dark fantasy b13 Now I'm youriten I have everything b14 I see b17 I really have all other kinds from the sea. Sorry, Mr. Hedges, this is all we can dig up on that story about the missing Hollywood people. Well, we can't wait any longer. We got to go to press. Let's see what you got. Story from the film Camp of the More than a week ago, November 20th of the exact, Philip Hayward, young cinema star of yesterday's brand, and the popular actress Judith Johnson set sail for New Zealand aboard Hayward's private yacht. As chaperone, Miss Johnson's movie director father accompanied the pair, and it's reported that Johnson Sr. is taking advantage of the seavoids to complete his original cinema yarn, a story of the strange creatures who live beneath the surface of the sea. That was more than a week ago. Word's been received from New Zealand that the Hayward yacht's more than two days overdue. A careful check gives evidence that there have been no disturbances on the Pacific throughout the time the party's been aboard. Special searching parties fail to discover the whereabouts of the boat. Question in Hollywood tonight, the question everywhere is, what's happened to the trio aboard the dolphin? Where are they? Have they become victims of the fantastic creatures created in the imagination of the author-director aboard the yacht? That is this week's unsolved mystery. Will it ever be? Oh, that's all right. Boy, get this down to make-up. Let's get rolling. Die a wife. Come on, Hayward. Stop that foolin' noise, will you? Oh, take it easy, Johnston. No reason to start shouting at each other, you know. Well, look here. We've been becometh for two days and a night now. We haven't moved a knot one way or the other. I assure you there's nothing wrong with the motors. I've been over them myself. For some fantastic reason, they just refuse to start again. Why? Why won't they start? I don't know. Why did they stop in the first place? Oh, it's weird. Like, like some strange spirit that descended upon the boat. Oh, nonsense. Is it nonsense? There are many terrifying legends about sea spirits and fantastic adventures that have happened to sailors at sea. Just a lot of myths. Who knows what strange creatures lurk beneath the sea's surface who can tell what might come up out of the depths at any moment. Oh, stop it. You're talking like a superstitious old fool. You've made too many goofy movies. Just because you've won an Academy Award is no sign I'm going to swallow the tribe you dish out in those eight real clam bakes of yours. No. Judy. You can't. What's the matter with me? You can't. No. I won't let you. No, no. No, no. Here. Wake up. No. You can't do it. No. No, I say. No. No. Judy. Judy, darling. What in the name of heaven? Judy. Are you all right? Oh. I was asleep. Dreaming. Oh, it was horrible. I'd say it was a nightmare. I dreamed I was talking to a young girl. Yet she didn't seem like a girl at all. She looked more like a mermaid. A what? She was like a nymph from the sea. I thought she stood looking at me. She told me she'd been dead for centuries. And yet not really dead. I couldn't understand what she meant. She said something about her body being dead. But her mind being free to wander about the world. Fantastic. No, dad, it was ghastly. She kept trying to convince me that I should let her mind enter my body. Well, what did she say she wanted to do? She said the entire civilization of the earth depended upon the task she had to perform. Oh, Phil, she seemed to be actually trying to force me out of my body so she could enter it. Judy, what did this creature look like? Oh, she was awful looking, dad. She had long hair. Green and slimy like seaweed. Her teeth were brilliant red. They were long and pointed. She kept staring at me with her little beady eyes. They were horrible, for there were no eyelids. She never blinked once. She just stared and stared. Yes? What else, Judy? What was horrible when she touched me. She had long, narrow fingers with no nails on them. They were covered with fish-like scales. That's positively the most amazing thing I've ever heard of. Mr. Heywood. Mr. Heywood. Yes, Ned, what is it? I say, look at the lad. What's wrong, boy? You're pale as a ghost. Mr. Heywood, the dolphin. She's moving. The boat's moving. Good. The men got the motors started. No, sir, that's just it. The motors aren't running and there's no wind. The boat's making about 20 knots an hour. Why, this boat couldn't possibly move without motors. That's not all. There's a man at the helm steering the boat. And he's a man none of us have ever seen before. Ned. Are you sure? Sure as I'm standing here, sir. And he's the strangest thing I've ever seen. Well, let's go have a look at him. Hey, come on. Judith, you'd better stay here. No, no. No, I'm not going to stay here by myself. All right, come along, all of you. Follow me. Ned. It's him. Standing up there at the helm, singing. Some sort of an ancient sea chanting. Easy now. Maybe trouble. There he is, sir. You see Mr. Heywood? Yeah. I say, Heywood, that's no man. Some sort of a sea monster. Look at his hands, Mr. Heywood. The lad's right. Long, narrow fingers with webs between them and no fingernails. Dad, Bill, they're like the hands of the girl in the dream. Where's he taking her? Yes, I wonder. Behind us, sir. Look at that. A huge wall of water rising out of the sea. Get down those steps, everybody. Get down, everybody. Down the steps. You hear? Into the cabins. I say, everybody all right. Yes, I am. Did Judy go down to the cabin? Yes, she did. Just managed to close the door before the wave hit. Are you all right? Yes, OK. You, Judy? What in the world caused that? Yeah, what? The wind and a wave of water hundreds of feet high. It's a miracle we didn't capsize. Look, sir, to the port side. Yes, Ned. There's land. Land by heaven. It can't be. Not in these waters. There's no land for 500 miles. And what's that over yonder? Mirage? No, sir. That's no mirage. It's land. It certainly is. Long, low coast. Extending north and south as far as you can see. A low, steaming land. Look. Look at the heavy vapors rising from it. You're right, Judy. It is steaming. That must explain the sultryness that's been round us these past two days. Why, I've been in these waters a dozen times. This has never been here before. It's an entire continent where there ought not to be anything but empty sea. Land from the sea. That explains the wave that swept over us. A wave that high could only have been caused by an undersea disturbance. Oh, nonsense, Johnston. You're trying to say an underwater convulsion forced this vast expanse of land up to the surface. Precisely. A land called Iban. I'll have to have a better explanation than that. Things like entire continents rising up out of the ocean just don't happen. Well, then if Dad's not correct, what is the explanation? There is no other. A land called Iban did exist at one time, nearly 10,000 years ago. It was ruled by a man named Buhl and a woman named Lana. They both possessed wonderful powers and knowledge. Buhl, the emperor, destroyed the continent of Iban. How? By releasing vast unknown forces beneath the continent. Forces that only he and Lana knew how to control. But why did he destroy it? I don't seem to recall. I read the legend once, doing research for one of my pictures. It seems that for some reason or other, Buhl and the girl were to release their spirits from their bodies. And those spirits would have the power some day of recalling the sunken land from the sea. Then it's, if such a story's true, that must be the land of Iban we're approaching. Not at all impossible. And if it is true, couldn't that monstrous chanting thing at the helm be Buhl himself? Oh, Dad. Taking us with him back to his long lost kingdom. You don't actually believe that, do you, Johnston? Why not? Well, I certainly don't. Well, Phil, what else can we believe? That wave couldn't have swept us off our course enough to put us in sight of this land. Besides, look at it, steaming in that sultry, foul odor. Land covered with seaweed. There's no one at the helm, sir. That monster's disappeared. But look, there's someone lying on the deck beneath the wheel. It's a man. Yes. Maybe that thing's met with a bit of hard luck. Now, careful. Careful, Hayward. Right. He's breathing. Only slightly. I see. Who is he? Not a member of the crew. Hard to get on board. Why is he lying here on deck? What happened to him? Oh, he's conscious. He's trying to tell us something. Look here. Who are you? I stole away. He hid in the supply room. Went to sleep. I don't remember anything. Stole away, he says. He hid in the supply room and went to sleep. Wait a minute. He's dead. Hayward, I'm going to have a look over here. Oh, Judy, Judy. Oh, dear, I feel so strange. Oh, dear, you look ill. Very strange. You'd better go below to the cabin, dear. Yes, I'd better. I'll lie down for a while. Shall I go with you, dear? No. No, I'll be all right, but rest for a while. All right, dear. Be careful going to your cabin. Oh, Ned, get a tarpaulin and cover the body. Right away, sir. Hayward, come over here a minute, will you? Yes, Johnson. What is it? There. Have a look. See? Someone's climbed down that rope ladder and gone ashore through the mud and slime. Whoever it was, he didn't sink in very deep. Seaweed's too thick. Kept him from sinking. I wonder who it was. I'm in favor of finding out. Oh, Ned. Yes, sir. We're going ashore. Watch out for Miss Blake, will you? Right, sir. And not a word of this to the rest of the crew, understand? Yes, sir. All right, Johnson. Down you go. There. Follow those footprints and see where they lead us. This is the most evil-smelling place I was ever in. Hold on. Look. Yeah, I see what you mean. A city up ahead there. A city on the depths of the sea. I see Johnston. Isn't that Captain Webb going into that low-dome building over there? Yes. Yes, it is. So that's our man. Ahoy, Captain. Captain Webb. Wait a minute, Captain. Hold up a bit. Hey, wait. He's turned around. That snarl on his face. He's got a gun in his hand. Hey, wait. It isn't Webb. It's that thing. What in the name of heaven is he? Stand back, the two of you. Stand back. What? You're not Captain Webb. I am Bull, Emperor of Eban, and I've returned to claim again my ancient kingdom. If you come one step nearer, I shall be compelled to slay you. You dare not, Bull. Lana! Judy! You seem surprised, Bull. Did you think I would forget? Lana! Judy, darling, what does this mean? Why do you speak so strangely? Why does this thing call you Lana? I am Lana, Philip Hayward. I have borrowed for a while the body of your beloved Judy. What? My mind, my spirit has entered her body. You see me as Judith Johnston, but now, now I am Lana, Empress of the Kingdom of Eban. I have returned to rule Eban. And I have returned to prevent it. You cannot prevent it, Lana. Look here. This quarrel is none of my affair. I demand that you release whatever power you have over my fiance. I have borrowed her body only for a little while, Philip Hayward. Just as Bull has borrowed the body of the captain of your craft. The body I first borrowed was a weak one, a sick stowaway. The captain's is a sturdy body. Now it is mine. But you must return it to him, Bull. It is the law. You must return his body unharmed, just as I must return the body of Judith Johnston. It shall be so. I am about to enter the temple now, regain my Ebanite body. You cannot open the burial chamber unless I accompany you. I realize that full well. I enter the temple now. I shall await you, Lana, beside the supple girl. Look here, Lana. Whoever you are, this is some horrible nightmare. Philip Hayward, we must act quickly. I will try to explain. When Bull destroyed Eban 10,000 years ago, we sealed our Ebanite bodies in a vacuum chamber inside this temple. And our spirits left our bodies to roam the universe until Eban should be restored. Now Bull intends to reenter his body and build a new Eban. Once he does reclaim his ancient body, all is lost. For no one save me can destroy him. And if I slay him, I too must die. But what can you do? I have a plan. Come with me into the temple where Bull awaits. There is Bull standing beside our ancient bodies, just as we left them so long ago. All is ready, Lana. We will break the vacuum, permit our spirits to enter our sleeping bodies. Are you prepared? I am prepared, Bull. Then we begin. Hayward, look. Those bodies in the glass vacuum, they're beginning to move. Yes. Slowly. Slowly. Look at them. No, no, don't. Please, don't. Judy, Judy, darling. Oh, no. Help me. Judy. Judy, I'm here again. Where am I? Judy. What did I get here? Judy, thank heaven she's left you. You're yourself again. Look, they're left behind you. See? Up there. There she is. She is the one in my dream. You are free. All of you. Not so. The three of you will remain here forever to help rebuild the populace of Eban. You cannot, Bull. Bull is all great, all powerful. Bull is the law. No one can defy. No one, Bull. Save me. You lack the courage, Lana. Not now. I have the courage now. You're cruel and wicked, Bull. Your rule of ancient Eban ended in horrible tragedy. It must not happen again. Put down the weapon, Lana. You dare not slay me? You'll die yourself. Then I call upon death to claim me. You dare not, Lana. You dare not slay the son of the ancient one? Yes, Bull. Yes. It has been written by the hand of destiny. Lana, think. Think before you slay me. Beyond realm of thought, Bull. Now I destroy you. Lana! She did it. She did it. That is the end. All is finished now. Now you must go. Can you come with us, Lana? No. But soon I'll perish also. You must hurry now. Leave Eban quickly. Go while yet you have time. Hasten. The board is too late. Well, Judy, darling, we're underway. Full speed ahead. No trouble starting the motors, dear? None at all. Their father and Ned are down with the crew. The men don't even suspect what has happened to us. Well, just as well. They'd never believe it. Well, take a last look, Judy. We'll soon be out of sight of the land. Yes. Oh, I'm so glad it's all over, Phil. Poor Lana. She gave her life to save ours, Phil. Yes, darling. She did. What's that? Look. Flames from the mainland, like a volcano. Phil, the land's sinking. It's Lana. Judy. She's released the forces. She's destroyed Angel Eban once again. Dark fantasy. The Thing from the Sea, an original tale of dark fantasy by Scott Bishop. Eleanor Naylor Corran was Judith Johnston. Ben Morris played Philip Hayward. Fred Wayne was heard as Johnston. Eugene Francis played Ned. Georgiana Cook was Lana. And Daryl McAllister was Boole, the Thing from the Sea. Next Friday night, at the same time, the National Broadcasting Company will bring you another weird adventure thriller, The Demon Tree, another tale of dark fantasy created by Scott Bishop and based upon the ancient legend of the strangling oak of Nano Woods in England. So listen for The Demon Tree next Friday night. Dark Fantasy originates in the studios of station WKY, Oklahoma City. Keith Fainton speaking. This is the National Broadcasting Company.
