Another journey into the realm of the strange and terrifying.

I hope you will enjoy the trip that it will thrill you a little and chill you a little.

So settle back.

Get a good grip on your nerves.

Where are we going?

You'll find out when we get there. Come in.

Welcome.

I'm E. G. Marshall.

Ice and iron cannot be welded.

A proposition that would seemingly need no further elaboration.

And yet, how often do we find the spirit of this particular bit of self-evident common sense violated?

Surely if ice and iron cannot be welded, neither can December and May be wetted.

But people never learn.

And how fortunate it is for us, because if they did, whatever would we do for stories.

Our mystery drama, my wife doesn't understand me, was written especially for the mystery theater by Sam Dan and stars Robert Dryden.

Thank you. and stars Robert Dryden. It's the little things that count.

Not just in human behavior,

but in the operation of the incredibly complex machines that support our lives today.

Little things, little almost insignificant wires, bolts, springs, tubes.

And our story is concerned with a piece of cloth, about an inch square.

Just a tiny bit of specially treated cotton cloth, the idea of which is worth millions,

the possession, a matter of life and death.

...