1 "You'd better do this!" "You'd better not!" "I'll shoot myself!!" "I should worry!" -- "God pity me!" [scrolls upward to reveal:] You've heard them - these echoes which none but yourself could hear! The secret, private life of every man and every woman, is lived away in a Hall of Echoes, to the music of this Whispering Chorus - which fills life and colors it, and makes it beautiful or otherwise. 2 John Tremble - 2nd Assistant Cashier of the Clumley Contracting Company. Raymond Hatton 3 "You work too hard - just to make a rich man richer!" 4 "Nothing you do is appreciated anyway!" 5 "Good work is always appreciated in the end!" 6 Jane Tremble - his wife. Kathlyn Williams 7 "Fighting" George Coggeswell ____ A far-seeing young legislator - who heads a commission with extraordinary powers to investigate the muddy waters of the state's politics. Elliott Dexter 8 Christmas Eve in John Tremble's household ___ $25.00 a week, under Jane's efficient white hands keeps the "wolf from the door" - but it doesn't provide theatre tickets, nor automobiles - and the slow acid of discontent eats steadily into the man's heart. 9 "This week's salary will more than cover it, dear!" 10 "All I ever do is to pay bills - even the boys at the office notice I'm getting shabby!" 11 "John, I'm ashamed of you - Jane's even given up the cheap little dress she wanted, to pay my doctor's bill!" 12 "How much was the dress?" 13 "I'm going to get you that dress." 14 "Hell is paved with good intentions." 15 "Don't be a fool, Jack! A couple of games at Jimsy's, and you can buy your wife a new dress - and yourself a new over- coat!" 16 "Take a Chance! Nothing Ventured - Nothing Gained!" 17 "Let's hang up some mistletoe, Honey, you're going to look so pretty in that new dress - that John'll be wanting a kiss!" 18 The "Wee Small Hours." 19 "I couldn't get Jane's dress! It - it had been sold!" 20 "Clumley has more than he can use - take what you need!" 21 "What would Jane think of a thief!" 22 "Don't be a fool! No one will ever know!" 23 The Fear. 24 "I've forgotten to lock my cash-drawer at the office - but Barden will take you to the theatre, and I'll join you later!" 25 "You'd better clear out - if you don't want to go to jail!" 26 "Instead of wasting time over a useless investigation of my books - if you'd come to a little 'business' under- standing - you'd find, young man, that I could do more for you than anyone in this state!" 27 "If that dead man were you - all your worries would be over!" 28 "Have you any news of my husband?" 29 In order to seem a noble "martyr," Tremble makes it appear that he has been murdered. 30 By morning - when he had finished his handiwork, no one could have told which was "John Tremble" - and which the bearded "Stranger"! 31 "Dead Men tell no Tales" _____ And as the days go on, the supposed body of John Tremble is found. 32 "There used to be a little man hangin' round here, wearin' blue overalls - but I ain't seen him for a week!" 33 "I'm going down to see Mr. Coggeswell - he may have some news of John!" 34 "We've just found the body of John Tremble murdered by a man named 'Edgar Smith'!" 35 "The police claim to have found your husband's body. To prevent mistake - will you help us to identify him?" 36 "I suppose it must be - my husband!" 37 "I shall offer $1,000 reward for the arrest of Edgar Smith; meantime, there's a clerical position open in my office - if you'd care to accept it." 38 The Slow Poison of a Guilty Conscience ___ Feeling suspicion, in every smile he meets - and handcuffs, in every welcome - Tremble seeks to bury his identity at the river docks. 39 "Don't send for an ambulance - it might bring the police!" 40 "My boy is not dead! But somewhere - somehow - he is in great trouble!" 41 "You'll always go lame on that pin, Kid!" 42 "We traced Edgar Smith as far as Cincinnati, then we lost track of him. But if he ever comes back - we've got evidence enough to send him to the 'Chair'!" 43 Fortune favors the brave - and Coggeswell finds himself, at the end of two years, the people's candidate for Governor. 44 "Gentlemen - we want Mr. Coggeswell for Gov- ernor, but he must be a healthy Governor." 45 "All this that they call 'success' means nothing to me - unless you will share it with me, Jane." 46 "My heart has already answered you! But his mother believes him to be still alive - and I would not hurt her." 47 "I'm 'dog' homesick! And I want to know if you'll write a letter to someone for me?" 48 "Looks crooked - you'd better trace this letter yourself!" 49 Mute Evidence. 50 "If you're goin' to gamble - you'll do it right here!" 51 "Now Edgar Smith - you'll come along with me!" 52 "You beat it, and beat it quick - or you'll land in the 'Chair'!" 53 And on a certain June day two years later - 54 "Orange blossoms - don't make a hit with me!" 55 And on a certain June day two years later - 56 "Governor, your 'Lady' is the most charming woman in the state - and the most politic!" 57 "Why don't you go back to her - she'd understand!" 58 "Please make your check nice and fat for my Blind Orphans. I feel, Dear, that we must be good to all children because, because - !" 59 "Could - could you give me something to eat?" 60 "A tramp - he looks like a murderer - is just going into the house with old Mrs. Tremble!" 61 "Did you ever - have a son?" 62 "Suppose your prayers were answered - and your boy came back!" 63 "Johnny!" 64 "Be strong enough, my son, to bear the truth! Jane, believing you dead, was married two years ago - to the Governor of this State!" 65 "You must promise me to save Jane - even if it kills you!" 66 "Mrs. Tremble's sick, Doctor - will you come right over?" 67 "We've just caught a tramp, Mrs. Coggeswell - but don't alarm your- self!" 68 "You don't understand! I'm not Edgar Smith - I'm John Tremble!" 69 "I'm not trying to black- mail anyone! Take me in to my mother - she'll tell you who I am!" 70 "Mrs. Tremble - is dead!" 71 The case of the people against Edgar Smith 72 "We shall show that Edgar Smith lured John Tremble to a deserted shack and killed him with an iron kettle." 73 "Call Mrs. Coggeswell." 74 "I next saw John Tremble - when I identified his body!" 75 "Did you ever see the defendant before?" 76 "No - I never saw him before!" 77 "You promised your mother that you'd save Jane - even if it killed you!" 78 The Night of the Verdict 79 "That poor wretch who's on trial worries me, some- how! Do you think they'll find him guilty?" 80 "We find the defendant guilty of murder - in the first degree!" 81 "I didn't think it could be done - but they've done it! They've convicted a man of the murder - of himself!" 82 "I'm John Tremble himself - Coggeswell's wife is my wife! Oh God! - won't you believe me?" 83 "I never killed anybody, I tell you! I found a dead man and dressed him in my clothes - my mother knew me, but she died!" 84 "Even if Edgar Smith were insane, and honestly believed he was 'John Tremble' - he wouldn't have waited until he was crippled and disfigured - to come back!" 85 "God moves in a mysterious way -" 86 "My lover, my husband - I cannot give you up!" 87 "If you were to tell the Governor all you know - where would Jane be?" 88 "Guilty of murder - in the first degree!" 89 "You promised to save Jane even - if - it - killed - you!" 90 "I've never before asked you to use your high office to grant me a personal favor - but now I beg you to pardon the prisoner - Edgar Smith!" 91 "Can you give me any good reason, Jane, why I should pardon this murderer?" 92 "Suppose it were proven - that 'Edgar Smith' is really John Tremble?" 93 "It would merely reverse the case - for we still have the dead body to account for! If 'Edgar Smith' did not kill John Tremble - then John Tremble - killed - Edgar Smith!" 94 "A woman out here - who brought me a letter signed by the Governor's 'lady' - claims she's your wife. Do you want to see her?" 95 "I've come to save you, John - it isn't too late! But before I destroy the happi- ness of those others - I must know that you are innocent of the other man's murder!" 96 "You'd merely wreck your own life - you couldn't save mine! When I pay the price - there will be no miscar- riage of justice!" 97 "And knew that somewhere in the world - God's dreadful dawn was red!" 98 "This is our third anni- versary, Jane, and we'll have the ceremony repeated today - in the presence of - Almighty God!" THE ENDHome