The Knife Of Sacrifice by The Witch’s Tale

Summary

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The Horror! (Old Time Radio)

Episode: The Knife of Sacrifice by The Witch’s Tale

Date: March 28, 2026

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Episode Overview

This chilling old-time radio episode of The Witch’s Tale, presented via the RelicRadio.com series The Horror!, explores the dark supernatural legacy of Aztec sacrifice and the paranoia that arises during an archaeological quest for treasure in Mexico. The story, first aired in 1935, focuses on a group of American explorers whose discovery of an obsidian sacrificial knife sets off a chain of mysterious and deadly events, blurring the line between historical resurrection and psychological horror.

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Key Discussion Points & Plot Summary

1. Setting the Stage: Supernatural Suspense

• [00:06–01:35]
  • The host introduces The Witch’s Tale, legendary for its eerie stories, and sets the ominous tone:

    “Stories strange, weird tales of mystery and terror by radio's masters of the macabre… Be afraid! Be very afraid.”

  • The opening is led by Old Nancy, the Witch of Salem, and her black cat Satan, inviting listeners into the gloom.

2. The Expedition and the Knife

• [03:05–07:48]
  • The story unfolds in rural Mexico where Carl, Pete, Eunice, and Dr. Meyer are searching for lost Aztec treasure.
  • Pete displays growing agitation, especially as the group discusses the obsidian knife recently found—a ceremonial artifact used for human sacrifice.
    • Historical context explained:

      “The gods of the Aztecs were perhaps the most bloodthirsty ever worshiped.” – Carl ([07:35])

    • Tension arises as Pete claims the knife gives him chilling visions and a disturbing connection to his Aztec ancestry.

3. Psychological Decay and Violence

• [07:48–09:53]
  • Pete’s mental state unravels; he tries to shoot a local, Manuel, during a fit of rage, but is subdued by the group.
    • Memorable moment:

      “If I ever get out of this infernal country, I hope never to taste, see, smell or hear anything Mexican again as long as I live.” – Pete ([04:12])

    • Pete is horrified by his own actions and describes a sensation of being possessed:

      “Something's trying to steal my body. Something's trying to steal my body.” – Pete ([15:35])

4. Desperate Escapism: The Séance

• [11:33–15:09]
  • Eunice suggests “something childish” to lift spirits and produces a séance planchette board to “talk to the spirits.”
  • The séance turns sinister as Pete lapses into a trance, and the spirit allegedly communicates the treasure’s location through Aztec pictographs—none of which Pete should know how to produce.
    • Atmospheric exchange:

      “A moon of blood shining over a bloody land.” – Pete ([13:12])
      “That shadow... it makes Pete look as though he had on a feathered cloak, a feathered headdress. As though he were an antique.” – Eunice ([14:58])

5. Superstition, Skepticism, and Thwarted Discovery

• [16:30–20:48]
  • The team digs at the location revealed during the séance and finds a skeleton upon a green stone altar—a chilling echo of Aztec sacrificial rites.
  • Unable to breach the treasure vault due to repeated unexplained failures, suspicion and fear mount within the group, especially as accidents and equipment breakdowns persist.
    • Skeptical vs. supernatural:

      “Our failure to break open that vault has been due to simple accidents, coincidences. There’s nothing supernatural in the world.” – Carl ([19:21])
      “Because it was blood. Hungry? Perhaps its sacrificial knife demands another victim.” – Eunice ([19:57])

6. The Grisly Climax: Possession and Sacrifice

• [21:30–25:39]
  • Pete, increasingly entranced, kidnaps Eunice with the intent of sacrificing her upon the green altar.
  • Carl and Dr. Meyer rush to the scene, where Pete is about to commit the act, but Carl shoots him to stop the ritual.
    • Terrifying dialogue:

      “Once upon the great green stone, a scream which may reach the holy moon of blood... as I plunge this knife of sacrifice into your breast and tear out your living heart.” – Pete ([22:03])

    • The explosion accidentally triggered during the conflict opens the treasure vault, revealing not riches, but the remains of past victims and armor—a grim “burial vault of hate and death.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Aztec Horror Reimagined
  • “Do you wonder I don't want to be reminded that such people were my ancestors?” – Pete ([07:49])
• Possession and Ancestral Dread
  • "Something's trying to steal my body. ...What nonsense are you talking?" – Pete and Eunice ([15:34])
• Atmospheric Tones
  • “The moon of blood… shining over a land of blood.” – Eunice ([20:16])
  • “That is the treasure of the Aztecs that we sought. A burial vault of hate and death.” – Eunice ([26:27])
• Final Revelations
  • The treasure, once unearthed, is not gold but a catacomb of death:

    "God. Dead men, bones, Spanish armor... White men bones. That is the treasure of the Aztecs." – Carl and Eunice ([26:16])

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Important Timestamps

• 00:06 – Carl welcomes listeners with haunting foreshadowing.
• 03:05 – Story sets in Mexico; characters and tensions introduced.
• 07:48 – Aztec sacrificial rituals described.
• 09:24 – Pete’s breakdown and attempted shooting.
• 13:05–14:58 – Séance sequence; Pete’s possession begins.
• 15:56–16:31 – Aztec writing appears through Pete during trance; group locates treasure site.
• 17:48 – Skeleton found on sacrificial altar.
• 21:30–22:03 – Pete kidnaps Eunice, prepares for sacrifice.
• 24:21–25:39 – Pete is stopped; the vault opens revealing bones, not gold.
• 26:27 – Eunice summarizes the horrifying truth: death was the treasure all along.

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Tone and Language

The episode maintains a grandiose Gothic terror, filled with dark foreboding, superstitious dread, and skepticism, unraveling into pure horror. Dialogue is dramatic and steeped in period-accurate, pulp-infused ambiance, with characters swinging between rational inquiry and mystical fear.

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Summary Takeaway

The Knife of Sacrifice delivers a classic old-time radio horror experience: atmospheric, psychological, and steeped in doom. It reflects the perils of disturbing ancient evils, the thin edge between reason and myth, and a final message that sometimes the greatest treasures of the past are also its greatest curses.

Transcript

[Carl]

Oh, stories. Real stories. And murder too. Turn out your legs. Turn them out. Good evening. Come in, won't you? What's the matter? Surely you're not nervous. For example, cast by telling a story we are meant to call from out of the past. Stories strange weird tales of mystery and terror by radio's masters of the macabre. Stories of the supernatural. The supernova dramatized by fantasy. The mystery of the unknown. We tell you this Franklin. So if you wish to avoid the excitement tension of these magnet play refer here our.

[Narrator]

Welcome back to the horror. Thanks for joining me. Once again we're gonna hear from the Witch's Tale this week. A series that debuted in May of 1931 aired until June of 1938. Over 300 episodes were produced for the Mutual Broadcasting System. Our story today was first heard August 27th of 1935. I believe this is a later Australian production of the series. The title the Knife of Sacrifice.

[Carl]

The witch's tale. The fascination of the Eyrie. Weird blood chilling tales told by old Nancy, the witch of Salem. And Satan, her wise black cat. They are waiting. Waiting for you now,

[Eunice]

One seven year old lady today. Yes sir. 107 year old. Well, Satan. Yes. It's time for us to cheer folks up with another of our perky little bedtime stories. Well now, if every one will doubt out your rights, we'll be getting down to business. Make it nice and dark and cheerful. We want gloom and shadow for this beautiful yarn. Now draw up to the fire and gaze into the embers. Gaze into on beach and soon you'll see inside a house way down in Mexico.

[Carl]

Mexico.

[Eunice]

Where once a bunch of Injuns is. They're all dead now. Them all as thick as the Spaniards conquered.

[Carl]

But

[Eunice]

sometimes the dead are very much alive. Now begins our story about the Knife of Sacrifice. The Knife of Sacrifice.

[Carl]

I see. Mrs. Deegan. That's another robbery, Peter.

[Eunice]

We're certainly the champions tonight, Mr. Riah. Your deal.

[Carl]

You and I'll take him for a ride this time, Pete. I doubt it. I can't keep my mind on cards while that mestizo out there keeps up his rotten fiddling. Isn't he ever going to stop?

[Eunice]

You're not still objecting because man old chooses to serenade his beloved in this gorgeous moonlight.

[Carl]

If it puts that fat cook of ours in good humor, I hope he keeps it up all night. So do I. Then perhaps you'll think of something else to feed us besides tortillas and fijolis. Portillas fredoles. And don't forget the Enchiladas. If I ever get out of this infernal country, I hope never to taste, see, smell or hear anything Mexican again as long as I live.

[Eunice]

And that remark from a gentleman who was christened Pedro Jose Marie Morale since

[Carl]

we came to the Catlin, Pete, you certainly acquired a grudge against the land of your ancestors. Ah, chuck that, will ya? You know, the only thing Mexican about me is my name and my looks. I can't even speak the language of the blasted country. I wish you and your wife would lay off about my half breed ancestry. You hear that, Eunice? Pete would have us forget that on the maternal side, he's a direct descendant of the Emperor Montefuma.

[Eunice]

All right, Pete. I promise never again to mention that you resemble an Aztec king. And that I'd give anything to see your bronze beauty draped in a feathered cloak and headdress.

[Carl]

I got the cars all felt picked them up. Ah, let's not play anymore bridge in this tumble down doby shack. Seems more out of place than ever tonight. You didn't expect Ritz Carlton accommodation on an archaeological expedition in the wilderness, I hope feet is down in the dumps tonight. Pretty soon we find what we came here to look for, and then I g. You feel fine again. When we find what we came here to look for, I won't feel anything. I'll be dead. Oh, snap out of it. How can you be so discouraging when this morning we found the proof that we're searching in the right spot? Proves that obsidian knife. What does that prove? Except that some Aztec lost it here four or five hundred years ago? But Pete, Dr. Meyer and I have explained that it's a sacred knife. A knife of sacrifice used only by high priests. Such things weren't jealously lost any more than the altar vessels of the Christian church would be. I should say not. It was buried hidden in the ground wound by design, not just, you know.

[Eunice]

It's a clue to what we're all seeking. It's only a question of time now before you and Carl and Dr. Meyer find the treasure.

[Carl]

Oh, I know I'm acting like a bad sport, Eunice, but we've been digging in this godforsaken hole for nearly six months now. And it's all right for Carl and Doc here. They're scientists, but I'm only a greedy engineer. I want the gold that's supposed to be buried here. And we haven't seen a glimmer of it. We saw the hammered bracelet that Mosquito found. Pure gold it was. And of the age Of Monte Tumor. Oh, like fools, we all jump to the conclusion that when Cortes sacked the city of Mexico, some of the high priests buried some of the temple treasures somewhere around the Catlin. History agrees that much of the city's wealth was hidden to keep it out of the Spanish hands. And this is certainly a reasonable spot to look for. I know this is the place. That bracelet proves it, and so does the picture writing. Carl deciphers also the geological strata in which we found that knife this morning. That knife, which could only have belonged to the kind of high priest who would have hit the treasures of the temple. And think of the ancient associations of such a treasure. Boy, even with the cut which the Mexican government will demand out of anything, we'd be millionaires. If you fellows are right, gold. Pure gold. Millions and billions of dollars worth of it might be buried here.

[Eunice]

The historical value, the beauty of it.

[Carl]

It's only what it means in American dol that interests me.

[Eunice]

May I see that knife again? The one you found?

[Carl]

It certainly. Did you pass it over, Pete? Your Kosis. All right. Here, take it quick. I don't like the hold of the thing.

[Eunice]

It hasn't very pleasant associations, has it? You say it's made of glass, Dr. Meyer? Yeah.

[Carl]

Obsidian is volcanic glass.

[Eunice]

So sure it was used for human sacrifices, Carl, I've seen too many such

[Carl]

knives to be in doubt about it. As human sacrifice was an everyday occurrence here at the time of the Spanish conquest, ceremonial daggers such as this were very common. The gods of the Aztecs were perhaps the most bloodthirsty ever worshiped.

[Eunice]

How was the knife used?

[Carl]

The victim of the sacrifice was laid prostrate on a great green stone, curved upwards in the middle to elevate the chest. Then the priest plunged the knife in his breast and tore out the living heart. Do you wonder? I don't want to be reminded that such people were my ancestors. You know, I have a theory that when the treasure we're looking for was buried, this knife was probably used to sacrifice a victim to the spirits of the earth or to the gods of hate and war to gain their favor so they'd watch over it, as it were. What gave you that crazy idea? It isn't crazy. That's been the custom of all people. Some of them possessing a much less primitive religion than the Aztecs. And with the Aztecs, anything or nothing was made an excuse for human sacrifice. Put that knife away, out of my sight.

[Eunice]

Have given me the shiver too. Here, Pete, put it in the door. Here.

[Carl]

Oh, don't hand it to me. I don't want to touch it again. Oh, don't be such a booby. All right, give it to me. It's funny. When I hold it in my hand, I. I seem to see the great green stone you spoke about and a victim for the sacrifice. Are you taken, doc? Take it out of my hand. Put it out of sight. Sure, Pete, sure. What on earth is the matter with you tonight? You haven't been yourself since we found that thing. I'll go out and take a walk. Maybe I'll snap out of it. Fish, my boy. I will go fish. No, no. I want to be alone. I'm all right. That filthy Mexican out there has begun to play again. He doesn't lay off, I'll kill him. You. Manuel, stop that fiddling. Stop it, I tell you. Stop it.

[Eunice]

Keith. You know he doesn't understand Indy.

[Carl]

You'll understand this fight.

[Eunice]

He.

[Carl]

Stop him. Stop that guy. Give me that. Go to Mig.

[Eunice]

Take your hands off.

[Carl]

Give me that gun. I got his wrist. Snap it out of his hand. No. Help me. Hold me. Sprinting like a madara, you know. All right, doc, we've got him now.

[Eunice]

His bullets didn't hit nano in your

[Carl]

arm like you first. What did I do? What did I do? You tried to kill a man, you fool. That's all.

[Eunice]

I didn't.

[Carl]

I. I didn't hurt him. No. Thanks to your rotten marksmanship, I. God. Oh, keep that gun, Carl. Don't let me ever have it again.

[Eunice]

Oh. What happened to you, Pete? You suddenly became a Ray lunatic?

[Carl]

I don't know. Something. Suddenly. I just wasn't myself any longer. I was.

[Eunice]

Oh, I don't know.

[Carl]

If I were as good a shot as you, Carl, that man would be dead. What happened to me? What happened to me? He. Pulled yourself together. What happened to me? Tell me what happened to me?

[Eunice]

Make him sit down in that chair. I'll get him a drink.

[Carl]

What happened to me? Quiet, old man. You're horrible. It's all right now. No one is hurt. And you'll never do such a crazy thing again. But what made me.

[Eunice]

Never mind. Here, drink this whiskey

[Carl]

and thanks. I know what is wrong with you. You've always been used to the city disquiet here. These woods, these mountains, they have been too different for you.

[Eunice]

Yes. I've seen this coming for a long time. You've got to have a change. All of us have. You three men work like pack animals all day, and when night comes, the best thing we can think of to do is to sit around and play bridge.

[Carl]

We Might play pinochle for a change.

[Eunice]

But we don't play at anything. We all make work of everything we do. Pete's outburst just now might have happened to any of us. Carl was impossible to live with last week. And before that, no one could speak to Dr. Meyer and I. Well, I want to scream sometimes.

[Carl]

We're all on the verge of a nervous blow up. Eunice is right. We've got to get out of our souls occasionally. But what can we do alone at night except play cards and talk?

[Eunice]

We must do something it'll be impossible to take seriously. Something childish, something. Oh, I know what we're going to do.

[Carl]

Where are you going?

[Eunice]

I thought. It's just the thing. It's terribly infidel, but we may have some fun with it. And we can't take it seriously. I found it.

[Carl]

Holy smoke. What's that?

[Eunice]

A playcheck table. I slipped it in the trunk when we left the States and I'd almost forgotten I had it. We're all going to use it to

[Carl]

talk to the spirits. Don't do this. Period.

[Eunice]

I thought of it when cast over the Aztecs making a sacrifice to the spirits so they'd guard their very treasure. Maybe those same spirits will tell us where it's hidden.

[Carl]

But I don't understand. A friendship table is like a new job for a doctor, only it writes messages with a pencil and it's awfully

[Eunice]

silly, but a lot of fun and a change. Here. All of you draw chairs around this table.

[Carl]

I'll get paper and pencils and put

[Eunice]

out all the lamps, Carl. It's more spooky in the dark.

[Carl]

All right, Harry, you adjust the pencil. Oh, such a lot of nonsense. But Eunice has the right idea, Doc. Nonsense is what we need. There, Doc, as I can get it with all this moonlight streaming in.

[Eunice]

Now, let us all place our fingertips lightly on the little table and hold the sauce. Can we ask at the exact spot to find the Aztec gold?

[Carl]

Might as well. That's on all our minds. Oh, such is silliness. It's good of you to try and make me forget. I've almost murdered a man. I'm grateful to you.

[Eunice]

Oh, please, please. We're going to play now.

[Carl]

All right. I wonder if the spirit could tell us where the gold is hidden.

[Eunice]

Don't you dare take this thing seriously.

[Carl]

No, no, of course not.

[Eunice]

Isn't it spooky, though, sitting in the shadows that the moonlight makes?

[Carl]

How could you have thought that moon romantic, Eunice? It's a moon of blood shining over a bloody land. Pete, snap out of it. I'm trying to figure out what made me shoot at Manuel. Maybe it's the blood of my murderous ancestors who tore hearts from living bodies. Maybe this land of theirs is making me revert to pipe. Pete, you talk like a fool.

[Eunice]

Oh, stop talking altogether and keep your mind under question. But Dan, we're doing this for fun. You mean the creep saying things like that in this dark room.

[Carl]

And I won't say anything more. It is a strange moon. I see shadows in it. Oh, stop it. Where's the sun? Here. This thing. Don't move. Come on, Planchet. Where did the Aztecs hide their treasure from the temples?

[Eunice]

Oh, you've got to be respectful to spirits.

[Carl]

Like this.

[Eunice]

Great spirits of the dead, give up thy secrets. Reveal to us the thing that we should know.

[Carl]

Such a lot of non. Quiet. The thing is beginning to move. Your bougie. I am not.

[Eunice]

None of it is. It's the spirit.

[Carl]

The planchette is going fast. I ain't pushing, Pete. Are you?

[Eunice]

Carl, look at Pete.

[Carl]

Pete, old man, you're sitting in the donda shadow.

[Eunice]

That shadow wasn't there before. What makes it.

[Carl]

What makes this little table move? Pete, why don't you answer? Pete is pushing the table. I can feel.

[Eunice]

Oh, that shadow, Carl. It makes Pete look as though he had on a favorite cloak. A feathered headdress. As though he were an antique.

[Carl]

Pete, why are you so still?

[Eunice]

Something's wrong with him.

[Carl]

Like those lamps. He's choking. Someone had him by the throat. He's struggling, fighting with something that ain't here.

[Eunice]

Or call the shadow the shadow of an Indian in a feathered cloak.

[Carl]

It is going to be from Bill.

[Eunice]

Light.

[Carl]

Light. That would lamp.

[Eunice]

Oh, yes, yes.

[Carl]

Doc, Pete's cold as a dead man. Yeah, but he's breathing. Uncle Pete, I got a lamp here. Oh, this is dusty. Oh, he's only fainted. He's coming to now.

[Eunice]

Pete.

[Carl]

Pete. This lamb. Blood of my ancestors. Carl. Doc. Pete, what happened to you? But I. Now I know why I tried to shoot that man. Something's trying to steal my body. Something's trying to steal my body. Pete, what nonsense are you talking?

[Eunice]

Oh, Carl, look what the planchette wrote on this paper.

[Carl]

Doc, it's Aztec picture writing. Pete wrote that. I felt him push the ponchet. Pete couldn't write it. He doesn't know Aztec. But I know what it means. It tells where to find the treasure. The treasure guarded by the dead. I see. This is the place.

[Eunice]

This is the place.

[Carl]

Dig. You messed it all. Dig. Dig. I knew that what I wrote that night would lead us to the treasure feet. You couldn't have made that picture writing. Well, if I didn't make it, who did? I don't know. But I refuse to believe that there was anything supernatural about your fainting skull and the action of that panchette. I'll have to see the treasure actually uncovered before I'll believe this is really the spot. This is the spot. And the night on which that planchette revealed it at two different times, something gained possession of me, body and soul. This is the spot, all right. Ain't we already found a few things in the upper layers? Hot take scenes. In a minute, these workmen are going to lay bare the entire treasure. But I agree with Karl when he says all the rest is craziness. Ah, well, have it your own way. If the gold is here and I can get out of this blasted country alive with some of it, I'll be satisfied. What do you mean, if you can get out alive? Just what I say. You believe that human sacrifice was made to ensure the guardianship of spirits of this treasure? I believe another must be made before those spirits will give it up all rot. But the superstition you're talking lately, I'm beginning to think one of your Indian ancestors housed it up house and tried your brain. Snap out of it. Quick.

[Eunice]

Come on.

[Carl]

He found the treasure. He found the treasure. What is it? What have you found? Look. Look, signore. Look what they've uncovered, Carl. A human skeleton.

[Eunice]

See? See, senores?

[Carl]

And it's lying upon a great green stone. A stone that curves upwards to elevate the chest. The stone where the priest lay his sacrifice to tear out the L. There's nothing we can do with him, Eunice. Since the men uncovered that green stone and the skeleton, he's absolutely convinced that the only way we'll ever reach the gold is by means of a human sacrifice to what he calls its guardian spirit. The man's mad. Mad as a March hare.

[Eunice]

I wonder. It's been over a week since you found that stone, Carl. And that's all you found.

[Carl]

How can you say that when you've seen the vault of masonry? It covered inside that vault must be the temple treasures.

[Eunice]

But you have been unable to penetrate that vault.

[Carl]

Because the priests did their work so well. It's as strong as a modern safe.

[Eunice]

You have modern tools, the sort that would force any modern safe.

[Carl]

We've had accidents without tools. I've told you. One on top of another. But when we get that fresh dynamite From Mexico City tomorrow and some decent detonating apparatus.

[Eunice]

Carl, why do you suppose the explosives you already have never failed to work before. Why will they work now anywhere excepting on that vault? Why do your tools break or lose their edges? Why?

[Carl]

If you're suggesting there's a supernatural reason, Cut it. I hear enough of that stuff from Pete. He's got all the workmen believing it. Our failure to break open that vault has been due to simple accidents, coincidences. There's nothing supernatural in the world.

[Eunice]

Yet by the supernatural, you found where the vault was buried.

[Carl]

Pete lied to us. He moved that tension table, and all the time he must have known the

[Eunice]

ancient picture writing and the location of that vault and the great green stone that covered it. Oh, Carl, he's never been in Mexico before.

[Carl]

But if it was a spirit who guided his hand that night, why should it have revealed the hiding place?

[Eunice]

Because it was blood. Hungry? Perhaps its sacrificial knife demands another victim. Oh, Carl, I've come to believe as Pete does. And remember, the spirit revealed that vault through a descendant of the race which hid it, not through us, whose ancestors destroyed that race and its religion.

[Carl]

If. If there's any truth in that bunk, Pete isn't in danger at all as he thinks.

[Eunice]

No, but we are. Oh, Carl, I've grown afraid in the last few days. I can't bear to look at the moon at night. It seemed a moon of blood, as Peter's called it. You people worship the moon. You've told me. With their other gods. A moon of blood shining over a land of blood.

[Carl]

Oh, let's go away from here, Carl. Let's go away before we open that vault and find the treasure.

[Eunice]

Yes. It's not for white men.

[Carl]

You're talking nonsense. Tomorrow we'll have the new explosives, and then we'll see what's in that vault. I've got to go and join Doc now. He's waiting for me.

[Eunice]

Is Pete with him?

[Carl]

I don't know. I haven't seen him since this morning. Dear, where's that obsidian knife? Did you put it away somewhere? I took it from the drawer last night and laid it on the table here.

[Eunice]

I haven't seen it. Maybe Peter or Dr. Meyer.

[Carl]

Doc hasn't got it. He was asking about it this morning, and Peter's afraid to even touch the thing.

[Eunice]

I look.

[Carl]

Oh, don't bother now. I must run along. Be back in an hour or so. Goodbye, dear.

[Eunice]

Goodbye. A moon of blood. A land of blood.

[Carl]

A holy moon. An avenging land.

[Eunice]

Oh, Pete. Oh, I never heard you come in.

[Carl]

You.

[Eunice]

You startled me. Carl just went out the other door if you want to catch up with him. Pete, what's the matter with you? You look so. So different. Like.

[Carl]

Like perhaps the descendant of an essence.

[Eunice]

You're like the shadow I thought I saw before your face that night. The shadow that seems to struggle with you that you said was trying to steal your body. You have that knife Carl was looking for. You have it in your hand.

[Carl]

It is the knife of holy sacrifice.

[Eunice]

Oh, please. Keep away from me.

[Carl]

Please. I'm afraid of you. Keep away. Keep away. Oh, Carl. Carl. I cannot let you scream. Now and only tonight will I remove this gag that you may scream. Once upon the great green stone, a scream which may reach the holy moon of blood and the spirit of death which guard my people's treasure. One scream upon the great green stone you shall have tonight as I plunge this knife of sacrifice into your breast and tear out your living heart. Where can you speed up? It's three hours since I went home and she was gone. Then we should have remained in the house and waited for her. Now perhaps she has come back while we are out here looking. But we did wait in the house until it began to go dark. She never stays outside too late. All this crazy stuff Peter's been saying has made her afraid of the moonlight. Maybe she's busy. They used to take long walks together. Not since he began to get so queer. Then one is worried, Carl, and is never reasonable. Pete has not been at the digging all afternoon. I bet anything we'll find him safe now at the house. Well, maybe you're right. Come on back. We'll see. All right. She wouldn't be over in this direction anyway. From force of habit, I suppose. We seem to have headed for the dean at the digging. This the last place she would be. She don't like that big green stone she got there. Oh, come on, get back to the house. The moon is becoming bright now. She's bound to be at home. The moon of blood, she called does look strange and red tonight. Wait a minute. Who's that over there? There on the bank, above the very vault. That man or some mestizo, perhaps. He seems to be bowing, making queer gestures. You are bowing to that world now he raises his arms and looks at the moon. That's funny. Oh, clonk, I bet. But no, Doc, it's Pete.

[Eunice]

My gee, it is.

[Carl]

We're acting like a lunatic. He's alone. I knew Eunice wouldn't be with him. Oh, he must be at the set now, come on. Wait. What's Pete got there?

[Eunice]

Look.

[Carl]

That big long bundle he's lifting from the shadow by that tree. Come closer. Let's not waste time. I've got to get back to the house dock. If I don't find Eunice there. You will find her there. Don't worry, my boy. But that bundle. Peter laid it on the big green stone. Let's not bother about him. I've got to find out where Eunice is that bundle car. It looks like a human body. Yes, it's tight like in a sheep. We're too far away to see if a eye can see, it is a body. And that's not a sheet. It's a woman's dress. Good gun. That color. Eunice want to dress that shade? It is Eunice. And Pete has a knife in his hand. That knife of sacrifice. Quick, for God's sake. I'll be too hot a baby. Come make it. I have to make it. He's a madman. You got a gun? Shoot. No. He's a lunatic. I can't shoot a man who doesn't know what he's doing. Run. We've got to stop him. We can't make it because he's mad. You got to shoot. Shoot him in the arm. In the leg. He's raising that knife above her. I've got to shoot. And may God forgive me. I shoot a kill you. You got him. He's fallen across your way. Across the big green stone. Carl. Oh, Carl. Eunice. Eunice. I'm coming.

[Eunice]

Oh, lift me off. Here, untie my hands.

[Carl]

Yes, dear, yes. Oh, my dear. My darling. Please. You dead girl. The knife of sacrifice as he fell that.

[Eunice]

The bullet.

[Carl]

That dynamite we left in there that we couldn't make go off, it's blown the vault wide open. The plunder. It is ours after.

[Eunice]

Oh, look at that shadow by the vault.

[Carl]

Like we see before. An Aztec priest in feathered cloak.

[Eunice]

It's gone now. Disappeared within that shaft of moonlight.

[Carl]

Kai looking to the vault. A treasure. Treasure.

[Eunice]

God. Dead men, bones. Punish armor.

[Carl]

White men, bones.

[Eunice]

That is the treasure of the Aztecs that we sought. A burial vault of hate and death.

[Carl]

Well, that's the end of that.

[Eunice]

Come see us again and we'll tell you another pretty bedtime story. Well, you got to go home now, Satan. And we've got business to tend to. Pardon.

[Carl]

Business.

[Eunice]

Hey, Satan. Near midnight, Satan.

[Narrator]

There's more from the witch's tale, the horror and all of the relic radio shows at the website relicradio.com. you can donate through that website as well. If you'd like to help support this and all of the shows. Thanks as always to those who have thanks for joining me this week. I'll be back tomorrow with Inner Sanctum on Strange Tales and next Saturday with our next episode of the Horror.