 Tired out from a springhouse cleaning find your life uninteresting want to get away from it all we offer you escape You are drifting on the burning glassy surface of a tropical sea Trapped on a flimsy raft with three murderous companions from whom you cannot escape Escape designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half hour of high adventure tonight At your request We bring back one of our most popular escape stories We take you to numia in the South Pacific a French penal colony as notorious as Devil's Island and We invite you to escape from numia in John Russell's the fourth man The raft stood to open sea a Mat of pandanus leaves served for its sale and a paddle of wood for its helm Its flooring was woven of reeds and bamboo sticks and rested on triple rows of bladders It was light elastic fit to ride any weather and it carried four men Three of them sat huddled together at the far end Their bodies were blackened with dried blood the hair upon them was long and matted They wore only the rags of convicts blue canvas uniforms on wrists and ankle. They carried their muck The dark and wrinkled stain of the manacles There was the boys doctor leader man of the world murderer friends the thing is done and Fennero forger ladies man weakling college. Yes We got away. All right and The one known as the parrot thief and cutthroat so far so good gentlemen by way of celebration May I offer you? Cigarette cigarettes. Oh doctor. You're a marvel of magician. Look at them quite and fresh as though They just came from the package. How did you do it every six months? They are about 75 escapes from numia and not more than one succeeds ours would be that one I knew and so three weeks ago I bribed the night guard for these very cigarettes so that we might sit here my friends as we are doing and celebrate Hey, I want a light. Yes light for the parrot. Oh Doctor is a wonder. He thinks of everything. He gives us cigarettes matches and now freedom Wait, wait till you've got your two feet on a pavement again. That would be the time to talk about freedom Hmm To where starched collars again to stroll with a girl clean and fresh from her bath Down the plus to the concord the rudor ivy Lee suppose suppose we get a storm It's not the season of storms just the same suppose we get a storm Farrakay my friend You must not be so impatient. We were convicts back there Festering an oblivion and now we stand on the rosy threshold of the big round world again We are man raised from the dead suppose we get a storm You you have got a gift of speech, but but where's the ship that was going to meet us here? This is the day as agreed. It will meet us this wind will blow us to China if we keep on we can't lie any closer to shore There's a government launch at Torion and I doubt of the native trackers have given up Careful parrot. They will eat you yet. I I've heard about that Is it true doctor that the natives keep all the runways they can capture to fatten on them? They prefer the reward Still I doubt if they've entirely lost the habit of cannibalism Yes piece by piece parrot first they would sample you then they will make a stew of your brains. They won't miss a thing Shut up fennel The filthy brutes, you know I forgot We have one of them with us The fourth man was steering the raft He sat crouched in the stern his body glistening with spray His huge dark hands held the steering paddle He was motionless like an idol His eyes fixed on the course ahead The fourth man on the raft My friends You are looking at a kanaka He will see nothing superior No line of beauty to redeem the low angle of the forehead. They'd not be joints of the body Nature has stamped him with the mark of inferiority And he has said the final seal himself with that twist of bark about his middle That prong of pig ivory is through his nose Nonetheless, he is a man and there is a price on our heads He could be taking us where he lied calm yourself in a row There is a very simple animal an infant really does that mean he could not double cross us it does He's bound by his duty. I made my bargain with his chief up the river And this one is sent to deliver us on board our ship as the only interest he has in us And he will do it. He will But it's the nature of the native I don't trust him not for a minute. Yeah brute the animal You it's you i'm talking about you filthy brute parrots Save your breath parrots He speaks no language only a few noises a few signs. I don't feel right on the same raft with that Go on burn yourself up in the sun Me I will just stretch out a little under these mats. Yes We should all sleep a little and serve ourselves When we awake She'll be there the ship Our pretty little topsoil schooner Our mast standing out against the sky And we'll be on our way to frown Sleep my friend The two younger convicts do is down to the heat of the day But not dr. Du Boers He stood once again to sweep the skyline under his shaded hand His plan had been so careful so precise He had counted absolutely on meeting the ship the small schooner One of those flitting half piratical traders of the cobra islands that can be hired like calves in a dark street for any sinister enterprise But there was no ship And there was no crossroads Where one might sit and wait Good morning, doctor. It's afternoon penero. Oh, yes. Yes I slept like a corpse and where's the ship doctor. It was going to be there when we awoke Oh, i'm thirsty. I'm dying of thirst. So be all penero Where is the flask? I'm roasted in the sun. You'll have to roast some more. This screw is put on rations. What are you talking about? Where is that water? I have it here So you have Do you think it's yours? It's ours parrot I want a drink think a little parrot. We have to guard our supplies like reasonable men. We don't know how long we may be floating here So that's how you talk now. You don't know how long but you were sure enough when we started I am still sure the ship will come She cannot stay for us in one spot. She will be cruising to a front until she intercepts us We must wait. Ah, that's good. Good. Wait wait in the meantime. What? Fry here in this heat our tongues hanging out while you deal us out drop by drop perhaps The man does not live who can feed me with a spoon Laugh your scum But you're in this too with this this captain who thinks of everything and still puts to sea without provisions Go on laugh again laugh. I wasn't laughing parrot It's true A bad piece of work for a captain of runways unless you would die very speedily. We must guard our water and whose fault is it mine? I did it What then? Here we are and here we must stay We can only do our best with what we have All right, doctor Do your best Give me a drink. You may have your share of course I'll be warned when it is gone. Don't come to us to feneru and me. Oh, what's fair is fair. I drink A thimble fool one thimble This way we should have enough for three days Perhaps more with equal shares among the three of us. That's right There are only three of us Who are you thinking of him feneru for that pilot? He looks somewhat like us doesn't he But his body has never known clothing His feet shoes his heart has never known the swelling that comes with feelings of love for beauty His mind has never known a single thought Look at those three gentlemen you feneru a forger you parrot a thief I the liberals of paris and marseille and murderer And yet we are civilized men And this is a savage animal Our provisions are for men only The three men have walked to their second day on the raft They looked and saw the far round horizon And the empty desert of the sea And their own long shadows that slipped slowly before them over its smooth slow heaving The land had sunk away from them in the night The trap had been sprung As the savage sun kindled upon them with the power of a burning glass a calm fell An absolute calm The air hung waited The sea heaved and fell in polished undulations And the sun shone Driving in under their eyelids like white hot splinters They crawled to the shelter of their mats gasping shriveling And the water the world of water was slack And thick as oil Oh, my dear How lonely it is That's your bird Yes, parrot Look around you What do you mean? Bird, look around What do you see? I see water, parrot The horizon, nothing else What? Don't you see a sheep? A pretty little schooner? Those were your words Where is it? Why didn't you see it? It will come Will it come for just to be dead when it comes? Doctor, you say that you count on your friends But suppose they leave you to rot here Leave parrot and me to rot here That would be a joke, eh, doctor? To wait for a ship That will never come It will come My friends will not fail me But why? How do you know? How can you be so sure? There is a safety vault in Paris Full of papers to be opened at my death Those papers contain confessions No, gentlemen, my friends will not fail me Parrot A moment ago you asked what I saw Well? There was something I neglected What was that? I see a Kanaka on this raft with us He does not join us, he does not look at us He sits on his heels in the way of the native With his arms hocking his knees He sits at the stern, motionless, under this shattering sun Gazing out into vacancy Whenever I raise my eyes I see nothing else Only this Kanaka And he seems to be enjoying himself quite well I was thinking so myself Cannibal, the savage He does not seem to suffer What's going on in his brain? What does he dream there? He looks at us as though he hates us With a dirty rat Maybe he's waiting for us to die Maybe he's waiting for the reward At least he wouldn't starve on the way home And he could deliver us Piece by piece How does he do it? Has he not any feelings? I'd be wondering about that It may be that his fibres are tough Or his nerves are strong enough But we have had water and he has not And yet see his skin It's fresh and moist And his belly round as a melon Don't tell me this savage is thirsty Is there any way he could steal our supplies? Certainly not Suppose he has his own supplies hidden Why? We should search the raft Look, look Look under the mattress I've heard him this morning Look under the mattress Look under the mattress Did you hear him? No, nothing No, then? Doctor Okay, sir Oh, really Oh, I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry No No, you were mistaken He is nothing hidden You're wrong about him, doctor When you say he has no understanding There is one thing he knows And knows well Pain Help! Not hidden Help! No, no, no Not so much for pain No, no, no There's come That will teach you Not so cheap below are you Not so happy with your lurk That will make you feel A higher race trembles the savage With or without cause And that is natural And the savage creeps away into his place With his hurts and his wrongs It makes no sign and strikes no blow And that is natural, too Yes, that is all very well, doctor But we still must have our pilot Come back, my friends, back onto the mats The glare of the sun is not so bad there So the days dragged by The second and the third And now it was the fourth day And still there was no breeze And still there was no ship Yes, what do you stare at? It's him, savage Look at him And look at us We are dying Our powers are ebbing And him, snake and wild, brutish He's yet to give the slightest sign of complaint or weakness Yes, it's true Nighty stretches out and sleeps Those long hours when we wrestle and fight with despair He sleeps like a child Many the morning he resumes his place aft On change Fixed, a growing wonder Doctor, is this a man or a fiend? A man is a man A miracle He's a man and a very poor and wretched example of a man You will find no lawyer type anywhere Look at his cranial angle The high ears, the heavy bones of his skull He's scarcely above an ape Then what? He has a secret Secret? But we see him Every move he makes, every minute What chance is he for a secret? How absurd Here are we three Children of the century Products of civilization And here is this man who belongs before the Stone Age In a set trial of fitness, of wits, of resources Is he to win? It's absurd What kind of secret? I can't say Perhaps a method of breathing some strange posture he uses to cheat the sensations of the body Such things are known among primitive peoples Known and jealously guarded Like the properties of certain drugs The uses of hypnotism Who knows? We can We can find out To ask him useless He will not tell Why should he? We scorn him Give him no share with us We abuse him And so he falls back on his own experience He remains silent as he always has been As he always will be He never tells the secrets They're the means by which he is survived From the depths of time By which he may yet survive in all our wisdom and dust There are a number of ways of learning secrets I know them over and out But it would be useless He could stand any torture you might invent You saw how he behaved before It's another way Talk, talk I'm tired of all this talk Till he meant to aim over Let's be rid of the thing We gain nothing Then what do you want? To beat him That's what I want To beat him at the game For our own sakes For our own racial pride We must Do outlast him To prove us of his masters By better brain By better organization control Watch him Watch him my friends So that we may trap him So that we may find him out And defeat him in the end Watch I will watch all right You old wing bag I am not sleeping anymore To leave you alone with that bottle Oh, the bottle Oh, the bottle I-I've been meaning to discuss our rations with you Have you? We are running very short I'm afraid we must all take a cut again And what are we down to now, doctor? Alpha thimble fool No We must keep our wits I say no Then we'll put it to a vote You say no, I say yes Venero Yes, yes, yes, anything But give me mine now Then it's alpha thimble fool Mr. Venero Your share, Venero More, more, or I'll die More No more today You must, you must Oh, doctor No more today Look, I ship, I ship Where, where is it? Where is it? The bottle, doctor What? Here's the bottle He drank it Look at him You killed him with that oar What about the bottle? In this sumlet You caught him just in time And you caught the bottle Just in time It seems I did And there's no ship There will be no ship We are done Because of you and your dirty promises that brought us here Doctor Lyle Fool Don't come any closer And if you want this flask broken over your head No I would not want that Oh, Barrett I just think Why should you and I fight? We can see this travel through and we in yet This weather can't last forever Besides, now here will be only two of us to divide the water Yes Yes That is true, is it not Feneru kindly lives off his share And inheritance All right I'll take mine now My share now If you please Later we shall see So be it You share Many thanks And now Feneru will share To me, please As you say And now And now they're a good doctor Three That's enough, Barrett No, Doctor It is not enough Now I will take your rest Stop, Barrett Stop, Barrett Your arm I will kill you if you don't Thank you You see I have manners, haven't I? And I have wisdom too Because I have fooled a very wise man I toast to you, Doctor The best man wins This was a very bright idea of yours The best The best man wins, Barrett You forgot I am a doctor, didn't you? The water you would kill for has killed you A man cannot go without water for four days Then drink his fill and still live Come on, Barrett Gasp out your worthless life Well, I laugh The best man always wins, Barrett The best man always wins Sir, the best man wins Yes, Doctor Feneru Forgot my knife, didn't you? Forgot me lying at your feet While you divided my share of the water Gave me a fortune, didn't you? But I, Feneru, will outlast the two of you Feneru The best man always wins Feneru You fool The water Rodney The longboat's back, Captain The raft was here all the time, not ten miles away from us Oh, that com, such a misfortune Well, where are they, the passengers? We're too late We're all dead Will you mind your business? But one is stabbed to death, another is skull-crushed The other is fried by the sun All dead Well, then, all the better Well, of course, nothing to feed But how... Hogsheads, my friend, the hogsheads in the after-hold Filled them nicely with brine And there we are I don't... I don't understand You're dull, Mato, very dull The gentleman's passage is all paid before we left Sydney I contracted to bring back three escaped convicts Well, I'll bring them back and pickle So if you'll go back, Mato, and bring them aboard for the trip, I'll be much obliged Very well Well, there's a fourth man on the raft, Captain A Kanaka, still alive What do we do with him? A Kanaka? No word in my contract, but any Kanakas? Leave him there After all, he's only a savage And so Dr. Dubose and Fennerot and the Perth went aboard for the long trip to their beloved Paris Their bodies pitching and rolling gently in the huge vats of brine On the raft, the fourth man raised his head slightly The fourth man raised his head slightly as a wind freshened from the west He watched until the schooner turned, shaping a way for Australia And disappeared over the brim of the horizon Then he turned his raft, spread his sail of pandanus leaves And headed the raft eastward, back toward New Caledonia Back toward home Feeling somewhat dry after his exertion The native plucked a hollow reed at random from the rushes on his raft Slowly, lazily, he stretched himself at full length in his accustomed place of the stern He thrust the reed down into one of the bladders underneath the raft And drank his fill of sweet water He had a dozen such storage bladders remaining Built into the float sedentibles above the waterline Quite enough to last him safely home again Escape is produced and directed by Norman McDonnell And tonight brought to you the fourth man by John Russell Adapted for radio by Irving Ravitch And featuring Barry Kroger as the doctor Joseph Kearns as Fenneru Jay Novello as Perot Lou Merrill as the captain Byron Kane as Mortot And Eric Rolf as the narrator Music is conceived by Sy Fuhrer and conducted by Wilbur Hatch Next week You are groping in the dark of an African night Trapped on a dock above a crocodile infested river Fighting for your life against a ruthless giant From whom you must escape Next week we escape with Robert Simpson's tent story John Jock Todd Good night then until the same time next week When once again we offer you escape This is CBS The Columbia Broadcasting System