Adventures In The Supernatural - The Mysterious Carriage

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Adventures In The Supernatural – The Mysterious Carriage

Podcast: Harold's Old Time Radio
Host: Harolds Old Time Radio
Date: March 3, 2026
Episode Theme:
This episode presents a dramatization of an unsolved supernatural encounter reported to the British Society for Psychical Research. It tells the story of a mysterious horse-drawn carriage, an unexplained death, and a family's chilling brush with the unknown—leaving listeners to judge whether the events truly transcended natural explanation.

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Main Theme & Purpose

• The episode explores the boundary between science and the supernatural by dramatizing a real-life account of a mysterious carriage encounter from 11 years prior in Devonshire, England.
• Purpose: To investigate (not prove or disprove) reported supernatural occurrences, presenting dramatizations based on actual cases and following with direct testimony from the eyewitness, challenging listeners to decide if the events could be explained by conventional means.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Framing the Inquiry

• Host/Major Charles Gordon Beck:
  • Sets a tone of objective inquiry, emphasizing that the series does not aim to prove or disprove the supernatural but to present and discuss real accounts as reported.
  • “Our attitude is simple of scientific inquiry. The question, are there such things as mental telepathy? Spirits, Premonitions? Our answer is we do not know.” (01:15)

2. The Supernatural Incident: Dramatic Retelling

• Setting:
  • English country house on a hot, stifling August night, Major Beck and his family at a bridge table. (02:28–03:51)
• Atmosphere:
  • Unusual stillness noted (no frog croaks, no beetles), “like leaving a bright, sunlit street and suddenly stepping into a darkened room where someone lay dead.” (03:35)
• Event Sequence:
  • Mildred Beck faints after an oppressive premonition—she later describes a vision of a carriage with a chalk-white-faced passenger. (06:03)
    • “Everything got dark, and then I heard the sound of hoofbeats and the rumble of a carriage...through the carriage window I saw a face, chalk white with staring eyes. It was horrible.” (06:09–06:33)
  • Confirmation:
    • The maid, Ellen, returns shaken, reporting having heard a coach almost collide with her and her cousin’s car, though she saw nothing—adding to the mounting sense of the supernatural. (07:54–09:01)
    • “All we heard was the sound. And that's the truth, sir. If you don't believe me, you can ask my cousin. But I've never lied to you in my life, and I'm not lying now.” – Ellen (08:40)
  • Manifestation:
    • Major Beck and Ronald hear and see a coach careening across their lawn, apparently driven by liveried coachmen and carrying a dead woman. The coach disappears as mysteriously as it appeared. (09:49–12:31)
    • “There’s a woman in that coach. And she was dead.” (13:01)

3. The Aftermath & Investigation

• The Next Morning:
  • Dr. Thornton examines Mildred, finds nothing wrong, and attributes her fainting and vision to natural causes—emphasizing the difficulty in distinguishing dreams from reality. (13:15–14:15)
    • “The human mind's a peculiar mechanism. We don't know very much about it. I don't suppose there are any of us who can tell exactly where dreams leave off and reality begins.” – Dr. Thornton (14:03)
• Inspector’s Inquiry:
  • The Inspector questions the family, finds no logical explanation: no bodies reported, no carriage found, and no marks left on the lawn or garden despite the wild ride described. (15:09–17:56)
    • “There was not one sign that the carriage had ever been here.” – Major Charles Gordon Beck (17:56)

4. Scientific Reflection & Eyewitness Testimony

• Dr. Hirsch’s Commentary:
  • Presents possible rational explanations: misperception, hallucination, practical joke, or collective imagination.
  • Reinforces the importance of evaluating the integrity and imaginative tendency of witnesses. (18:04–20:18)
    • “If we decide that he is telling the truth, that he actually saw what he claims to have seen, there is still the possibility that he is a victim of a hoax, a practical joke.” – Dr. Hirsch (19:15)
• Interview with Major Charles Gordon Beck (20:18–24:13):
  • Beck confirms events roughly as dramatized, asserts this was his only such experience, and denies belief in the supernatural or using the affair for notoriety.
    • “If I had been the only one to have seen it, I think I would have doubted my own sanity. But my son accompanied me down to the creek. And my wife and daughter saw the coach pass the house. I don't think we all could have imagined it.” (21:28)
    • Reports that the British Society for Psychical Research received at least four similar reports worldwide:
      “At four different times, four different people in four different parts of the world had reported a similar occurrence.” (23:24)
  • He has no explanation and invites others to consider the facts:
    • “Perhaps there's a very simple explanation that I've overlooked that some of them might see.” (24:06)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Mildred’s Vision:
  • “Then I heard the sound of hoofbeats and the rumble of a carriage...through the carriage window I saw a face, chalk white with staring eyes.” (06:09–06:33)
• Ellen’s Unease:
  • “All we heard was the sound. And that's the truth, sir. If you don't believe me, you can ask my cousin. But I've never lied to you in my life, and I'm not lying now. It's the truth, sir.” (08:40)
• On the Lack of Evidence:
  • “This morning when I looked out, there wasn’t a single hoof print, the single rut of a carriage wheel, a single broken trellis in the garden. Not the tiniest bit of turf had been disturbed, Inspector. There was not one sign that the carriage had ever been here.” – Major Charles Gordon Beck (17:56)
• Dr. Hirsch’s Caution:
  • “Before we arrive at any conclusion at all, we should look for natural causes to explain the affair rather than supernatural.” (19:38)
• Major Beck’s Sincerity:
  • “I don't think they’d try to amaze the police.” (22:13)
  • “No, I haven't. I've puzzled over it for years and so has my wife and my son and daughter.” (23:51)

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Important Timestamps

• Framing the episode & introduction to the investigation: 01:15
• Atmospheric setup & the family's premonitions: 03:33–04:46
• Mildred’s faint and vision: 06:03
• Ellen’s testimony about the unseen coach: 07:54–09:01
• Appearance of the phantom carriage: 09:49–13:01
• Doctor and Inspector investigations: 13:15–17:56
• Dr. Hirsch’s scientific analysis: 18:04–20:18
• Eyewitness interview (Major Beck): 20:18–24:13
• Mention of similar cases worldwide: 23:24

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Tone & Style

• Language: Period-accurate, measured, rational but with growing dread and incredulity as events unfold.
• Mood: Carefully suspenseful; the narration shifts from skepticism to puzzlement as natural explanations fail.

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Conclusion

• The episode closes on the deliberate note of mystery, refusing to offer definitive answers but inviting listener reflection and skepticism. The blend of dramatic narrative and direct, rational discussion underscores the perennial tension between reason and the unexplained—leaving the verdict in the audience’s hands.

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Listener Invitation:
If you have experienced similar phenomena, the show encourages you to send detailed accounts for future examination and possible dramatization. (24:30)

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Transcript

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[Narrator]

Adventures IN THE Supernatural. The XYZ Company brings you a new series of programs. A series which we believe is just a bit different from anything you have ever heard over your radio. A scientific investigation of supernatural phenomena. Adventures into that shadowy realm which lies beyond the horizon of proven knowledge. Conducting this series of investigations and acting as commentator is the eminent psychologist Dr. Lionel Hirsch. I present him now. Dr. Hirsch.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Ladies and gentlemen, may I begin by explaining the position of the sponsor and my own position as regards this series of broadcasts. We are not out to prove or disprove anything. Our attitude is simple of scientific inquiry. The question, are there such things as mental telepathy? Spirits, Premonitions? Our answer is we do not know. However, events do occur or are reported to have occurred. Weird, mysterious happenings difficult to explain through the operation of known natural laws. In this series of programs, we plan to give you in dramatic form the story of some of these happenings. Instances which have been reported to and investigated by established scientific organizations. In dramatizing these actual cases for radio presentation, it is sometimes necessary to make occasional trifling changes. For example, to fit into a half hour's broadcast events which occurred over a longer period of time. But the basic facts are presented just as they were originally reported. At the close of the dramatization, we will bring to the microphone the person or persons to whom the events occurred and will introduce such testimony as has a bearing on the case. The final decision, however, as to whether the case is or is not an example of the supernatural will be left to you. Thank you.

[Narrator]

And so, based upon an original report, we present our first adventure in the supernatural. Our story begins in the library of an English country house. It is a pleasant room which looks out through a glass paneled door onto the garden and a green velvety expanse of lawn. Invisible now in the blackness of a hot, sultry August night, a night so black that the darkness seems to press like a tangible thing against the window panes. At a bridge table are the major, his wife, his daughter and son. Somewhere in the house a clock strikes 11.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Um. One spade. Two hearts.

[Mildred Beck]

Well, Mildred? Oh. Oh, is it my turn?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

It certainly is.

[Mildred Beck]

I'm so sorry. I.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Well. Well, what's the matter?

[Mildred Beck]

Well, nothing. I. I was just listening. How quiet everything is. Not even the sound of the frogs in the creek. It's as if the whole world had suddenly, suddenly stopped and was waiting for something. Are you going to finish this rubber? Oh, yes, of course.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

I. I said a spade. I wish you keep your mind on the game.

[Ronald Beck]

And I said two hearts. You know, that is queer.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

What's queer about the frogs?

[Ronald Beck]

Oh, ordinarily they'd be croaking like goodfellows. Have you noticed there aren't any beetles this evening, are there? Beetles fumbling against the windows. When the lights are on in here, there are usually dozens of them.

[Mildred Beck]

No doubt the heat has killed them. I've never seen it so close and stifling. I'm sure it's been hot enough to be the death of everything. Yes, that's it. That's the feeling. The presence of death, eh? It came over me as I was returning from the tennis courts. It'd been glorious all afternoon until the sun went down. And then darkness came on so swiftly and everything was quiet and hushed. Not the drowsy quiet of evening, but a deathly stillness. It was like leaving a bright, sunlit street and suddenly stepping into a darkened room where someone lay dead.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Oh, don't be morbid, Mildred.

[Mildred Beck]

Feeling I can't shake it off.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Oh, rot.

[Mildred Beck]

It is oppressive, Charles.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

We're going to have a storm, that's all. Always this way before a storm. Now, I bid a spade and Ronnie here bid two halves.

[Mildred Beck]

Three diamonds. I pass as usual. Haven't had a bit of luck all evening.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Well, I hope you know what you're doing, Mildred. Here's a nice run of clubs for you, too.

[Ronald Beck]

Hold on. That's Mother's trick.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Oh, sorry.

[Mildred Beck]

Oh, yes. Do watch the game, Mildred.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

The roses in that bowl on the piano are quite wilted. You'd better tell Ellen to cut some fresh ones in the morning. Getting careless.

[Mildred Beck]

Why, those were fresh this afternoon. I saw Ellen picking them in the garden.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Don't look it.

[Ronald Beck]

If you ask me, the whole garden looks a bit seedy, as if everything were dying.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Oh, Mary. Where is Ellen this evening, anyway?

[Mildred Beck]

I let her have the evening off. She has some cousins living near here. She wanted to call on them.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Yes, but it's after 11 o'. Clock. She should be back by this time.

[Ronald Beck]

I say, Mildred, will you please. Millie.

[Mildred Beck]

Mildred, what's the matter?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

She's fainted.

[Mildred Beck]

Mildred, darling.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Here, here.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Take a swallow of water.

[Narrator]

Oh.

[Ronald Beck]

That's all.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

She'll be all right. Well, you feel better?

[Mildred Beck]

A little awfully stupid of me. But, darling, what happened? I don't know. Everything got dark, and then. And then I heard the sound of hoofbeats and the rumble of a carriage. It kept coming closer and closer, and finally it swept past me. And through the carriage window I saw a face, chalk white with staring eyes. It was horrible. There, there, darling.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Too much tennis this afternoon in the hot sun in India. I've seen things like this happen lots of times. Had a little touch of the sun myself once. Fancied I saw all sorts of weird things. One gets over it quickly. Now, there's nothing to worry about.

[Ronald Beck]

You feel better now, don't you?

[Mildred Beck]

Yes, quite all right. Only it did seem so real.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

You'd better run along to your room and get some rest anyway.

[Mildred Beck]

And tomorrow we'll call. And we'll call in Dr. Thornton. Oh, I'll be all right by tomorrow. Good night. Good night.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Good night.

[Ronald Beck]

Good night.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

And no more tennis for a few days, eh?

[Mildred Beck]

Do hope there's nothing really wrong.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Oh, I don't see that there's anything to be alarmed about. Mildred's always been a normal, healthy girl.

[Mildred Beck]

Maybe we'd better go back to town.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Let's wait and see what Dr. Thornton says.

[Ronald Beck]

It's odd, though it should happen tonight, what with all the other queer things. The frogs and beetles, the flowers suddenly wilting.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Oh, I say, don't be a blithering idiot.

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[Mildred Beck]

Is that you, Alan? Ellen? Yes, ma'.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Am.

[Mildred Beck]

Oh, I just wanted to make sure it was you.

[Ellen Beck]

Yes, mom, it's me. I'm sorry I'm so late getting back. We had an accident.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Almost an accident.

[Ellen Beck]

Yes, sir. Jerry, that's my cousin, was driving me back in the motor. He chauffeurs for the coburt, you know. And we was going along, taking it easy like, and talking over old times, and. And then we hears the sound of horses and a coach coming up behind us.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

A coach?

[Ellen Beck]

Yes, sir. A carriage. Traveling fast it was, too. It was on us almost before we knew it. Jerry just had time to pull to one side.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

You mean a coach almost ran into your motor?

[Ellen Beck]

Yes, sir.

[Mildred Beck]

Oh, wait a moment. What kind of a coach was it, Ellen?

[Ellen Beck]

I don't know, Mum. I didn't see it.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Didn't see it?

[Ellen Beck]

No, sir. What was? Being excited. Like it passed us and went tearing down the road with us.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

The coach almost ran into you. Passed you and you didn't see it?

[Ellen Beck]

No, sir. All we heard was the sound. And that's the truth, sir. If you don't believe me, you can ask my cousin. But I've never lied to you in my life, and I'm not lying now. It's the truth, sir.

[Mildred Beck]

Help me. We know you're not lying, Ellen. But what you heard was probably the wind.

[Ronald Beck]

There hasn't been a breath of air stirring since sundown.

[Ellen Beck]

It wasn't the wind. It was something terrible.

[Mildred Beck]

Terrible. Oh, now, Ellen, I'm sure it wasn't anything terrible. Anyway, it's all over now. There's nothing to cry about. You come along with me.

[Ronald Beck]

Well, how do you explain that I don't think Ellen was playing tennis in the sun this afternoon?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Oh, a lot of nonsense.

[Ronald Beck]

That's not an explanation.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Well, no, there isn't any explanation except that she mentioned it. A coach. Nobody rides in coaches anymore. She'd have been just as reasonable if she said she'd encountered a knight in armor.

[Ronald Beck]

And I suppose the fact that Mildred spoke of a coach when she fainted.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

What are you driving at? I'm going to bed. Sitting around here talking a lot of nonsense. Hello. Hello. Thunder. Told you it's going to storm. Think I'll go out and have a look at the weather. I say, Ronald, come out here.

[Ronald Beck]

Yes, what is it?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

You know, I believe that is a coach. Who in the name of common sense would be driving a coach around the country at this time of night?

[Ronald Beck]

Listen. Sounds as if it's coming this way, too. No question about it. It is coming this way. It must be at the turn in the road.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

By Jove. Then it's coming here. There aren't any other houses this side of the turn. Must be driving without lights. I can't see a thing.

[Ronald Beck]

I can.

[Narrator]

There.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Oh, right.

[Ronald Beck]

And they're turning in.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Great Scott. They're running right over the lawn and through the garden. They'll ruin it.

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[Mildred Beck]

Here.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

I say. Hold on there. Good Lord.

[Ronald Beck]

They're headed directly for the creek. They'll never see it without lights. They'll go over the bank.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Stop.

[Mildred Beck]

Stop.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

There's a creek down there.

[Mildred Beck]

It's steep bank.

[Ronald Beck]

They can't stop at that cliff. They'll go over the bank even if they do see it.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Go in the house and get a lantern. Hurry.

[Mildred Beck]

Charles. What is it?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Carriage turned off the road and headed for the creek. Slashed right across the lawn in the garden.

[Mildred Beck]

The horses must have run away. There's probably no one in the carriage.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

There were two men on the driver's seat. I saw that much.

[Mildred Beck]

What happened? I thought I.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Nothing's happened. Go back to your room.

[Mildred Beck]

Just a carriage that got off the road, dear. A carriage? Yes. They must have lost their way. And a very old carriage with a faded crest on it and. And two coachmen in livery.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Eh? You saw it?

[Mildred Beck]

No, but I knew it would come.

[Ronald Beck]

Here's the lantern. I had a time finding it.

[Mildred Beck]

Now be careful, Charles. You don't know what.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

I'll be careful. Take Mildred inside.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Give me the lantern, Ron.

[Ronald Beck]

Come along.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Hello. Hello there.

[Ronald Beck]

I say, hello.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Doesn't seem to be anyone about.

[Narrator]

Here they are.

[Ronald Beck]

Over here. They pulled up and swung around just in time, too. Another horse and they'd have been over the edge of the bank and into the creek.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Yes, yes. But where are the coachman? Hello.

[Ronald Beck]

I don't see how these horses could have run that fast. Positively skeletons. And the coach looks like something out of a museum. I wonder it didn't fall apart.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

I can't understand what became of the coachman. I say, that Dead.

[Ronald Beck]

I think there's someone inside the coach.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Wait a moment.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Stay here.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Anyone in there?

[Ronald Beck]

Why don't you open the door?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Oh, I beg your pardon. Am I. Oh, dad.

[Ronald Beck]

Hear the coachman? Wait a moment, you fellows. What are you doing here?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Ask her.

[Ronald Beck]

Come down off that coach. I tell you, you're trespassing. We want to talk with you. I say we want to talk with you.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

There.

[Ronald Beck]

Wait. Wait a moment.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

They won't stop.

[Ronald Beck]

I didn't see them till they were climbing up on the coach. I don't know where they could have come from.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

That's not the only curious thing. There's a woman in that coach. And she was dead.

[Narrator]

Again, the scene is the library. The time the following morning. The garden doors are open and sunlight streams into the room. In the garden, birds sing. The Major and Dr. Thornton are standing in the doorway.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Sorry to bring you out here on the wild goose chase, Doctor. I didn't imagine there was anything really the matter with Mildred.

[Dr. Thornton]

Still, you're nothing to worry about at all. Mildred's in perfect health. If everyone in the village were as healthy as she is, I'd have to give up my practice.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

What do you suppose made her faint?

[Dr. Thornton]

Oh, any number of things. The heat, perhaps, Little touch of indigestion. She's never been subject to fainting spells, has she?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

No.

[Dr. Thornton]

Some little temporary condition, that's all.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

I don't know whether she mentioned it to you or not, but for a moment after she came to, she talked rather incoherently. She seemed to have the impression that she'd seen a coach. A rather queer coach.

[Dr. Thornton]

Nothing especially unusual about that. Happens lots of times. Ever see a patient come out from under an anesthetic? Same thing. Simply a dream.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Only this one persisted. We had a bit of a time convincing her that she hadn't seen it.

[Dr. Thornton]

Well, the human mind's a peculiar mechanism. We don't know very much about it. I don't suppose there are any of us who can tell exactly where dreams leave off and reality begins. We all carry around a certain number of delusions.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Yes. As I understand, there's no one quite sane. Not so sure about myself. But I wonder. Suppose a person's mind were a mechanism so finely tuned that it could record a happening long before the less sensitive minds recorded it. Or haven't you ever heard of dreams coming true?

[Dr. Thornton]

Only in romantic novels. Well, I still have two more calls to make.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Goodbye. Goodbye. Doctor, what about golf tomorrow? Oh, yes. Right. Right. Come in. Yes, Ellen?

[Ellen Beck]

The inspector is here again, sir. Oh, yes, and I've picked some fresh roses. They look much better today, sir.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Yes, yes, don't they?

[Ellen Beck]

I'll put them here in the bowl. I think they're as pretty as we've had this summer.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

They are pretty. Oh, show the inspector.

[Ellen Beck]

Yes, sir.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Oh, come in, Inspector. Sit down, won't you? Thank you.

[Inspector]

I'd dislike to be bothering you again, but since I talked to you last night, well, there are several little details that need clearing up.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

No bother at all.

[Inspector]

Now, in the first place, are you sure that woman in the carriage was dead?

[Mildred Beck]

She.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

She hadn't merely fainted, Inspector. I've served in the army for a long time. I've seen death too often not to recognize it. The woman was dead.

[Inspector]

And these two coachmen, what did they look like?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Well, as I told you, I got only a glimpse of them. Besides, it was quite dark. Oh, yes. One thing I did notice. They wore livery.

[Ronald Beck]

Livery?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Yes, the coach had a crest on it. A coat of arms, as my son said it. It looked as if it might have come out of a Museum.

[Inspector]

Your son saw all this, too?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Yes, and so did my wife and daughter. At least they saw the coach pass the house again as it returned from the creek and swung back onto the road.

[Inspector]

You know, Major, this case has some very extraordinary aspects. My first theory was that the two coachmen were taking a body somewhere with the idea of disposing of it, and got onto the wrong road. However, an investigation of the vicinity shows no deaths nor disappearances reported. And if these two men were attempting to do dispose of a body, they'd scarcely want to attract attention to themselves by dressing in livery. What's more, such a coach as you describe would certainly have been noticed on the road. Thus far, we haven't discovered anyone who has seen it.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

It passed our maid on the road last evening. Oh.

[Inspector]

Well, would you mind if I had a talk with her and get her description of it?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

She won't be able to give you a description. She didn't see it either. Didn't see it?

[Inspector]

If it passed her on the road. I'm afraid I don't understand, Major.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

I don't think any of us understand. I don't think we'll ever understand. Why. What do you mean when I say this, Inspector, I want you to know that I am a sane, sensible, practical sort of a person. But in a universe as complex as ours, it is conceivable that there are other worlds, other planes of existence. Events which occur in time and space, not our time and space. Perhaps that coach and its strange occupants wandered momentarily from out of another world. Well, I. You recall last night I told you the carriage had plunged off the road, crashed through the garden and cut across the lawn? Yes. Under those galloping hooves and careening carriage wheels, I naturally assumed the garden would be wrecked. The lawn, pieces. Well, this morning when I looked out, there wasn't a single hoof print, the single rut of a carriage wheel, a single broken trellis in the garden. On the lawn. Not the tiniest bit of turf had been disturbed, Inspector. There was not one sign that the carriage had ever been here.

[Narrator]

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I am turning the microphone over to Dr. Hirsch for his comments on the story. You have just.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Thank you. This dramatization was based upon an actual report given to the British Society for Psychical Research by Major Charles Gordon Beck. A mysterious coach carrying a dead woman, crashing across a lawn, yet leaving no marks, then disappearing into the night. And, mind you, four sane people believe they saw it. What is the explanation? Now, from a scientific standpoint, we cannot begin our investigation with the assumption that the report is true. Neither can we take the opposite assumption that it is false. In drawing our conclusions in this respect, there are several points to be considered. First, the character of the percipient. That is, the person who claims to have perceived or witnessed the phenomenon. We have to decide, by whatever ability we have in judging a man's character whether he is truthful or not. Before we decide he is not telling the truth, we should find some inconsistencies in his story or at least some motive or reason for his telling a falsehood. But if we fail to find these, we do not yet have to assume that his story is true. The man might be telling an untruth and yet be perfectly honest. He may be an imaginative type, capable of conjuring up in his mind all manner of weird experiences and actually believing them. Or he might have had an hallucination. Once again, we have to judge a man and decide whether he is an imaginative type, the kind of person who would dream dreams and see visions. If we decide that he is telling the truth, that he actually saw what he claims to have seen, there is still the possibility that he is a victim of a hoax, a practical joke. So before we arrive at any conclusion at all, we should look for natural causes to explain the affair rather than supernatural. Now, I'm going to let you make your own decisions on all of these points. I'm bringing to the microphone for an interview. The man who saw the coach and its occupant and who made the report to the British society. Major Charles Gordon Beck. Major Gordon Beck, with the dramatization you heard just now. An accurate representation of what happened. Yes.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

As far as the facts are concerned, of course, the words which your characters used were not precisely our words, of

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

course, but the story we presented was just as it actually happened. Yes, yes. How long ago did this happen?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Let me see. About 10. No, about 11 years ago last August.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Where did it happen?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

In Devonshire, England, where I was living.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Did the house you lived in have the reputation of being, well, haunted?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

No, not that I heard of.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

In your experience, had anything strange ever happened there before? No. Or after this curious affair?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Never.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

You are an army officer, are you not?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

I was. I'm retired.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Now, in your own personal experience, not only in your home in Devonshire, but anywhere, anytime, has any other occurrence like this ever happened to you? Have you ever experienced hallucinations?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

No, nothing like that.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Do you believe in supernatural phenomena?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Well, no, I can't say that I do. I've always considered myself a practical man.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Yes. Now understand, Major, we are not trying to trip you up, but simply attempting to find some sort of logical explanation. How do you know you didn't imagine the whole thing?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

If I had been the only one to have seen it, I think I would have doubted my own sanity. But my son accompanied me down to the creek. And my wife and daughter saw the coach pass the house. I don't think we all could have imagined it.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Well, how do you know it wasn't a practical joke that someone was playing on you?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

That wouldn't explain the absence of wheel marks on the lawn and in the garden.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

All right, then let's take another assumption. Let's assume there's a family living in the country getting a bit bored with life. And they make up the story just to amaze the neighbors, remember? I'm not saying you did make up the story. Of course. I'm asking if that isn't a logical explanation.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Yes, perhaps it is. But they'd have to be very silly people. And they'd probably gain a reputation of being unmitigated liars. And in such a case, I don't think they'd take chances of running afoul of the law by leading the police on a wild goose chase. Of course, they might try to amaze their neighbors. No, I don't think they'd try to amaze the police.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

How long after this happened did you notify the police?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Immediately. The same evening.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Did you tell anyone else about it?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Not at the time. You see, at first I was mainly concerned with the fact that the woman in the coach was dead?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Yes.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

I didn't realize how unearthly the affair was until the next morning. Until I saw there were no marks on the lawn. Then I decided I had better not say anything more about it. You see, people might think I'd gone out of my head.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

And you didn't say anything about it? No. You didn't use the affair to gain any notoriety?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

No.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

But you intimate that sometime later you did mention the affair. How long afterwards and to whom?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Well, I should say about three months afterwards. I mentioned it to some friends in London. One of them suggested that I reported to the British Society for Psychical Research.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

And you did?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Yes. Yes, I made a report, and it's included in the proceedings of the society.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Did the British Society for Psychical Research offer any explanation?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

No. But they did tell me a very unusual thing. They said that at four different times, four different people in four different parts of the world had reported a similar occurrence.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

What do you mean by a similar occurrence?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

I mean a coach with coachmen and carrying the corpse of a woman.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

And this strange equipage was never apprehended, never caught, never explained?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

No.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Have you yourself any explanation to offer?

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

No, I haven't. I've puzzled over it for years and so has my wife and my son and daughter. As I told you several days ago, my only reason for coming to your wireless studio here would be for the purpose of putting the story before a great many people.

[Narrator]

Perhaps.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck (Interview)]

Perhaps there's a very simple explanation that I've overlooked that some of them might see.

[Major Charles Gordon Beck]

Thank you, Major Gordon Beck. Thank you very much. So there you are, ladies and gentlemen. That's as far as we've been able to go. Is there an explanation for Major Gordon Beck's unusual experience? We leave that to you. And now I am returning the microphone to your announcer.

[Narrator]

Ladies and gentlemen, we are genuinely interested in studying so called supernatural phenomena. If anything of this nature has happened to you, we would greatly appreciate a letter about it giving names, details, states and the facts as you remember them. If your report is adaptable to dramatization, we will reimburse you for the story. We say good night now and allow you to draw your own conclusions concerning the story you have heard.

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