The Man Within

Originally Aired: April 27, 1953

Suspense #510, "The Man Within," presents a haunting tale of fear and betrayal. Andrews, a desperate fugitive, stumbles upon an isolated cottage where Elizabeth has just lost her father. She reluctantly shelters him, and he poses as her brother during the funeral, hiding among the mourners while terror gnaws at him. Andrews fears the vengeful Carlion, a former friend he betrayed—an informer's conscience haunting every shadow in the mist-shrouded countryside.

When Carlion himself arrives at the cottage, Andrews cowers in the shed while the charismatic smuggler confronts Elizabeth. Carlion reveals the depth of Andrews' treachery: his information sent six men to jail on murder charges after a customs guard was killed. What began as friendship has curdled into a deadly pursuit, and Carlion speaks of killing Andrews not from simple revenge, but to erase the memory of confidences shared and trust betrayed. As Elizabeth deflects Carlion's questions, the hunted man hides mere feet away, trapped between the woman who inexplicably shelters him and the man who seeks his death.