Cloak and Dagger Broadcasts

Quiet Please - Not Responsible After 30 Years

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Duration:: 32m
Broadcast on:: 27 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Quietly for tonight is called, "Not Responsible After 30 Years". [Music] I suppose I'm glad to be out again. It's close to mid-summer leave again. I've got a date for that night. I've been thinking about the date all the time I've been and got more, planning how to get back to the circle and everything. I know three years have gone pretty slowly. Pretty slowly. Listen, the British prisons aren't like the ones at home. They don't fool around here. Oh, they're fair all that I suppose, but British prison food isn't exactly what I'd order. And those gray uniforms stamped with a broad arrow are pretty threatening. In four? Five? I was in for stealing. I was stealing a wristwatch, to be exact. Three years ago, just about this time of the year, stealing a wristwatch, also skeleton's arm. [Music] For sure, I don't mind telling you. I was in the OWI at this last war. I'd been in the other war, first in the British Army. Oh, I'm an American. I just kind of carried away in 1914. And when this one came along, I put in for OWI and made it. They sent me to England. I'd always wanted to come back to England. All those 30 years since I first came here and enlisted in the Corleys. The king's on Yorkshire Light Infantry, K-O-Y-L-I, Corley. But you know how it is. You're in the advertising business. You've got accounts to look after you. Go fishing in the summer with a client and all that. So the OWI was what you might call a heaven-sent opportunity. Well, anyway, forget the war if you can. I want to tell you about mid-summer's day 1945. This end of the war was over, you see. And so I put in for some leaves. As I've been planning to do for the four years I've been in Britain, I got it easily enough. And I set out for the circle. The circle? I'll tell you about that in a minute. You wanted to know why I got put in jail. Okay. So when I got to the circle, it was a morning of mid-summer's day, the 24th day of June in England, the quarter day. The morning after mid-summer's year. Well, I hardly recognized the place as well as I knew it. At first I thought they were digging some kind of fortification or something. And then I remembered that the war was over and why should they be digging air-age shelters or whatever it was now. Then when I went closer, I discovered what was going on. It's an old Roman camp or something, sir. It found some old Roman soldiers down there. My heart turned over. Old Roman soldiers. A Roman camp. I remember the ninth Spanish Legion in Tiberius Claudius. The ninth snails, the other Romans called them. And I remember the motto on the eagle's standards of the ninth, the brown ribbon below the S.T.Q.R. that are Ginerani. The words were ninth cherished and fought for. Slow but sure. The ninth that helped defeat Colacticus, king of the Britain's 19 short years after Christ was crucified. And it stayed in Britain almost 400 years afterwards until the very language of Rome disappeared. Disappeared among them except for the commands of the centurion to parade. I remembered some many things. And I drew nearer to the excavation where a couple of navvies were handing up a long canvas wrapped thing from the muddy clay. And I wasn't surprised at all when the man was seen to be in charge, unwrapped the canvas to reveal a skeleton of a man. A short, brown story to decide. And on his left arm, dangling loosely from the muddy white owner, an Elgin wristwatch of the vintage of 1950s. Yes, of course the archaeologist was under structure. No. Nobody had lost a watch in the pit. No, it couldn't be anything for the skeleton's own watch. Or they couldn't flip it off the bones of the hand. The metal band was too small. And it had corroded so that it couldn't be unstacked. Nobody thought to ask the American and the O.W.I. going to form this. He knew anything about it. I could have told him a lot about it. I could have told him what they discovered as they cleaned the watch and wound it up. I could have told him who the dead man was. And I could have told him that it wasn't his watch. After all, it was mine. So, I stole it. Now, of course, they caught me and that was three years ago. So, there they left me out of darkness with a little time after good behavior. And tonight I'm going to find that watch and I'm going to steal it again. Then I'm going to clean it very, very carefully. And I'm coming back to the circle. And when the watch is wound and running, I hope it will run. That's been underground there for 30 years. Or is it, well, the Roman Legion's last written in the year 411 A.B.? That's more than 1,500 years ago. Lance Corporal Edward Mullen was my friend. I was the only American in the battalion and the hardheaded Yorkshire veilsman don't take up easily with foreigners. But Mullen, who had been my drill master, took rather a liking to me somehow. And between the chores of slow pipes and farm pours, too deep quick marks, we found quite a good deal in the way of common interest. Particularly English history. We could see the powers of York Minster from our drill ground and... But I wish it could meet Edward Mullen. Hi, Lance. You're a wall that's ever built in the year 208. And then straight across the on seal over there. York's always been a garrison town. There were several and then, uh, consentius about under years later. And, uh, consentius, he died by under trumpets trees, they say? Uh, I suppose they'd dig up a lot of Roman relics and stuff, huh? You're around here? Why? Old pieces of armour, coins and that sort of thing. And occasionally part of the skeleton. Hey, this is a lively place in the old days, y'know? I wish I had a chance to see more of it. Oh, perhaps a good wangler day off and have a decor thing. Which we could. Well, uh, I can't maybe, it's an old fella, man. See what I can do, eh? Oh, boy. You like it, eh? Not up. Eh, don't come that cottony stuff on me, I just, you know, it's bloody cold, famous. Eh, why could we go, for instance, Corporal? You know some places where we could find some stuff? You know, uh, a crime or something? Eh, I do an all, an all score a place. Hey, have a real ability. Good? Sure. You have to go around and fight robes with mistletoe in their hair and play harp. And do magic tricks. Eh, I wouldn't be quite so flip about to do it, Greg. Right? And all those people about this take to do it somewhat serious. Isn't this day an age? Eh. Oh. What do you ask about it? Well, eh, I know where there's a Jewish circle. Well, they used to meet? Eh, they maybe they still meet. Oh, nah, come on. You know what, tomorrow night is, Greg? Uh, twenty-third of June. Uh-huh. Have you got guts yet? Well, I suppose so. You got enough to go to a Jewish circle on mid-summer's eve, huh? Well, one has to be safe. Well, eh, you'll not get frightened and run away and leave me. Well, of course I won't. Why should I? Eh, it just might be glad that you might see something you might not be expecting, right? What? Oh, I don't know. But I know a man, a new a man from other fields, over in the west riding. He made a wager each day all night alone in a Jewish circle on mid-summer's eve. Eh, did he? They found him there at the morning. What do you see? I couldn't tell. I could only just slobber like a baby. It was Raven Mag. I don't believe it. Another coffee, man, what? From other fields. Hmm. Whoa. Ha, ha, ha. Oh, I don't know. [Music] You'll have never seen a Jeward circle by midnight. I want you to pick your tall, wide-spreading oak trees, hundreds of years old. I want you to see a circle of great stones, twice as tall as a man, testing long black shadows across the grass. I want you to hear the little night wind rustling the leaves of the ancient oak, sounding like a far-off, whispered conversation of a great conclave of beings from another world. See the moon, dead pale in the sky above, and feel the oneness of all nature in the whispering silences. And know that you are very close to an infinite something. Sense that you will be under watch in a Jeward circle on mid-summeries, not being watched. And there is nothing to see. Nothing but the grim old monoliths, standing in a silent circle in their lengthening shadows, reaching out to the two soldiers, crouched under the little hanging branches of the oak. And there is nothing to hear. Nothing but the rest of the leaves, and the quickens the breathing of the man beside you in the dark. I looked at my watch. It liked less than a minute at midnight. And as the hand slowly crept to the hour, a veil seemed to come over the moon, until the sky was cloudless, and there was the sound of a deep, tall, gray veil, clinging sonarously once, and echoing across the empty glades. And suddenly the glade wasn't empty anymore. In the center of the circles to the nation's man, a tall, straight man, robed in gleaming light with a wreath of mistletoe about his head, and a long silver-white beard that descended to his prison. And I heard Edward Mullinshop intake of breath, and his whisper in my ear to go eat. And the majestic old man turned, and I could see his eyes gleaming in the moonlight as he gazed straight at it. And then he raised his staff and swined with oak leaves and brandished it. And from somewhere behind us I heard the tread of marching men. It was a long time, it seemed to me. Before I realized that these were not men in British Army ammunition boots, I'm going to begin for you, and ban a short mark for you. It wasn't until they marched out into the moonlight in the circle that I recognized them in their tight leather helmets and tilted battle dress. With their lances of loss in their short run goods, clanking at their hips. But I recognized them as a cohort of the legions of almost 1500 years ago. I have not much memory of what happened after that for a while. I remember how the glade seems to have changed. How the sagging monolith seems to have straightened up. How there seemed to be more trees there than there had been at first. The shapes of the hills seem dotted somehow. And there was a high wall stretching across the field beyond us. A wall showed a high built of heavy stones and with God platforms and regivables. I was looking at Severus' wall. This, by the Romans in the year 208, and as I was to learn very shortly, now only a scant two centuries old. I heard that with Mullins speaking to one of the legionaries. I was very sure of this trend. We may know how. And I heard that legionaries apply to them. And the time he spoke was dangerous of affection. Ah, we'd be pretty sure you're two men of the night. Why? You're a Roman. I so. If it's Romanus, so. Ha ha ha ha. There's not a Latin to see. So I'm Roman citizen. You're British? Why so we all are? All English born, but Romans. There have been no true born Roman in the night since days of Constantius more than a hundred years ago. What? Of what year is this? Why? eleven hundred sixty-three. Ah, this can't be. Ah, well, no Romans in Britain in eleven sixty-three. Why, ah, why? Why am I the second machine of England, then? What eight days? Oh, wait. Found al-domini? Ah, I don't know where this could be tied. And the army would use the old style from the founding of Rome. All right, Christians, then? Well, we're Christians, many of us. Guys, let me see. Rome was founded in seven hundred and sixty-three. Be seized. Seven fifty-three from eleven sixty-three. Four ten. This is eighty, four ten. Ah, ah, ah. Oh, look, soldiers. The legions go back to Rome next year, don't they? I'll know you that. I just know it. Right. It's true. It could be a sad day of parking for most of us. But we have never known any other land, say this, where we were born. Yes, I remember reading about that. What? Look, ma'am. What, uh, what about us? Well, wait a minute. Come and have supper with us. Come, man. There's always room at the nest for a British soldier. And there'll be wine issue later. And now our wives and our families are coming to join us. Oh, dear, dear, come on, fight me. I could tell you about that mid-summer, please. I could tell you about the psalms. Then the stories on your comrades told us about fighting the outlaws who swarmed down from the north to shatter themselves against the stones of the wall of Severus. And I could tell you of the women. The wives and daughters of the legionaries. The ones who danced, the ones who poured the heavy sour red wine and drank with us out of sweaty leather helmets. I could tell you of Lance Corporal Edward Mullen, brimming with that wine, drilling a squad of Roman soldiers, teaching them the manual of arms where their lances, even to the hollow of the right foot against the eel of the left, when they came to present. And me? And I was applauded now, the one I stood for, and declaimed, "Autumn of a Room Quay Conno!" And followed right through in my best, late-view high school elegance until I fell flat on my face at the sixth line. And flat on my face I was when the sun came up on mid-summer's day, in the year of our Lord 410. Flat on my face, with sixty Roman legionaries, none of whom had a worth hangover, and the one I sported. That was when I discovered a strange thing. My watch was running backward. Perhaps that was an effect, not a cause. Perhaps the druid had laid a spell on it that made it some time run backwards. Perhaps the going backward in time affected the watch. I don't know even today. But I have an idea. And tonight, I'm going to find out. The legionaries accepted us. We accepted them. The soldiers are quite apt to do. In time of war, everything is wrong. We were there. We found a way of returning, so we refused to bother. I hadn't about it. Well, perhaps we were influenced by Elaine. Elaine, the daughter of our stand, the legionaries, would first read it. His name was Claudius Decius, I shall stand for quick. Elaine, and I fell in love with her. And Edward Mullen fell in love with her. I remember how we talked when early fall day, beside the wall. Elaine and I. I do hate to go. Well, your father will probably be discharged as soon as he gets back to Rome. And you'll just have to come back here. I'd like to trip. Well, I'd take you to Rome, Elaine. Oh, it's your trip. And not in the troops, if I. I'd like to. Elaine. Hmm? What if I passed your father? Well... May I? No good, don't. Why not? Well... Don't you love me? I love you, Elaine. I love you, good. I try to make you very happy. Great. Well? No. When you come back, then... Elaine? When I come back. When I come back, Greg. My own and I are going to be married. And I talked to Edward Mullen, my friend. And he talked to me. I don't know what they say, Greg. I know your lover. Yes. Edward, I can't stay here, then. Why? I can't stay here and see you and Elaine. I just can't do it. It's not... How can I do it? No, I have to stay, Greg. No. So why, Elaine likes you. But look, oh boy. We're friends, aren't we? Of course, we're friends. But no... Then always be friends. Well, where could you go? Maybe I could go back. Oh. I'm going to find the duet. You don't know where he is. I'm going to the strip. Greg, I don't be a fool. No. Well... What if you can't find him? The Legion will be gone soon. I'll go over the other side if I can't get back where I belong. You won't do that. What I can do is I please. Greg, can't just speak about it. I don't ever want to see you again. Can't you understand that you're taking some of it one thing? It was a fair contest, Greg. A fair contest? No fair contest? You think I'm going to stay here in this? Can't just take them places and see you and Elaine every day. Well, don't you understand? I'm sorry, Greg. I've got to leave. I know. I hope you'll forgive me some day, old friend. I'll never forgive you. ♪♪ I wish I hadn't said that to Edward Mullen. Because I know now I didn't mean it. I knew I didn't mean it a few short hours after I did it. I went to the circle that night. Had midnight. I stood and looked around me. I could just make out a distant night from a century's God fire alongside the wall. I looked up at the moon and of the shadows of the stones on the green shore. And I listened to the rustling of the leaves and the ancient oak. And I spoke aloud. George, I said, "George, I need you. George, come to me." And I looked on it by the torch. And the minute hand slowly moved backward into the touch to figure of twelve. He looked at me like this. And again I heard the solemn tone of the great bell. And from the shadows, the old George walked slowly toward me. I waved my hand. "George." I said, "George." I said, "George, let me go back." "George, I must go back." And the old man halted by my side. And I saw him in infinity of pity and I was lying to all that. And I said again, "Let me go back." I felt his hand on my arm. And my watch and held it up. And from the shadow, one of the great oaks, Edward Mullen and Elaine came toward me. I don't know if he fastened the watch on Edward's wrist. And that would raise his other hand in solemn, final service. And as the Jew had lifted his stance on a veil, seemed to slip over the moon. And with a sudden scream from Elaine. And even I saw a crowded shaggy howling man called the wall and wished for my two friends. And ladies and trumpets hounded in the darkness as I screamed, "No! No, let me come back!" And a wild savage man of an after-chosen, that moment for their attack. And as a visit my friend and the woman I loved, in the hour of their silence. And it was thirty years ago that the Red Hat sent his family and got me back to camp. But they never found Edward Mullen. Once Lance Corporal of the King's own Yorkshire Light Infantry. And late, late scenario, in the ninth legion of Rome. The slow but pure legion. So now that some of Eve is nearly here, and I must have my watch back. And perhaps the Jew had let me come back to the night and start over. Maybe I can help if I can get there in time. Maybe not. But the skeleton was a wristwatch with my wristwatch. Since that arm was lifted in a very military primal. British Army salute. The title of tonight's quietly story was not responsible after thirty years. It was written in the directed by Willard Cooper, and the man who spoke to you was in a chapel. And Dave Petomale played Edward Mullen. The legionale was caught Benson, and his daughter Elaine was Nancy Sartin. As you assume you did the quietly, he was played by Albert Verma. Now for a word about next week. My good friend Willard Cooper. The people you heard tonight are not intended to be anyone you know, or even anyone you don't know. They're a product of my typewriter, and the six tissues as well get out. And next week's quietly story will be entitled, "What the Lily's Considerance." It's about a man who loves flowers. It's a nice person. And so it was a nice week at the same time. I am quiet to yours, during the chapel. Tonight's quietly show was especially written for your enjoyment. With the hope we would please many people, with many different tastes, for many different reasons. You like quietly for one reason and you for another. And that's just as it should be. For we in America aren't stamped with a mole. We have our differences. Differences in tastes and talents, in hopes and ambitions, in color and creed. Our American differences have resulted in a variety of contributions, which have made our country great and captive free. Today, as America seeks to establish peace in the world and to continue prosperity at home, our differences must not divide us or hamper our efforts. On this flag day of 1948, by each of us pledged to white group prejudice out of our lives by meeting every American as an individual. This program was heard in Canada for the facilities of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This is mutual broadcasting system. [Music] I'm Victoria Cash, and I want to invite you to a place called Lucky Land, where you can play over a hundred social casino-style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. So what are you waiting for? The best way to discover your luck is to spin. So go to LuckyLandFloss.com, that's LuckyLandFloss.com, and get lucky today. At Lucky Land. No purchase necessary, V.C.W. Group, boy, prohibited by law, 18-Floss Terms and Conditions apply. 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