 Tired of the everyday routine? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape! Escape! Designed for you from the four walls of today For a half hour of high adventure Tonight we escape to a lonely lighthouse Off the steaming jungle coast of French Guiana And a nightmare world of terror and violence As George Tuduz describes it in his hair-raising tale Three skeleton key Picture this place A grey tapering cylinder Welded by iron rods and concrete to the key itself A bare black rock 150 feet long, maybe 40 wide That's at low tide At high tide, just the light Rising 110 feet straight up out of the ocean And all about it The churning water Grey-green, scum-dappled Warm as soup And swarming with gigantic bat-like devilfish Great violet schools of Portuguese maniwar And, yes, sharks The big ones The 15-footers And as if this wasn't enough There was a hot, dank, rotten-smelling wind That came at us day and night off the jungle swamps of the mainland A wind that smelled like death Set in the base of the light Was a watertight bronze door And in you went Yes, up and up And round and round Passed the tanks of oil And the coils of rope Cases of wicks Racks of lanterns Sacks of spuds And cartons and cans And up and up and up Over the light-store room Was the food-store room And over the food-store room Was the bunk room Where the three of us slept And over the bunk room Was the living and cooking room And over the living and cooking room Was the light She was a beauty Balanced like a ballerina On the glistening steel axle of her rotary mechanism At night You'd lie there on the stone deck of the gallery With the light revolving smoothly and quietly over your head Easing her bright white eye 360 degrees around the horizon You'd lie there watching to see that the feeders kept working That everything ran right It wouldn't be bad The other two fellows snoring in their sacks two levels down You'd smoke your pipe to kill the stink of the wind And it wouldn't be bad About those other two Louis and Auguste What a pair Louis, he was head man Was a big fellow from the Basque country Black beard, little hard black eyes And a pair of arms that I tell you those arms were as big around as my legs Yes, head man he was And what word he let go was law Silent fellow and Although I spent my first two weeks trying to strike up a real conversation The most I could ever get out of him was I took up this profession because I don't like people They talk too much It's quiet work like tending Let's keep it that way You're getting to be as bad as Auguste I thought maybe for once they'd send me somebody who would keep this mouth And when he accused me of becoming like Auguste I quieted down Because Auguste was the talkingest man I've ever met The talkingest and the ugliest He was hunchbacked, stood four feet high, had red hair and big blue eyes It seems he'd been an actor in Paris Over 200 different productions, dear boy, at the Grand Guignol Oh, but it was monstrous, horrible The way we used to scare the audience I was hated Yes, yes, they used to throw things and his and bare their teeth That may finally have got too bad I couldn't stand it any longer I gave up the theatre My nerves, you understand Yes, gave it up completely I really did, I couldn't stand it It all started one morning at 2.30 I was on watch Bying on the cool stone deck Pulling on my pipe Staring out at the blackness The phosphorescent comers and the big yellow stars When, out of the corner of my eye I noticed something show up for a second Something the light had touched Far off I waited for her to come around again And when she did There it was A three master, a big one About a half mile off And coming down out of the north north west Coming straight for us You must understand, our light was where it was For a very good reason Dangerous submerged reefs surrounded us And ships kept clear But this one, this sailing vessel Was coming straight on I went over to the gallery door And yelled down I had the glasses out now I couldn't read her name But I could see her quite plainly All sail set The foam creaming away under her bow Her beautiful lines A dutch ship I guessed her But why didn't she turn Every time it passed Our light hit her with a glare of day Ship, where? North north west The light will touch her in a moment Can't she see us? Look at her She just keeps coming on The square heads What is it? What is it? Watch, north north west I know, I know what it is The Dutchman, the flying Dutchman We did a play about her Oh, what a performance You ghastly galleon Hagrid and curse driven Must turn Oh, shut up! Will you? Yeah, she's laughing Yes It's a sloppy way to come about She's derelict, that's it Derelict Abandoned Crew left there for some reason or another But instead of sinking She's gone on running before every wind She'll not run long Not with these reefs to break her up Beautiful ships Now, why would men leave a beautiful ship like that? Didn't ram us Although we all expected it But as we waited for the crash She left again Caught some odd gust and went about We watched her the rest of those black hours Healing and rocking Pushed and pulled by every stray wind Every freak current Watched her until the dawn came Till the sea turned from black To pearly gray And on she came again Heading for us We all had our glasses trained on her now August, you can kill the light Right, chief She doesn't look so good by daylight Think she'll ground this time? I say, do you think she'll ground this time? This is impossible Absolutely impossible What? Here, take my glasses They're better than yours All right What is it, your... He had to focus And then My breath froze in my throat The decks were swarming With a dark brown carpet That looked like a gigantic fungus But undulating And on the masts and yards The guys and all Were hundreds No thousands No men I don't know An inestimable number Of tremendous Rats See them? Yes I see them Now we know why she's derelict Yes, now we know What are you two doing? Here, give me a look Yes, give him the glasses Take a good look, chatterbox Give you something to talk about She's still heading for us Yes If she's going to turn, she'd better turn soon Suppose she doesn't You mean suppose she piles up on the key? It's low tide Yes, yes it is Well, where's all the conversation, August? Here, you want the glasses again? You want another look? No, no She's still coming on Go away! Go away! Turn, will you? Turn, I say! I pray you turn The rats Look On the water Like a carpet They're swimming Sure, they're swimming Those are ship rats But they're swimming for the rocks The door below It's open And down we went Racing down the stone stairs Taking them three in four at a time Scared You bet we were scared August, you get the windows Maybe they can climb We don't know Right, Chief But hurry, hurry You see them? No Oh yes I do Up at the other end of the rock Look at them Millions They smell us If they come Or close the door I can't It's stuck Here, let me Move Made it Holy, that was close One got him Look there Watch it, he's Kicked him What a brute He was as big as a Tomcat Bigger And his eyes were wild and red His teeth long and sharp and yellow He went for us Starving ravenous And we fought him Fought that one rat all over the room It was Oh, believe me, I don't exaggerate It was like fighting a panther I got him We'd better get him off As we ran up the winding staircase We passed the tiny windows of the various levels And at every one Was a thick, wriggling, screaming Curtain of brown fur I was ahead of Louis And I dreaded each successive level Suppose they had found a way in Look at them Oh, look at them It's a nightmare Will you look at them? The fur of the gallery was thick and fetid With a stink of them The light was dim, brown Filtered through the crawling mass That swarmed over the glass All about us We couldn't see the sky Nothing, nothing but them Their red eyes, their claws Their wriggling hairy snouts And their teeth The rats They screamed and howled And threw themselves against the glass They were starving And we three We stood Very quietly Oh, very, very quietly In the center of the glass room Under our beautiful light And we waited What can we do? What can we do to you? Take it easy Take it easy I can't Just can't Won't do any good It won't do any good to stand here and shake That's right Go away Go away, do you hear me? Go away this instant They won't go away Not until Finish it, Chief Not until What? Not until they've been fed You can take just so much horror And then you get used to it And they were interesting to watch, you know They couldn't understand the glass They could see us And they could rush at us But that thin invisible barrier Held them off, stopped them From time to time We caught a glimpse of the rocks below More rats down there Swarming brown velvet In that bright tropical sunlight And then the tide began to rise If only it had drowned some of them Ships rats don't drown No, sir You can't drown one of them They're all climbing up the tower This bunch around us is getting thicker Say, what's the time? Quarter six You've got first watch, Sean All right Wake me at ten I will Come along, August It was getting dark One side of the room was lit a soft filtered red Sunset through the rats Oh, very pretty I set the wicks, checked my fuel Then lit the lamp It caught them Lit them in their gigantic wriggling web Of pale hairless bellies Twitching red tails, bright eyes And then I started the rotary motor The light drove them mad As she swung slowly and smoothly about She blinded them in the fierce stabbing Bar of light Moving continually about Ever turning, ever touching Ever moving, around and around And they twitching and shuttering Eyes flaming when they were struck by the light The bright light moving And behind, on the dark side of the room So close, so close I dared not turn my back But you can't help turning your back When you're in a room made of glass On the dark side of the room You couldn't see them But only their eyes Thousands of points of blank red light Blinking and twinkling Like the stars of hell They relieved me at ten But I didn't get much sleep that night And when I came up into the gallery Early the next morning There stood August His back to me He was bowing to the rats Waving his arms and making a speech Dear audience, I am going to play Once again that magnificent role Which made me the toast of the Paris Theatre Play Lottie, the evil genius of the medieval underworld I am he who did guide the dark soul He kept turning I stood staring at him, horror struck But he didn't notice me The man had gone mad He kept turning, telling his stories To all the rats, leaving no one out August! August! Take a seat on the aisle, dear patrons Stop it, stop it Do you dare the bloodstained monster Was my father in equity He went on bowing and scraping to the rats His big blue eyes, rolling and winking His wild red hair, waving about him I grabbed him by the arms and He cracked his face He looked at me like a child And then his face screwed up He looked as though he were about to cry Go below, go on Oh, very well then Later, my dear audience, later Imagine today He was crazy But I guess we all were A few hours later, he came back up And caught Louis and me teasing the rats Yes, sounds horrible It was fun We would get right up against the glass And make faces at them It drove them crazy They would scratch away, trying to get at our eyes Louis was even cuter about it He'd pull a piece of red out of his pocket And press it against the glass The rats would scramble into a solid ball Biting each other, clustering like grapes From time to time, a whole knot of them Would slip and fall 110 feet to the surf below Look at the sharks They're eating them Those sharks are our friends Ah, here, here I'll get another bunch together Here, my beauties Ah, that's it Fire up, kill each other Ah, there we go August joined in, too Very ingenious August He learned that if he spready-goed himself Against the glass, they'd bunch And bundle against his figure Then he'd leap back Look, my portrait in rats It went on all day And then, I was lying in bed It was about midnight I was very tired and I was just Beginning to fall off to sleep When I became conscious of a new sound I couldn't figure it at first I got up, lit the lamp and went to the window Even as I looked out I saw one of the pains begin to sag in They had eaten the wood away Louis, come quick What? What is it? They found a way in I held the glass with my hand Now they were all going crazy I'm not sure if the success of his maneuver Were all nibbling away at the wood Louis ran below and then returned With a large sheet of tin We spread it against the window And hammered it into place Even as we did so We felt the heavy bodies Thudding against the other side As the window gave way That ought to hold If it doesn't, we're done for Rats can't eat tin No, they can't But what is it? Whoa, the storeroom window They're in They're swarming up the stairs Drop the trap Two of them got in Let's go after them We didn't have to go after them They came at us I leaped to one side and grabbed a marlin spike Swung and smashed one in midair I quarreled to see Louis with the other It had ripped his hand open and the blood was pouring out He held his hand aloft and kicked at the snarling rat I stepped and swung and got him He held my hand He got my hand That's both of them, Louis I'll get you something to tie that up Blood! Look at it, my blood, I'm bleeding Don't worry about it, Louis Here I'll wind this kerchief around it It'll be okay There, that's not bad Just the flesh And then I became conscious Of a new sound Who are gnawing their way through the wooden trap door I watched the wood pass away And even as I did It began to give way And a bristling whiskery nose showed through Louis! We've got to go up! The next level was the living quarters and kitchen I slammed the trap there But it too was wood Blood What are we going to do? I don't know They'll be through this one in a minute The gallery The trap door and the gallery is metal Good! Come on! We made it We crossed the trap door Exhausted While below us the rats took over the entire tower I could hear them howling and fighting over our food supply Our water, our leather And all about us The others screamed and glared in at us Swayed in a tangled mass Hypnotized by the ever-turning light By morning Air in the little room was horrible Until now, we'd been getting air from the tower below Now that was sealed off And so was all our food and water We lay exhausted, panting Waiting, waiting And the hours crawled on I was almost dozing from fatigue When I saw a sight that brought me too fast Would you like to come in, my beauties? Would you? I hold the powers of life and death And I can let you in here now August was standing by the glass And in one hand he held a big wrench He was tapping the glass gently Not quite hard enough to break it I eased myself to my feet And slowly, very slowly Tiptoed toward him All I had to do was tap just a little harder I found a coil of wire in the tool kit And I trust him up Fastened him to a stanchion in the center of the room Louis was of no help He lay on his side looking at his bloody hand Weak and sick as a baby So there I was A lunatic and a coward for company And all about watching our little drama The rats Day dragged by The supply boat wasn't you for another twelve days I don't know what they could have done if they had come And we had only one way of summoning them That was to shoot off distress rockets But the rockets were four floors below And even if they'd been right there in the gallery I couldn't have opened a window to fire them I tended the light But its flame was devouring our oxygen The following day we lay thirst tormented starving Waiting And the following night I again tended the light But the small supply of spare wicking we kept in a gallery Had become exhausted And quite suddenly at about midnight The light went out There was nothing I could do Wicks were stored three levels below Nothing I could do, nothing Time to time I'd strike a match to see the clock And when I did It lit up the million red eyes about us All about Watching Waiting Below it had grown quiet They'd cleaned us out and now they too Were waiting All waiting Then The rats quite suddenly Were silent Then I saw the sky and the stars The rats were gone I went to the glass Out there on the water A small freighter, a banana boat Showing a few lights Came softly and innocently towards us Our light was out They didn't know I wanted to open the windows To call out to them, to warn them somehow But I was afraid What if the rats were hiding from me Tricking me So I waited She grounded very softly on a wreath Not two hundred yards from the key Grounded so gently that the man playing the cornet Was he a passenger, crewman, off-watch Didn't even stop playing They tried washing her back off I could have told them to save their fuel The tide was rising, would have floated her free And I waited That's all That's the story The sun came up and there wasn't a rat on the whole key Every last one of that terrible army had left us Gone back to sea on their new ship August In St. Asylum He never recovered They took him into Cayenne Where he died of blood poisoning from his bite Yes, that's the whole of it And if you'll excuse me now I must go set my traps No, no, mouse traps No rats in this lighthouse I should say not Life in the lights isn't bad But sometimes When I see a strange vessel approaching I get a little nervous Sure Somewhere on the seas There's a little banana boat Without a crew That is, without a human crew Escape is produced and directed by William N. Robson Tonight we have presented Three Skeleton Key by George Tuduz Adapted for radio by James Poe Produced in the cast were Elliott Reed as Jean Bill Conrad as Louis and Harry Bartel as August Special music was arranged and conducted by Adele Castillo Next week You were standing on the deck of a ship headed on an illegal mission to Central America Before you, holding a gun in your stomach Is a desperate man who has just given you the choice between being killed and becoming a murderer yourself Next week we escape with John and Gwen Bagney's exciting tale of a murderous trio of gun runners in Central America, Maracas Goodbye then until the same time next week when once again we offer you escape Stay tuned now for Life with Luigi which follows over most of these CBS stations This is CBS The Columbia Broadcasting System