first bend, obviously they don't like light. They are getting up there to courage! Now we've got to shut them in. We can't let those things loose. But we can't shut the black door. We can do nothing! The helicopter quickly, eh? I got it. The dynamite and the helicopter. We'll blow in the mouth of the tunnel. It'll only take sixty seconds. That'll keep them quiet another minute or two. Now come on, help me with that case of dynamite. It took us less than a minute to get the case of dynamite. Bring it back inside the temple and light a fuse. Then I shoved the whole case down the steps into the black tunnel. Pedro and I hurried back into the open, scrambled into the helicopter, and started the motor just in case. Ah, Senor Landry! What is it? The treasure! The jewels! We did not bring them! We can get them after the tunnel is blown in. You don't want to tangle with those dog-headed creatures, do you? No, no, no, no, por los Santos. No, but, Senor, what are they? They must be demons, for surely they are not of this world. They're not with you, but they're not demons. Listen. That does it. Tunnel is closed for good. Senor, the temple is collapsing! And the earth is shaking! Senor, it's an earthquake! Pedro, there's only one place for us to go, and that's straight up! The helicopter jumped a thousand feet straight up, just before the temple crashed on the spot where we had been. And then we watched from a box seat where the lost city crumbled into ruins. The dynamite blast had triggered off an earthquake, and the earthquake rocked the ground like a man shaking a baby's rattle. Senor, Senor, the jewels, the gold, they are down there under many rocks! Yes, and so are the dog-headed creatures. Suppose they'd got loose on the world after being caged underground for thousands of years. Oh, I can only think of all that pressure. For a little while, I was the richest man in the world. I owned a lost city full of jewels. Now, now I own nothing. After things quiet down, I can bring back an expedition. We'll dig in the ruins. The jewels will still be there. You see, that is true, no? I will be rich yet, no? I will buy myself three automobiles and twelve shirts. I will smoke cigars all day long and have servants to do everything. Senor, Senor, I am ruined. I am ruined. What is it now? The dead volcano is coming to life. See, the smoke is coming from the ground. The dynamite triggered an earthquake. An earthquake opened up fissures leading far down to where the volcanic fires have been banked for thousands of years. By the time we got ten miles away, that entire mountain was blowing up in a vast, spouting fire and ashes and molten rock. But somewhere, somewhere down in the heart of that inferno, was the lost city, the city of the fire god that would have made my reputation enough treasure to pay off the national debt and a howling mob of creatures you wouldn't want to meet this side of hell. Well, that's the story. You read about the new volcano and now you know what caused it. Would you like to know my theory about those creatures? Well, it's this. Six or 7,000 years ago, this old earth had some visitors, refugees, you might call them. Some of them settled in Egypt, some in Central America. They brought some highly scientific skills with them including the secret of overcoming gravity. They ruled for a while, worshipped as gods, and then died out. All except a few who found inside an old volcano a spot just about I call. The native priests managed to block them in behind that black door kept in presence. After the natives died out, the dog people existed underground living on mushrooms and keeping their race alive on an animal level. Now they're gone now. But here's a tip for the army and the air force. When you land your first missiles on the moon, keep your eyes open and your guns ready. Because inside those tremendous craters of the moon living far underground where maybe they're still warmth and air. I have a hunch you're going to be running into people. Moon people who look a lot like us. Except for their heads. Suspense. You've been listening to the black door starring Robert Reddick featuring Ralph Camargo and written especially for suspense by Robert Arthur. Suspense is produced and directed by Bruno Zorato Jr. Music supervision by Ethel Huber. Listen again next week when we return with Man Trap. Written by John Roberts. Another tale well calculated to keep you in. Suspense. Listen to Carol Burnett and Richard Hayes weeknights on the CBS Radio Network.