 And now, another tale well-calculated to keep you in. The Solly, Liningan vs. Bay Ann begins in a minute. And tastes good like a cigarette chute. Winston tastes good like a cigarette chute. Winston gives you real flavor for its tobacco flavor. Winston's easy-flying to the flavor comes right through to you. Winston tastes good like a cigarette chute. A modern filter, sure Winston has it. But that's only the beginning of a Winston. Up front, up where it really counts, Winston packs exclusive filter blend. Light, flavorful tobaccos, specially selected and specially processed for filter smoking. Filter blend, that's why it's fun to smoke Winston. America's best-selling filter cigarette. Winston tastes good like a cigarette chute. I first met Liningan while performing my duty as commissioner of the Toto Santo district along the upper reaches of the San Tsushima River. As my boat neared its plantation landing, I saw him above the river bank regarding me with mild interest. A great hulk of a man with bristling gray hair, bulky nose and lucid eyes. His entire appearance somehow suggested an aging and shabby eagle. I came quickly to the point of my visit and issued my warning. Liningan puffed placidly at a huge cigar and seemed unimpressed. Seasons have you peddling all this way just to give me the tip, commissioner. But even a herd of crocodiles couldn't fight me from my plantation. No, no, no, you don't understand. These aren't creatures you can fight. These are army ants. They're an elemental force. A gigantic catastrophe, an act of God. Ten miles long, two miles wide. Ants, nothing but ants. Each one as big as your thumb. They can strip a man's body to a skeleton in six minutes. I'm not an old woman, commissioner. I tell you, Liningan, you don't know these ants. But he sat there puffing at a cigar and regarded me with a grin, and I knew it was hopeless. As I boarded my launch and cast off, I felt a sudden resentment toward this obstinate old man. Yet with it was something else. I'd never met a man like him before. I could think of only one thing. One man, Liningan. One man who calmly evaluated his chances against the deadly menace, coolly decided he could win and was willing to stake his life on it. To risk a horrible death for it. It was terrifying. And yet it was fascinating. And when dawn came, I knew that the fascination of that man was more than I could resist. That Liningan fight was drawing my mind, drawing me back toward that plantation and death. And there was nothing I could do about it. I had to go back. It was ten o'clock in the morning when I rounded the bend below Liningan's plantation. I put in at the dock and tied up the launch. And I saw him, standing on the bank above me, armed, folded, stubby cigar in his mouth and a sardonic grin on his face. Back for another warning, Commissioner? No. Back to stay awhile? Yes. You don't seem very surprised. I am not. You expected me? I thought you'd be back. Come along. We'll get some horses. You'll want to ride around the plantation and take a look at the defenses I've rigged up. The defenses? I've always known that sooner or later the ants would come. Oh, well, yes. I'd like to see the defenses. And the ants. We'll be getting a glimpse of them before long, I should think. Yes. And the ants. The defenses Liningan had devised were quite impressive. They were surrounding free sides of the plantation like a huge horseshoe with a ditch 12 feet wide. The end of this ditch ran into the river which formed the fourth side of the plantation. And at the up river entrance to the ditch, Liningan had constructed a dam by which river water could be diverted. A large hand wheel controlled the floodgate of the dam. We approached the ditch and rode along it. I could see it was nearly full. How do you like my first line of defense, Commissioner? It's reassuring like a moat around the castle. Unless the ants know how to build rafts, they won't reach the plantation. This is only the outer moat. There's a better one than this. Come along. We'll go up to the high ground where the buildings are. We can get a view from Liningan. Yes. I didn't see any women or children around the plantation or any animals. That's right. Move them across the river. And even you think there's danger. Not because of danger, Commissioner. It's a matter of efficiency. Efficiency? It cuts down on the efficiency of the men if they're worried about their families. Critical situations only become crises when oxen and women get excited. Oh, here we are. The ditch is much smaller than the other. You've noticed how all the buildings are on this high peak of ground here. This inner ditch surrounds them and it's lined with concrete. Even filled with water, this is no barrier. It's not big enough. Why have the ants got this far? They'll get no farther. This ditch wasn't built for water, Commissioner. See the pipes leading into it? See those storage tanks up on the hill? Gasoline. We can throw up a wall of flame. Scared to bet they won't like that? I dare say they won't. Hey, look, Commissioner. Over there on the horizon. I'll never forget. Over the range of hills, as far as I can see, crept a darkening hem of a longer and broader until the shadows spread across the entire slope. Then downward? Downward, uncannily swift. All the grass is by a giant stick rapidly near. There are idiots last against that. Look at them. They can fill your ditches with their corpses and still have enough to destroy every one of them. We've got to run for it. Oh, we haven't gotten to it yet and they never will. Come along. We'd best get back to them in. The army was approaching in perfect formation. Along the front that moved forward as uniformly as the straight line, the ants drew nearer and nearer to the water ditch. Across the scant twelve feet of the ditch, I stared at them and they seemed to stare back at me. Around four in the afternoon, the ant scouts having found no crossing was a stirring among the main army. And then an immense flood of ants about a hundred yards in width commenced pouring in a glimmering black cataract down the far slope of the ditch. Thousands drowned instantly. The rest began using the bodies as bridges. Mining can immediately flung into action. Well, see to the dam over the floodgates wider, get the water in the ditch moving faster. See to the dam. Look at them drowned by the clouds. They keep coming. Even though the current carries many of them away, they're advancing. We'll take some blasts. How about those shovels and petrol sprinklers? You passed them off to the men? It is being done. Then get all hands here to hurry. This looks like the spot for action. All right, then. This is where the shovels go. Come from standing close on them. See how they like that? Look at them. Yes, but how about the ones on the far side of the ditch? Full comps of them rolling into the water the rest are using on the bridge. They're keeping somebody. They should be present by now. Now you've got the floodgate open. The water's moving faster. Ah, look at the ants. They can't hold their own against the current now. They're being washed away. Look at them! The floodgates were left open to forestall and they might cross it. I allowed myself to hope that the ants would go on. Pass us by. But when dawn came, the dark blanket was still there, motionless across the ditch. Then we noticed a feverish activity on the other side of the plantation. Here, a grove of camera and trees lined the far end of the ditch. And every tree is formed with the crawling insects. Instead of eating the leaves, they were merrily gnawing through the stem so that a thick green shower fell steadily to the ground. Well, it looks as if the seedings aren't for our friends, eh? Yes. I've always been through a bunch of straws here and get everyone over here except the lookouts on the other side. Then pass out the shovels. You're going to deprive them of a meal? Meals. Aren't they cutting down the leaves for food? I wish they were. What do you mean? If they wanted to get across, they'd have to have rafts. And that's just what they've got. Those leaves are their rafts. When tumbling down the far bank with a thousand, the current drew them away from the bank and each leaf carried several ends. Don't worry. As long as you keep spraying them and shoveling dirt on their rafts, they can't land. But there would be too many. It's true. Look, more leaves in the ditch all the time. Or they'll have a solid carpet to walk across in a minute. They're not so fast, Commissioner. I've still got to pick up my sleep, all of them. The water! The ditch is drying up. Of course it's drying up. That's the plan. Those are the orders I sent to the dam. Are you mad? As soon as it's empty, what's to prevent the answer? Look, the water's way down. It's almost dry. They'll be able to come across the bottom. They'll not make it if the man at the dam carries on his orders. He should have opened the gates again by now. What, to flood the dam? Right. We want a chance to take it. If anything should happen... There comes the water! Now we'll give the crawlers in the ditch a good ride. Out into the river! There! Look at them go! We're successful at first. The violent flow of water raced through the ditch, overwhelming leaves and ants, and sweeping them along. Three times the ditch was emptied, three times the ants raced across the bottom, and three times the water arriving just in time carried them away. But the fourth time, as the water lowered nearly to the bottom of the ditch, we waited in vain for the running water. And then, what got wrong at the dam? The ants, just as the man at the dam lowered the water almost at the bottom, the ants attacked the dam. Before he could open the floodgate, he was almost surrounded. He ran. The ants kept coming. They were across the ditch. He stood motionless, absorbing the news of the defeat without a word. Then he raised his pistol and fired three shots into the air, a signal for all the men to retreat instantly to the second line of defense. The concrete line ditches two miles from the point of invasion. Soon after we arrived there, the natives commenced straggling in, violently. Liningan waited until all of them had gathered, and then he spoke to them. Well, lad, we won the first round and lost the second. But we'll smash the crawlers yet. For the moment, we're safe. After the nasty cold, to feel better quickly, I take wonderful four-way cold tablets. The fast way to relieve cold distress. Right. Cast of all the leading cold tablets proved four-way fastest acting. 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They were dropping shreds of bark and twigs and leaves into the petrol-filled ditches, forming a floating bridge across the surface of the liquid. Liningen stood silently watching this operation and I could see a grudging admiration in his face. And then after several hours, the attack came. Down the ditch they poured thousands of them and across the bridge of twigs, rapidly approaching the inner side. Liningen sat motionless watching them. Liningen for the love of God. Don't just sit there like a statue. They'll be honest in a moment. Let them fill us first. Now, all right. Everyone back from the ditch. First, have me the torch. Now we'll see how our friends like a little heat around us. Fired the ditch to destroy them. They returned to the assault time after time. A slow, sickening horror crept into my mind. I looked quietly at Liningen and as the gasoline sank, he read my gaze and nodded slowly. All right, commissioner. We could hold them all forever if our supply of petrol was unlimited. But it isn't. We've got enough to fill the ditch once more. And then... Ikuno, come back! He's got the ditch. He'll never make it to the river. Ikuno, come back! Merciful God is great. First, keep the men back. We have guns. Don't let anyone else try for the river. Liningen, isn't there any way any way at all? We've got to do something. You're way there must be. Yes. Yes. What is it? What is it? We'll flood the whole plantation. Lord, how? We've got to close the floodgate at the dam. That'll do it. Well, you're mad. The dam's nearly two miles away. Two miles away. Fired, listen to me. Now listen. I'm proud of you. Now there's still chance by shutting the floodgates in the dam and flooding the whole plantation from the river. The moment I'm over the ditch, I'll fire to it. That'll allow time for the flood to wash away the ash. Then all you have to do is wait for me. It's impossible. You can't get to the dam. Let alone get back. That's where you're on, Commissioner. I'll get there and I'll be back. Take care of things while I'm gone, huh? I watched them as they calmly pulled on high leather boots, drew gauntlets over his hands, and stuffed the spaces between bridges and boots, gauntlets and arms with petrol-soaked rags. He shielded his eyes with clothes fitting mosquito goggles and plugged his nostrils and ears with cotton. Then the natives drenched his clothes with petrol. Liningan was ready. And as he stood calmly surveying the course he must take to the dam, when near the ditch ready for the run, I realized this was as it should be. I, Liningan, would meet the ants and defeat them or be defeated by them. Liningan versus the ants. I ran. I ran in long, equal strides with one thought, one sensation in my being I must get through. I dodged all threes in trouble, except for the quick seconds when my nose touched the ground, the ant would have no opportunity to the right. I ran off. I was halfway to the dam before I felt ants under my clothes with you on my face. And it struck them, mechanically, extremely conscious of their bite. The dam drew toward me slowly. Distance left, left. Finally, only a hundred gels away. Seventy. And then I was there. I gripped the ant covered wheel but I hardly had I seized it when a horn of ants flowed over my hands and my arms. I strained slowly the wheel turned and turned more. The plunkage was swinging slowly shut and then it was shut and the water was rising, rising behind the breakwater, closer to the top, closer. And then it was spilling over. The flooding of the plantation had begun and it called the wheel for the first time I realized I was closer from head to foot with a theme. Stimmed the fire, stabbily, when they put into my flesh. Then I could see dimly that wall of flame at the ditch. It was too far away. I could not last half that distance. I stumbled. I felt myself being swarmed over, devoured. I tried to rise. Great weight. Then I remembered six minutes, then nothing but bones. I couldn't let that happen to me. I couldn't die like that. My feet, my feet dragged myself forward for the flame, the ditch, the ring of flame, closer now. It seemed we had waited for hours when all it once was a blazing ring around us and apparition hurtled and fell full length on the ground. Liningan alive with ants, unconscious with glazing eyes and lacerated face. We rushed to him, flipped off his clothes and poured the ants that covered him. His body seemed almost one open wound in one place I could see the white of a bone. As the curtain of flame lowered, I looked out where the blanket of ants had been and saw only a vast expanse of water covering the entire plantation. The ants were gone, drowned and Liningan had won. He lay on his bed, his body swathed from head to foot with bandages, but Liningan was still alive. Everything in order. They're gone. The ants are gone. I told you that I'd come back, even if I am a bit street-lined. And then this aging man grinned, shut his eyes and quietly fell asleep. You've been listening to Liningan and the Ant, a story by Carl Stevenson, written for suspense by Robert Ritt. In a moment the names of our players and the word about next week's story of suspense. Kellogg's All-Bran helps put you back into and is the natural way, the good food way to end constipation caused by lack of bulk in your diet. There's only one All-Bran. Kellogg's All-Bran. It's whole-brand content, gentle-the-way constipation. Supplies your system with the bulk-forming food you need. Kellogg's All-Bran is the only whole-brand cereal to bring you the combination of proved effectiveness, appetizing taste and crispness. It never gets mushy and milk. So get back into and stay into. It's easy with the one and only Kellogg's All-Bran, A-L-B-R-A-N. Safe, reliable, pleasant. Millions enjoy it every day. They know they can count on Kellogg's All-Bran to relieve irregularity. At Leiningan and Martin Blaine as the commissioner. Also included in the cast were Ralph Camargo, Ronald Dawson and Sam Raskin. With an explosive story written by Peter Fernandez. The Dynamite Runner. Another tale well calculated to keep you in. CBS Radio.