What happens
Colonel Humboldt is impatient for a formula from Dr. Frederick Bernard Hoffman, an eccentric scientist whose work is needed for a new optical system. Hoffman finally completes the formula and sets out by car to deliver it, while armed guards wait outside his home. Humboldt and Bernard discuss the delay and the danger, and a gardener named Mario is pressed into an unusual role. Hoffman's apprentice, Stefan, is involved in the journey, and the men at the Colonel's office receive troubling news by phone. The story is set in a tense atmosphere of secrecy and rivalry over the formula, and the broadcast is part of the Suspense series, first aired on June 10, 1962.
A government science program and a country home where Dr. Hoffman works on an optical system formula, with roads and cars leading to the Colonel's office.
Characters: Colonel Humboldt, Bernard, Dr. Frederick Bernard Hoffman, Stefan, Mario, Mr. Farnal, Sergeant Grandby
Listen for: Listen for Hoffman's claims of supernatural powers, the armed escort outside his home, and the car journey that goes wrong.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.