Episode 1425

Aired: Friday December 10, 1971

After a replay of Thursday's close and the titles, Stokes stands before the altar and the burning flame, under Kitty's spell. There is a knife on top of the altar. The wailing becomes a voice, Kitty's voice - "Roderick Stokes...you are under the power of Isis....you see the blade before you." He says "Yes. I see the blade." Kitty's voice says "You shall take the blade and consecrate the altar with your own blood. Do you understand?" Stokes takes the blade in his hand and says "I understand." Meanwhile, in another part of the woods, Alice is walking back to the old house when she notices Carl is following her. She turns and yells at him "Why are you following me? I had the feeling someone was shadowing me. Why?" Carl glares at her and says nothing. "Do you really think you're going to catch your killer by following me? Because of that stupid vision I had?" Carl sneers that "I may have started for that reason. But now I have a different one. You should be ashamed of yourself, Alice, ashamed! What you're doing is despicable!" Alice asks Carl what he's talking about, and Carl snaps "You know very well what I'm talking about. Or have you already forgotten your secret meeting at Widow's Hill?" Alice gets very concerned as Carl continues. "Yes, Alice! I heard everything! All of it! And let me tell you that I won't let you split this family apart! I don't care if you didn't get a dime from old Catherine! Valery has never done anything to hurt you!" Alice suddenly grabs Carl by the collar and yells "No one has ever done anything for me either! But that's going to change, Carl! That's going to change! And as for you, why don't you go back to the bottle that's replaced your dead wife!" She throws a startled Carl to the ground and leaves as he yells "You won't get away with it! You won't!" before he starts to cry about "my Jenny" again. Alice is moving through the woods quickly, but suddenly she stops short in her tracks and tries to scream, but cannot. The black masked figure with the scimitar stands directly in front of her.

Alice manages to scream as the masked figure slices the scimitar in her direction, barely missing her. She runs and the masked figure, dressed all in black, chases after her. As she is screaming, we cut to Stokes standing at the altar holding the knife in his hands as he hears Kitty's voice say "You shall now open your veins as a sacrifice to me." Stokes begins to say "Yes..." and touches the blade to his neck, but Alice's screams start to snap him out of the trance. Kitty's voice says "You must now sacrifice yourself!" Stokes weakly says "Yes..." over another scream, but then turns away from the altar and seems to snap out of it. "Alice? Alice Collins?" He turns back again, and the altar is gone! A screaming Alice runs by him, and then Stokes sees the black masked figure. "Help! Help!" Alice screams. Stokes notices the knife in his hand, and then waves it at the attacker, who stops. "Get out of here, now!" he commands Alice. Alice runs while the black figure brandishes the sword at Stokes. "I don't know why I'm out here, but I know that you are no apparition," he says. The black figure takes a step back and readies the scimitar, but Stokes throws the knife at it - and the blade finds its mark. The figure screams in pain and runs away as the knife drops to the ground. Stokes runs in Alice's direction. At Collinwood, Alice arrives scared to death. Quentin comes out of the drawing room and asks her what has happened. She tells him that she was nearly killed by a "man dressed all in black....with a sword!" Quentin is shocked to hear this just as Stokes comes running in, locking the door behind him. Quentin says "Uncle, what are you doing outside?" Stokes answers "I'm not sure...but I think I may have just seen the mysterious killer Mr. Gladstone has been searching for." Kitty comes down the stairway asking what all the excitement is about, and then is shocked to see Stokes. "What....happened?" she asks him. "I was very nearly killed tonight," he answers. "Oh my...." she says, and then adds "How?" Stokes looks at her and answers "That may be a much more interesting question than you intended, my dear." She wonders what he means.

"I believe I came face to face with the mysterious killer that killed our cousin's wife so many years ago," Stokes says. "Or at least someone who kills in a similar fashion. The scimitar he bore would match the description of what happened to his victims. I was lucky to escape." Quentin asks him how, and Stokes says "I'm not sure. I'm not even sure what I was doing in the woods. Still, Alice has had quite a scare. We should see to her first, without discussing this further." Quentin says he'll call Gladstone and tell him. We cut to Kitty and Alice drinking tea as Quentin hangs up the phone. "Gladstone had gone home for the night, but I left word with his deputy. They're sending a number of men to fan out through the woods to search for this man." Kitty tells Alice that she's "welcome to stay here at Collinwood" if she's afraid of going home, and then asks Quentin if that's all right. Quentin says "Of course." At that moment, Trask and Valery come through the front door. Trask gets nervous when he sees Alice in the drawing room and Valery says "I wonder what brings my cousin Alice here." Valery walks into the drawing room as Trask follows. Stokes sees Valery and gives her a hug. "Are you all right, father? Your heart is pounding." Stokes says that "I've had quite a night. I'd rather not trouble you with it right now. You should see to your cousin, who had a tremendous fright." Valery asks what is going on and Quentin, all the while glaring at Trask says "It seems there's a killer loose on the estate. He attacked Alice and your father tonight, Valery." Valery is shocked, and Quentin moves closer to Trask while saying "It's getting to be very unsafe here lately. Downright deadly. Isn't that right, Trask?" Trask and Alice look at each other.

Trask glares at Quentin and says "Perhaps it's time for gentlemen to protect the women of the household." Valery tells Trask that they should all be safe at Collinwood, but Alice gets nervous and says she'd "feel safer at home." Stokes tells her she shouldn't go back outside with "that killer possibly out there" but Alice says that Gladstone's men will be there. Quentin offers to escort Alice back and Trask, getting worried, says "Perhaps I too, should go with you." Quentin smirks and takes a gun out of the small desk. "I'm not going out there without this," he says to Trask. "Still think you're needed?" Trask smiles and says "Of course." Valery begs them both to be careful, and then tells her father she'll help him upstairs. Kitty watches Stokes as he leaves the room. Before he leaves, he looks at her and says "Good night, Miss Soames. I hope you will feel safe within these walls tonight." Kitty wonders if he knows or not as Quentin and Trask prepare to take Alice back to the old house. At the old house, Carl is in the living room pacing when Quentin, Alice & Trask arrive. When Carl sees all three of them together, he begins to start in with Alice again, but Quentin shushes him and takes him aside. Trask tells Alice to be "very careful" but Alice says in low tones "Carl knows what we are planning, at least he thinks he does." Trask is alarmed, but Alice shushes him before going upstairs. Carl asks Quentin what he's doing with Trask after what he has been told, and Quentin shows Carl the gun, saying in low tones "I didn't just bring this for the black masked killer, Carl." Carl gasps, but Quentin adds "I'm only going to scare him with it. I want to scare some truth out of him." Quentin shushes a now smiling Carl as he turns to Trask and says "Let's head back to Collinwood, shall we?" The two of them leave. In the woods, Trask remarks how easy it would be for someone to hide themselves in such "thick surroundings" as Quentin steps in front of him, still holding the gun. "Hold on, Trask," he says. Trask asks him what he's doing. "We're going to try an experiment," Quentin says. "I'm going to ask you about something that Carl told me about that I find very shocking. If you give me an answer that I like, I'll step out of your way." Trask says "And if not?" Quentin cocks the gun and says "Then I'll mistake you for our masked killer and have to defend myself." Trask gets scared. Meanwhile, Alice enters her room, and again, the room goes dark and the door slams behind her. Catherine's ghost appears to her and says "You escaped your fate once tonight, dear Alice, but fate has a way of catching up with you..." Alice becomes terrified and tries to get out of the room, but can't. Catherine begins to laugh as Alice yells and pounds on the door. "Go away! Go away! Stop haunting me!" Catherine cackles about "fate" while Alice buries her face against the door and begins to cry, but suddenly the lights come on again and Catherine is gone. Alice looks around the room, and then begins to laugh, saying "You've gone! And you'll stay away, do you hear? You'll stay away!" Alice continues to laugh, but then she sees a strange shadow by the window. Alice backs away meekly saying "No...no....NO!" Suddenly the black masked figure crashes through the window and stands before Alice with scimitar in hand....