 Suspense and the producer of CBS radio is outstanding theater of thrills the master of mystery and adventure William and Robeson among the American Indian tribes none clings more tenaciously to the old ways than the Navajo hurting their sheep across the vast upland plateau of northern Arizona New Mexico they live today much as they have for hundreds of years and perhaps this is for the best for the white man's world has never been too gentle with the Navajo our story is about such a one a Navajo whom the white man taught to kill and then punish because he could not forget his lesson listen listen then as Joseph Cotton stars in Red Cloud Mesa Red Cloud Mesa starring Mr. Joseph Cotton a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense stone fist thrusting into the thin air above the flat plateau there is none higher between Cayente and shiprock so high the clouds catch on it sometimes Red Clouds if the Sun is rising or setting Red Cloud Mesa below the Mesa where the wheel tracks snake across the reservation from Gallup is the Red Cloud training post I'm the trader one white man amongst thousands of Indians lonely sometimes but I like it I think of the Navajos as my people they think of me as their friend that's the way it's always been with us I was born here I grew up here today I nearly died here I've been expecting you four thumbs you're my prisoner captain is that the same gun you kill the guard with your mark how'd you know the radio is full of it how you shot your way out of the psychiatric ward of the Veterans Hospital everything you hear on the radio and reading the newspapers most everything you believe them before you believe a man who served under you or a man that was in your outfit in France in this case yes for an Indian the padded cell there's no place to die it's no place for anyone to die and you won't tell me captain can't do anything else unless you leave I've got no place to leave to captain that's why I come here I counted on you to help me you always have have I yeah yeah in the bows that time but you know when my platoon was cut off for six days you got through with help just in time I couldn't have lasted a minute long I got through a day too late you crazy look captain I'm here I'm alive you got through just in time one maybe two days too late I'm sorry weren't you sorry for I'm alive yes alive he was alive when I got through to him that day in the bow the only one left alive he was giving orders to a platoon of dead men and carrying the orders out himself it must have been like that for his forefathers who defended this final Mesa here against the white man a hundred years ago like them he did not know how to say surrender he did not notice that his mind had deserted the action and left his body all alone defending the position give me that gun you go hide I don't know yet give me the gun and unlocked the door no I won't let them take an order corporal you're back in my outfit now I take all the responsibility and I give all the orders give me your gun yes sir thank you now open the door yes captain have you heard the news mr. Bowman what news rabbit sarkings that cycle from window rock broke out he killed a man ditched his car in the cheer wheelie they figure he's headed this way I heard we better be ready we are ready rabbit sarkings I want you to meet one of us one of us one of us I want you to meet rabbit sarkings one of us you're a rabbit if he is headed this way mr. Bowman I could begin to put my knowledge into motion rabbit sarkings is referring to the correspondence course he is taking to learn to be an FBI man I am also taking a course in bodybuilding pedicure and diesel engines why because I don't want to be a dumb Indian all my life I want to have a white man's diploma in something I think you're crazy would you care to look at my latest men wanted bullet no this truck is coming not a diesel gasoline driven truck I can tell by the sound looks like old man McGurray's pickup captain maybe you'd better let rabbit sarkings show you is FBI lesson one of us yes sir come then because you are mr. Bowman's friend I will show you the secret place where I hide my white man's knowledge from the dumb Indians I still think you'll go out the back way yes sir was old man McGurray's pickup all right but it carried a passenger a passenger I was expecting state trooper Arturo three years well as there's George hi Arturo what's new oh I'm going to Indian trouble me a pack of cigarettes in a candy bar yeah no where you're hiding the Indian that's why I pay my taxes to pay you to find out where they hide the Mexico don't collect enough taxes for that we need your help don't ask me any questions Arturo just don't ask me any questions okay George just don't make me look bad that's all I gotta take a look around I gotta make a report don't forget I got a citizen outside old man McGurray I gotta go through the motions I'll send yellow salt for someone to show you around what can yellow salt do it you don't understand these people Arturo yellow salt is an elder so he squats in the trading post porch all day while his wife hurts the sheep it is the privilege of an elder I wish I knew their secret maybe I could get an honest day's work out of my wife I'll be right back yeah I tell you a little salt yeah I tell you something the ending of the day find you well yellow salt well enough but I have been asking myself a question what is the question brother perhaps I can help find an answer it is this son see what is the cop doing here he's perfectly safe he's got to make a report we don't want to make him look bad son see this presents another question what is it he doesn't want to look bad about that psycho boy four thumbs he escaped and killed a man the cop has orders to look for it they want to put him back in a padded cell we then really son see what can I do not to help a really not to help go find me a boy named one of us who is with rabbit stalking so he can show this office around so this officer can make out a report and not look so bad that they will send someone else who is thinking in terms of heroic actions or worse someone who is sincere I should say then I will do my very best not to help since this officer is not sincere you know where rabbit stockings hides his white man's lessons everybody knows in that little cave where the petrified tree rolled off the edge of black canyon everybody knows even so only rabbit stockings does not know that everybody knows so he still has his secret my thanks go with you brother it is an honor to be able not to help someone will be here to show you around a few minutes at your own thanks George I just don't want to look like you know I just don't want to look bad you won't I always get the feeling these Indians of yours don't trust me they don't trust sincere people are you sincere at your own I don't get the Navajos feel that their nation has been cheated out of almost everything they ever owned by sincere people you know they have a point there looks like you don't trust them what do you mean oh come you got this car mine leading against the showcase watch out it's loaded why I don't know really I lived with that gun from Red Beach to the Rhine it sort of became a part of me I feel better having it around feel better George one more sincere room of the trading post Ben Yatsy the silver Smith was singing as he hammered away at a turquoise-studded gato and a couple of women wandered into the store carrying their babies strapped on cradleboards silently they squatted never taking their eyes from Arturo Trujillo the uniformed symbol of white man's authority a little later old man torn face slipped in without a word his toothless mouth twisted into a permanent grin by the long ago kick of a forgotten pony and a couple of dirty face kids with scraggly uncombed hair they sat there all of them wordless make me nervous George tell him to get up they belong you Arturo you don't you're making me look bad in front of them George what do you care just so you don't look bad in front of the white man in gallup all right short all right he turned his back on his silent audience stamped out a cigarette began to build a pyramid with the candy bars I'd given him for his wife there was no sound now because silent inside the storeroom silent his death outside silence to save for the Albuquerque plain far off and closer a fly buzzing on the screen door the pyramid was finished all but the capstone Arturo carefully raised to the final candy what's a big idea you made me record you crazy what did you say I said you're crazy want to make something of it I was just having some fun Arturo this is one of us he'll show you around oh don't bother I guess I've been here long enough to make out a report old man McGurray is getting impatient anything you say Arturo and don't forget what you promised I won't art your own what did you promise I see you double cross me no no one of us I promised him that you would not get caught by somebody else in his territory and that you would always be a good soldier not cause any more trouble so that you would not die in a padded cell why did you send for me to show him around if you showed him around and he could not find you hiding could he no captain you will go back now to rabbit stockings cave you will stay there until it is safe for you to take a hogan yes captain George I forgot to say crazy Indian put down that gun George I only came back for the candy good attention I straight ahead state trooper Trujillo lay in the doorway one boot holding the screen a job they very still the buzzing fly eagerly circle the trickle of blood that oozed across the floor the chant began the chant of the enemy way the chant which would protect the people from the ghost of this father I think you and I had better go up on the mesa corporal yes captain yes big pardon sir but I thought I was to go back to the cave a new situation has developed since then it is necessary to change the orders yes sir board had stretched away to the limitless yellow horizon as we started up the narrow trail along the face of the mason we climbed silently steadily 10 15 minutes upward across the sheer face of the cliff four thumbs holding the proper combat patrol distance 10 yards behind steadily up always up toward the gathering clouds now orange with the dying sun yes corporal I forgot I turn slowly wreck trying to look like a CEO in my cow high jacket and Levi's yes he still had the gun a section 8 psycho who was also a combat infantryman still had the gun and still held his prescribed position 10 yards behind me well I should hope so corporal a man isn't much good on patrol without a gun yes trail was narrow now as it approached the switchback 600 feet up the sheer cliff walls in the desert floor and above the clouds in the mason's fist all orange not deep orange yes corporal ever hear of an officer being shot in the back by one of his own men oh you hear stories like that from time to time back of the lines upfront well I suppose it depends on what kind of a leader a man is yes captain we were clamoring over boulders now the great rocks that poor thousands ancestors had rolled down from the Mesa top thinking to keep the white man away forever they almost did but defending this final foot the top of this try Mesa 200 feet above us in the clouds they ran out of water no one quit and then we were at the switchback and a moment later we were in the cloud a red cloud now with a misty blood of the day's death surrounded us cold damp the ghost stuff of the ancient warriors whose bones still lay above us fire corporal I stopped and leaned back against the cliff wall the trail was only a foot wide here out beyond and below the red mist I waited and only knew is coming by the sound of his falls until it once he materialized beside me he leaned back to careful to keep the carbide on his right side the side away from me I heard plunder stories like that overseas captain oh I dare say it's happened more than once and a leader takes a chance that's one of the risks of leadership in combat when a man's head races with blood when it's kill or be killed sure it could happen but but what when a soldier comes back out of the lines when a soldier is back in the rear area and save and begins to kill his own outfit and there's nothing anyone can do to help him help that's what I said no longer any help for him and it's up to that soldier himself if he isn't crazy to figure out a way of saving the outfit his destroy if he isn't crazy yes we're cut off completely up here corporal you can do anything you want for the rest of the outfit you've got the gun yes captain first time I never saw your carbine leaning against the counter Sunsea and you never will again rabbit sarkings I would expect a dumb Indian to bury a man's weapon with him but not a white man that was a valuable gun my people believe a man is more valuable and we respect your ancient customs thank you and thank your people must have been quite a climb carrying his body all the way to the top of the mesa that's where he belonged up there with the other warriors those old people cut off up there without water they must have gone crazy before they died probably but they stuck it out when they could have quit yes they did and he was their son and Robeson's production of red cloud mesa adapted by mr. Robeson from a story by William Eastlake supporting Joseph Cotton in tonight's story where Jane Novello Vic Perron Lawrence Dobkin and Howard McNear listen listen again next week when we return with mr. Dennis Day starring in like man somebody dig me another tale well calculated to keep you in suspense