SFX:

Wind followed by church bells tolling

Announcer:

The Witch's Tale.

Music:

Theme plays

Announcer:

The fascination of eerie, weird, blood chilling tales told by Old Nancy, witch of Salem and Satan her wise black cat. They are waiting, waiting for you, now!

Old Nancy:

Hehehehe

SFX:

(Meow)

Old Nancy:

Hundred an' Twenty two year old I be today, Yes sir, hundred an' twenty two year old. Well Satan tell the folks to douse all lights and we'll get right down to business.

SFX:

(Meow)

Old Nancy:

Nice and dark and gloomy now, that's the way we likes it when we tells our bedtime stories. Hehehe.
Now draw up to the fire and gaze into the embers, gaze into 'em deep and soon you will see a land of jungle for we're going into Mexico, to a place called Yucatan. There the grass and vines are so thick and tall that whole cities are buried among them. The old Indians used to live there long before the white man came. Soon we'll hear three white men talking in them jungles. And so begins or yarn about the Boa Goddess. Hehehehe The Boa Goddess. Hahahaha

Frenchy:

Mr. Morgan, we are getting close?

Morgan:

We ought to be according to the picture writing Marianne gave me. Hold up that torch Dutch.

Dutch:

Sure. I don't see no flat stone yet that you said we got to find.

Morgan:

If that girl had only come along to show us we wouldn't have to fool around like this.

Frenchy:

You've lived among these Indians long enough to know their women cannot come on sacred ground.

Morgan:

She is the high priest's daughter; you'd think she'd take a chance on the taboo. Especially loving me the way she does.

Frenchy:

She takes great chance helping us find what we seek and to escape into the jungle. They will know it was by her aid and her life will be....

Morgan:

What of it, she's only a squaw. Still Marianne is a cute little trick at that.

Dutch:

(Laughing) You've got such a sense of humour Morgan. Every time you call that Indian girl Marianne I get good laugh. (Laughing some more)

Frenchy:

Shut up you fool. If they find us do you know what will happen?

Morgan:

Ah keep your shirt on Frenchy. It is kind of comical Dutch but I call all my girls Marianne and not being able to speak this one's lingo I don't know her real moniker anyway.

Frenchy:

Shhh, quiet. Be careful.

Morgan:

Ah we're safe enough. Every man in the village is out in the jungle for that ceremony they're holding.

Frenchy:

Yes the ceremony controls ____ for out there tonight they will let a Boa Constrictor crush a man to death.

SFX:

Slow wooden drum beat x 3.

Morgan:

Listen

Dutch:

Three beats on a drum. That means they could be ready to kill Doc Furrow(that fellow) now.

Morgan:

Yeah God, if my folks back in Jersey knew that their darling boy was living among a bunch of Yucatan Indians who made sacrifices to snakes they'd turn over in their graves.

Frenchy:

After three months living among them it was difficult for me to realize we fund a lost tribe of Aztecs, living like their fathers did six hundred years ago.

Dutch:

It was lucky they found us when they did. Another day lost in that bush and we would have been dead.

Frenchy:

That is why I do not like this thing you do tonight. These people saved our lived, they took us in, and now you plan to rob them.

Morgan:

I hope Frenchy Renault of Devil's Island ain't developing a sense of gratitude all of a sudden.
Frenchy: I may have serve time on Devil's Island Morgan but I unlike you wasn't there for murder.

Morgan:

That's because you never had the nerve to kill a man you yellow skunk.

Frenchy:

Why you can't...

Dutch:

Stop. Morgan, Frenchy we cannot quarrel.

Morgan:

Alright Dutch. Once we get what's beneath those three flat stones it will take all three of us to fight our way back to civilisation through that bush. Ah forget it Frenchy.

Frenchy:

You're sure we will find the pearls in that temple?

Morgan:

I've already shown you the little ones Marianne gave me and she' told me in her sign language there are big ones where we're going.

I wonder what Dutch and me have heard about them.
Morgan: What do you...

Dutch:

Stop that! Look! Morgan, Frenchy, here are three flat stones.

Morgan:

This is the place, we found it. Now don't try to lift them. There's a trick to it, she showed me in the picture writing. You push the stone in the middle and... I got it! Look at that.

Dutch:

A passage has opened.

Morgan:

The temple is underneath. Come on, down these stairs.

Frenchy:

Mick, I do not like this place.

Morgan:

What's the matter?

Frenchy:

I don't know. It is just a feeling I have.

Dutch:

I feel something too.

Morgan:

Ah both of you is yellow. Give me that torch, I' going down these stairs.

Dutch:

You can't call me yellow.

Morgan:

Then prove you're not, come on!

SFX:

Three people walking down stone stairs.

Dutch:

Meh, it is dark down here. Morgan hold up that torch.

Morgan:

We don't need it in a minute, according to Marianne this passage takes a sudden bend into the temple proper where a fire is always burning. Yeah there it is.

Dutch:

It is bright.

Frenchy:

The temple

Dutch:

Oh my god!

Frenchy:

We must flee for our lives, quick, quick!

Morgan:

Wait, wait. You poor dumb idiots, haha it's only a statue.

Dutch:

A statue?

Morgan:

Yeah (laughing) would have had me going for a minute, it looked so natural, like a real honest to god snake coiled up to strike.

Frenchy:

It an idol, an image of the boa goddess.

Dutch:

Light up that torch Morgan. The stone snake has a woman's face.

Morgan:

Marianne told me the truth. The idol's eyes are emerald.

Frenchy:

Dutch: Where the snake's body joins the woman's face there is a necklace.

Morgan:

More emeralds!

Frenchy:

We shall be rich, rich!

Morgan:

Millionaires! Let me climb up there and get them.

SFX:

Drum Beat.

Morgan:

What was that?
Dutch: What's wrong?

Frenchy:

___ What do you hear?

Morgan:

Ah there ain't nowhere to drum in here. This is just a big old bare room.

SFX:

Drum Beat.

Dutch:

My piece of change.

Frenchy:

It is a warning. We are in a sacred place, we must not defile the holy image.

Morgan:

, hand me your knife Butch

Frenchy:

What are you going to do?

Morgan:

Cut off that necklace and pry loose those emeralds.

Frenchy:

No. No. No. No.

Morgan:

Ahhhh. That's what we came here for you fool. Here it goes.

SFX:

Drum Beat.

Dutch:

The drum again.

Frenchy:

Please Morgan cooe away, a curse will fall n s if you take the stones.

Dutch:

Morgan take something from the Indian place.

Morgan:

I'll go when I've got these stones.

FrenchY:

No. No.

Morgan:

It's alright I've got them. Look those from the eyes are as big as eggs. I'm rich, I'm rich.

Frenchy:

Let's get out of here please!

Morgan:

Alright I've got all I want now. And I'm a millionaire, a millionaire!

Dutch:

Please let's get away.

SFX:

Three Drum Beats.

Frenchy:

Listen.

Dutch:

(scared) It seemed to come from inside the snake itself.

Morgan:

It struck three times.

Frenchy:

Yes three times like we heard it in the bush, outside. It means the boa goddess will take soon a human sacrifice.

SFX:

transistion music

Mrgan:

You guys whine like a pair of old women. We got away from the Indians OK didn't we? And with another day's chopping we'll be safe out of this jungle and back to civilisation. Forget about a curse and something following us.

Frenchy:

We are not out of the jungle yet. There is something following us Morgan. I've seen it all about us in the bush. It is something I know, it's death.

Morgan:

Ah you're grandmother.

Dutch:

I am like Fenchy. I did not like the drum beats when we left the temple.

Morgan:

Are you guys dumb enough to think a heathen statue of a big snake with a woman's face can really do you any harm?

Frenchy:

It is not the statue I fear but the things it stands for, people's thoughts and their beliefs. Listen Morgan, all gods are the same with different names. For how many centuries we don't know, an intelligent race has worshipped and feared that great snake we have insulted.

Morgan: Hooey.

Dutch:

Three times that drum beat like before the boa goddess takes a sacrifice.

Morgan:

Since that's what's troubling you fellas most let's figure the drum was calling Marianne. Those Indians have probably finished her by now. Too bad, she was a cute little trick even if she was only a squaw. Hehe. I wondered one easy way for you guys to clear your youselves if you think there is a curse n those emeralds, you just don't have to take your share.

Dutch:

Ah no you don't Morgan.

Frenchy:

You would like to cheat us out of them

Morgan:

I thought that would bring you to time. Ah it's too hot to do any more traveling tonight, I'm gonna grab a few winks. It's your turn to scare up some grub Frenchy.

Frenchy:

Ah alright. Give me your pistol.

Morgan:

Nix. I've only got two bullets left. You can bring down a couple of birds with your machieta

Frenchy:

You're not saving those two bullets for something in particular huh?

Morgan:

What do ya mean?

Frenchy: Once we are out of this jungle you will no longer need Dutch and me to help you.

Morgan:

You think that I...?

Frenchy:

I will not argue that point it does not matter anyway. I go and forage.

Morgan:

That French stir bug's as crazy as a loon.

Dutch:

Maybe. Why are you saving those two bullets Morgan?

Morgan:

Hey? You don't think I'm planning anything against pals like you and Frenchy do ya? Forget it. There are emeralds enough for the three of us. I'm rich. Inside a month Dutch I'm going to be sitting inside the swellest hotel in New York. I'm going to become a gentleman, join highfalutin clubs and go in for society and live like a King. Yeah Live. That Frenchman gives me a pain talking about death following us through the jungle all on account of a couple of drum beats he heard in that heathen temple.

SFX:

Drum beats

Dutch:

Morgan. The drum, it's here.

Morgan:

It can't be. Gee now you've got me hearing things.

Dutch:

Every time it beats

Morgan:

Aw it don't mean nothing, it don't mean nothing.

Frenchy:

(Screams in distance)

Dutch:

Frenchy!

Morgan:

Something's got him, a boa constrictor.

Dutch: Get out of those coils, crushing out his life. There is a curse and it's striking now.

Morgan:

I won't believe it. The jungle is full of snakes, he just happened across a boa's path. Run Dutch, run before it comes for us.

Dutch:

Aren't you going to try to save him, you have a pistol Morgan.

Morgan:

I'm saving my two bullets, run you fool, now we can split his share.

Dutch:

We split his share of death, he's just the first of us to go.

Morgan:

I don't believe in that stuff.

Dutch:

Look, look back. The snake has turned it's head.

Morgan:

Say, it has the face of a woman!

Dutch:

Yeah, the face of the boa goddess.

Morgan:

Run! Run! Run!

SFX:

Music Transition

Morgan:

Sure young fella. I'm not stuck up like ordinary millionaires. I'll be glad to give your newspaper the true story of how me and Dutch got here to New York.

Reporter:

I'm certainly much obliged Mr. Morgan. You realize how interested the public is with the man who owns the largest Emerald on Earth.

Morgan:

Yeah but I don't want your paper printing no lies about me. Don't you be like those other fellas who wrote that I'm a nervous old man because they saw me pacing up and down the room Like I'm doing now. And don't you say I'm afeared of anything account of me looking over my shoulder and ljumping at funny noises, that is just habits of mine. And don't you dare write there's a curese on my emerald's, there ain't no curese.

Reporter:

Of course not Mr. Morgan. That sensational stuff that you object to was all printed when a flash came in from associated press. Seems two madmen had stumbled into a little settlement in Yucatan with a pocket full of emeralds and story of a third man who had been crushed to death by a boa constrictor with a woman's face. We couldn't pass up a yarn like that even if we knew it was ridiculous.

Morgan: And it was ridiculous. Two men have just chopped their way out of the jungle they're apt to say anything. You're right that stuff was all a lie. Don't forget to print how I tried to save my partner Frenchy when the big snake got him. And don't say the snake had a woman's face, it didn't, that was imagination. And there ain't no curse on my emeralds. (quietly) None that can reach beyond the jungle anyway.

Reporter:

What was that Mr. Morgan?

Morgan:

Uh, nothing. I was just talking to myself, the jungle will make you do things like that young fella. It's great to be back in the city again. No snake can follow me to a big town like New York.

Reporter:

You've spoken of your friends Frenchy and Dutch, will you give me their proper names Mr. Morgan?

Morgan:

Frenchy's dead. If I could only forget how he died. Ah excuse me. The name I knew Frenchie by was Jean Renault. Dutch's real moniker was Adolph Appleman.

Reporter:

Adolph Appleman?

Morgan:

Yeah he beat it out to Chicago once we hit the USA. Ah he ain't nice to you reporter guys like me and don't like his name in the papers but you can print he don't believe in no curse neither.

Reporter:

Mr. Morgan, haven't you seen this morning's paper?

Mprgan:

Not yet, I just got up.

Reporter:

What a story this will make, no one dreamed he was your partner.

SFX:

Phone handle being flicked

Morgan:

Say what's the matter with you? What are you doing at my telephone?

Reporter:

Hello, get me World 212195. Look at that front page Mr. Morgan, read those headlines. Last night in a Chicago hotel room Adolph Appleman was crushed to death, every bone in his body broken. Hello, hello. Get me the city editor.

Morgan:

(reading paper under breath) The drum beats I heard last night were not a dream..

Reporter:

City desk you there? Get this, whopper of a story. The guy crushed to death in Chicago last night was the partner of the bird (fades out)

Morgan:

(whispering) I'm next, I'm next...

SFX:

Music transition

Police:

Look here Mr. Morgan. You may have found a million dollars worth of emeralds in South America but that gives you no right to come here to Chicago and tell the district attorney's office how to run its business.

Morgan:

But I got to know what killed Dutch. Why did you have his body cremated before I got here to see it?

Police:

For one reason his wife ordered it right after the inquest.

Morgan:

His wife?

Police:

You have already been told Mr. Appleman was married to a Miss Smith a few hours before his death. Another reason was the body was too horribly crushed to serve any clues to the method of murder.

Morgan:

Crushed, crushed like poor Frenchy. But you say it wasn't a snake that did it, swear it couldn't have been a snake.

Police:

My dear Mr. Morgan, despite the wild newspaper theories, Boa Constrictors do not crawl promiscuously through Chicago. And if they did there could have been no way for such a monster to enter or leave Mr. Appleman's room.

Morgan:

(quietly) No, no way for it to come here from the jungle. (louder) Where was Dutch's wife when it happened?

Police:

Out of the room at the time she says. But no woman on Earth could have crushed your partner as we found him. If that's what you're driving at.

Morgan:

I was only wondering if she had seen anything. If I could only know the way he died.

SFX:

Knock at door.

Police:

Come in.

Man:

Excuse me sir, Mrs. Appleman to se you.

Police:

Well ask her to come in. Now Mr. Morgan you can talk to her yourself if you like.

Mrs. Appleman:

How do you do?

Police:

Ah good morning Mrs. Appleman. I'm sure you'll be glad to meet your poor husband's former partner Mr. Morgan.

Mrs. Appleman:

We have met.

Morgan:

That's funny, I do feel like you and me have met someplace before.

Mrs. Appleman:

I meant Dutch had spoken of you.

Morgan:

Oh I see, but your face is somehow familiar. What was your name before you married him

Mrs. Appleman:My first name is Marianne.

Morgan:

Marianne?

Mrs. Appleman:

Poor Dutch told me it was the name you preferred for women.

SFX:

Music transition

Morgan:

To think I finally fall for a skirt whose real name is Marianne.

Marianne:

How startled you were when I first told you that was my name.

Yeah, hit me like a voice from the dead. Not that the squaw matters you understand but you knew even before I spilled the beans about how we got the emeralds and all.

Marianne:

Yes I knew, Dutch had told me everything.

Morgan:

I don't know what I'd have done without you since Dutch was killed. A man needs someone around so he won't be all alone to, to think things. After we are married tomorrow it will be better still. Only I wish you hadn't have made me wait a whole year. Yeah a year, and nothing has happened to me. I always knew that curse was just a bunk.

Marianne:

You have no fear at all anymore?

Morgan:

Me, I never was afraid of anything. My hair turning white and my losing weight like I have is just from a rundown condition the doctor says. Yet if I only knew how Dutch was killed and the explanation of those drum beats. I can't get out of my mind the way I saw Frenchy go.

Marianne:

You have explained it all perfectly naturally to me a 100 times. You have no real faith in heathen gods you know.

Morgan:

Of course not! It was... just imagination, the boa I saw in the jungle did not have a human face. That's an awful way to die like Frenchy. Marianne, did you ever see a man killed by a boa? Wraps itself around you, coil on coil, doubling and tripling its own strength and its eyes look into his and fascinates him till he's dumb and helpless. Slowly the coils tighten until the bones crack like pipes and the flesh becomes like putty and he only screams once. Just once.
I can't die like that. I won't die like that. I'm now rich, I've become a gentleman and I'm crazy about you. I want to live. Oh you don't believe in curses do you Marianne. You don't believe a crawling thing from the jungle could reach me even here?

Marianne:

If I believed in the curse I would believe neither distance nor civilisation would have power to stay its vengeance.

Morgan:

But you don't believe. Tell me you don't, like me tell me you think it's only bunk.

Marianne:

Yes I say it like you. Isn't it fortunate we can tell ourselves such things? It is so terrible to be afraid. For I of god who wished to punish hard for a long time before I struck. I would make my victim fear.

Morgan:

Don't talk like that. Sometimes you make me afraid because I don't know what you mean. It will be alright when we are married tomorrow. Then I will have you to talk to all the time and learn to understand you.

Marianne: You haven't forgotten for my wedding present I would have th great emerald you took from the Aztec temple.

Morgan:

Yeah like I promised. Then with the one Dutch gave you you will have the two greatest emeralds in the world. The eyes of the boa goddess.

Marianne:

It will be nice to have them.

Morgan:

They will match your own eyes Marianne, for they are green like the emerald, they fascinate me, green and deep like the emerald. Like the eyes of the boa goddess.

SFX:

Music transition

Morgan:

At last Marianne, everyone is gone and we're alone. You're my wife now. Kiss me.

Marianne:

Wait.

Morgan:

You mustn't keep your husband waiting. A year I've waited for you Marianne.

Marianne:

You shall wait a short time longer.

Morgan:

No other woman has put me off like you have and I'm crazy about you. Just nutty about your eyes, they fascinate me. Green like emeralds. Why didn't you bring your emeralds, the eyes of the Boa Goddess at our wedding.

Marianne:

I shall wear them now. For you alone.

Morgan:

Are you gonna put them on? Well that's swell. God I'm like a kid with you. When I finally fell I fell hard. I won't be afraid no more now. You'll always be with me. You won't leave me on our wedding night like you left Dutch, a year ago.

Marianne:

I will not leave you. I did not leave him.

Morgan:

If you hadn't of left him you'd have known what killed him.

Marianne:

I do know what killed him.

Morgan:

Then why ain't you ever told me? Say, what are you talking that way for? Why are you standing there with your back turned to me? What are you doing Marianne, you seem to be growing taller. Thinner, somehow. What are you doing, turn around so I can see you. Let me look into your eyes.

Marianne:

Look

Morgan:

(gasp) Them emeralds are your eyes. You're...

Marianne:

Yes, the Boa Goddess!

SFX:

Drums beating.

Morgan:

That drum.... That drum means....

Marianne:

I claim my final sacrifice.

Morgan:

no, no I can't move, only stare into your eyes. Your body is lengthening and changing into a monster snake.

Marianne:

Soon I will coil around you, fold over fold.

Morgan:

No!

Marianne:

You will only gaze in my eyes and whimper. Only when my coils tighten will you scream just once then will I give you your promised kiss, the kiss of death. For a Marianne who was only a squaw I begin to coil.

Morgan: Cold, so cold. No, I can't die.

Marianne:

Morgan for defiling a people's faith I bind your feet. Morgan for betraying a people's hospitality I bind your arms.

Morgan:

groaning with exertion.

Marianne:

Morgan for destroying a woman's love I bind your heart. For this you have been left last of the three. Today as you yourself love as after a year of mortal fear you expire to happiness and peace. Today I coil about your worthless soul and crack!

Morgan:

continued moaning and then a final scream

SFX:

Crack

SFX:

Drum beating

SFX:

Music transition

Old Nancy:

Hehehe and that's the story about the Boa Goddess, queen of all the snakes. Hahaha

SFX:

Meow

Old Nancy:

Well Satan and I have business to attend to now don't we, important business. Midnight Satan.

SFX:

Meowww

SFX:

End Music