 And now, another tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. Martin Storm's great story, a shipment of mute fate. I stopped on the wharf at La Guira and I looked up the gang plank toward the line of chancee, standing there quietly at her moorings. The day was warm under a bright man as a whale in the sun, and the harbor beyond the ship lay drowsy and silent. But all at once, in the midst of those peaceful surrounds, a cold chill gripped me, and I shivered with sudden dread, dread of the thing I was about to do. But too much had happened to turn back now. I'd gone too far to stop. I set the box down on the edge of the port, placed it carefully so as to be in plain sight and within gunshot of the captain's bridge. Then I turned and started up the gang plank. I knew what I was going to do. But I couldn't forget that a certain pair of beady eyes were watching every move I made. Eyes that never blinked and never closed, just watched and waited. And I... Oh! Excuse me, sir, I didn't... It's Mr. Warner. Well, hello, Mother Willis, and how's the best-looking stewardess on the seven seas? Well, I'm fine, Mr. Warner. It's nice seeing you again. Wait a minute. That's a fine greeting after two months. Well, I have a great deal to do, boy. I don't believe a word of it. Sailing days tomorrow. You're simply avoiding me. That's all. Oh, no, really, I'm not. And on a trip down from New York, you said I was your favorite passenger, remember? And so you were. Now, if you'll excuse me... Oh, here. Wait a minute. What are you carrying there? Oh, nothing. Just supplies. Supplies? Let's have a look. No, please. Well, come on. Hey, it's a cat. It's Clara, Mr. Warner. Mr. Bowman said I had to leave her sure. I just couldn't. And who's Mr. Bowman? The new chief steward. He's fussy. Clara's been aboard with me for two years. I just can't leave her here in a foreign country, especially with her conditions so delicate and all. Oh, yes. Ah, I see. Well, I hope you get away with it. You won't tell anyone. Not a soul. As a matter of fact, if things don't work out right, we may both end up smuggling. I was most happy to have you aboard on the trip down two months ago, Christopher. And I'm very glad you're coming along with us on the run back to New York. Well, thanks, Captain Wood. There is, uh, one thing, though. I'm having a little trouble with the customs man here. I wondered if you could... I can't do it, Christopher. I just cabled your father this morning, told him I'd done it for you if I possibly could. He sent a request from New York, you know. Yes, I thought he would. I wired him from upriver last week. I hated to refuse, but it's absolutely out of the question. Captain Wood, I'm afraid I don't follow you. Responsibility to the passengers, son. We'll have women and children aboard, and on the line, the safety of the passengers comes ahead of anything else. Yes, but with proper precautions... Something might happen. I don't know what, but something might. You've carried worse things. There isn't anything worse. And any skipper or float will bear me out. No, Christopher, I simply can't take the chance, and that's final. Final? It was not final if I could do anything about it. I hadn't come down here to spend two months in that stinking back country and then be stopped on the edge of the wharf. Two months of it. Heat, rain, in sexual area. I'd gone clear in past the headwaters of the Orinoco. While I travel through country, for every step along the jungle trail might be the last one. Sanchez! Yes, Senor Wano? You better start looking for a place to camp. Be dark in a little while. Yes, Senor. Very soon we turn to river. Camp on the rocks by water. This very bad country. For all the luck we've had so far, it might as well be Central Park. Central Park? No comprendo. Never mind. Sanchez, what's the matter? What's wrong? Hey Sanchez, what is it? Well, in the path. See? Bushmaster! Bushmaster. The deadliest snake in the world. Bushmaster. His latin name was lechesis mutus. Mute fate. It lay there in the center of the path. A ten foot length of silent death. Coiled loosely in an undulent loop, ready to strike violently at the least movement. Here was the one snake that would go after any animal it walked. Or any man. It lay there and watched us. Not moving. Not afraid. Ready for anything. The splotch of its color stood out like some horribly gaudy floor mat lying there on the brown background of the jungle. Just waiting for someone to step on it. Here was what I'd come 2,000 miles for. A Bushmaster. Captain Wood. The man at the hotel said you wanted to see me. That's right Christopher, sit down. Thank you. Seem as you weren't willing to let matters stand the way we left them yesterday. Oh, well look Captain, I'm sorry to go over your head. But I just had to. The museum sent me all the way down here for it. I'm not going to be stopped by red tape. Well this will be the only live Bushmaster ever brought to the United States. If I had my way, well orders are orders. I got a cable from the head office this morning. All right, suppose we talk about precautions. I'll handle it any way you say. It's got to have a stronger box. That crate's too flimsy. It's stronger than it looks and that wire screen on top it holds a wildcat. But anyway, I bought a heavy sea chest this morning and we'll put the crate inside of that. Well that sounds all right. You got a lock on it? Heavy padlock. It's fixed so the lid can be propped open a crack. Without unlocking it, the snake's got to have some air. But in dirty weather that lid stays shut. I'll take no chances. All right, all right Captain. Well keep the thing in my cabin. Can't have it in the baggage room. And nobody on board to know about it. Whatever you say Captain. But we won't have any trouble after all. It's only a snake. It doesn't have any magical powers. I saw Bushmaster in the zoo at Caracas once. Had it in a glass cage with double walls. It had never moved. Just lay there. Look at you as long as you were in sight. Gave a man the creeps. I didn't know they had a Bushmaster at the Caracas Zoo. They don't now. They found the glass broken one morning and the snake gone. The night Watchman was dead. They never found out what happened. Well the Watchman must have broken the glass by accident. So the way they figured it, the glass was broken from the inside. We sail in four hours. Well she's running quite a swell out there Mr. Bowman. Yeah it's a little heavy all right Mr. Warner. Guess the storm passed through to the west of us yesterday. The glass dropped. Great G. Hussafat we're going to take it on the port bow. It was a freak if I ever saw one. Why there's not another wave that size in sight. You see them like that sometimes even on a calm sea. I got to get below Mr. Warner. That water probably did some damage on the opposite deck. Yes I suppose it. What did you say? The wheelhouse companion wave was open on the port side. Bridge cabins must have taken a pretty bad smashing. Right below there. Is something wrong Mr. Warner? No. No nothing at all Mr. Bowman. At least I hope not. First I knew it was only one chance in a thousand. But the chances of that freak wave were one in a thousand too. I stumbled down the companion way and along the passage to the captain's cabin. Oh Mr. Warner. Mother Willis. Isn't this cabin a mess. I'm trying to get some of these things out to draw. Well look I just wanted to check. Where's that box that was under the captain's bunk. Oh that I just threw it out on deck. You what. Well the desk over there slid into it it was all smashed. But the small box inside of it what happened to it. They were both splintered Mr. Warner broke wide open. Oh no. Well Mr. Warner you're white as a shoe. Mother Willis will you go find Captain Wood and tell him to come down here immediately. Well I've got a great deal to do. Please go get him at once. Very well. I suppose I can finish up here later. I pulled open the top drawer of the bureau beside me. And I took out the captain's flashlight. I worked around the room throwing the light into the dark corners back of the desk under the bunk. And wherever I turned I could feel those cold and blinking eyes at my back. Just watching and waiting. I pushed open the closet door through the light inside. Carefully I poked at the boxes and jumped on the floor. But the snake was not in the closet. Inch by inch I covered the entire cabin. And only then a horrible realization began to dawn on me. Well Captain Wood. Mother Willis just told me. Well Christopher. So it's happened. Yes that's right. It's happened. Well we better start set you a cabin here. Captain Wood. I just finished searching it. Women and kids and that thing loose on board. A thousand places for it to hide. God help us Christopher. It's no use starting to blame anybody now gentlemen. I didn't call you in here to pass judgment. Things done and that's that. All right there Captain. What we have got to do is make up our minds how we're going to handle it. It'll be easier if we didn't have to tell the passengers and crew. I've seen panics aboard liners before. Yes I agree with you Mr. Bowman but I don't quite see how we can avoid it. They've got a right to know. As long as that snake's loose everybody on board is in the same danger and they all ought to know about it. Captain Wood. Now that thing is twelve feet long. It can't simply crawl into a crack. Why don't we make a quick search of the whole ship before we spread any alarm. Yes I've thought of that Christopher. As far as I can see the only place it couldn't be is in the boilers or on the top of the galley stove. It might have crawled overboard. We can't count on that. We've got to assume it's on the ship somewhere. Yeah and that could be anywhere in a coil or rope or in a pile of clothes. Yes or under some woman's birth or a baby's crib. All right I think the best idea is to follow Mr. Warner's suggestion. Make a quick search first. You agree to that? Yes I agree. Then if we don't find it we'll have to warn the passengers. We've got to find it. But not one of us could find that deadly shape. Coiled in some dark corner or outstretched along a window seat. Not one of us caught a glimpse of that horrid head with its beady black watchful eyes. That thing lay waiting out there somewhere along the decks. Shaded in the gathering dusk but where? We didn't know. The slow nightmare that followed grew worse by the hour. The second night passed and morning came around. A gray and rainy day that dragged past. And then night came down again. Third night of the telly. Again every light burned and the whole ship sieved and the throes of incipient revolved. Faced by a horror they'd never met on the sea before. Crew and officers alike were on the verge of panic. Passengers sat huddled in a trance like stupor. Ready to scream at the slightest unknown sound. At seven bells I made my way forward to the chart room and found Captain Wood bent over a desk. Hello, Christopher. Come on in and sit down. Captain, it's got to be somewhere. It's got to be. I don't know. You could search this ship for six months and never cover all the places aboard. We can only hold out for two more days, we'll be in. What does your home office say? There's the latest wireless from them. Keep quiet and keep coming. What else can we do? Want a cigarette? Oh, yeah, thanks. How's it below? No, it's pretty bad. Anything could happen. Yeah. That's why I took the guns away from the men. One pistol shot, we'd have a riot on our head. The whole thing's my fault, Captain Wood. That's what I can't forget. Well, take it easy, lad. If there was only some way I could pay for it myself, myself alone. No, no, no, and I feel, but it's no more your fault than mine or the man who asked you to bring that snake back alive. Nobody planned this. Well, go to the galley, get yourself some coffee. Then you'd better try to get a little sleep. The light was on in the steward's galley and the coffee pot was standing on the stove. It was still warm, so I didn't even bother to heat it. I poured out a cup, carried it over, set it on the porcelain tabletop in the center of the room. I started to ride a cigarette. The door over the pan covered beneath the sink was standing slightly at jar. And I happened to glance toward it. I dropped the cigarette and moved slowly backward. I'd found the Bushmaster. As I moved, the snake slid out of the cupboard in a single, sinuous slide and drew back into a loose coil on the galley floor, never taking his eyes off me. I moved slowly back, waiting any moment for that deadly, slithering strike. Ten million years of evolution to produce this moment. Homo sapiens versus La Cases Mutus, a man against mute fate, and all the odds were on fate. I knew then I was going to die. I could feel the sweat run down between the wall and the palms of my hands pressing against it. My skin crawled and twitched, and the pit of my stomach was as cold as ice. There was no sound but the rush of blood in my ears. The snake shifted again, drawing into a tighter coil, always tighter. Why the devil didn't he get it over with? Then, for an instant, his head veered away, something moved over by the stove. I didn't dare turn to look at it. Slowly it moved into my line of vision. It was a cat, that scrawny cat that Mother Willis had sneaked aboard in the guire. Its back was arched, and every hair stood on end. It moved stiff-legged now, walking in a half-circle around the snake. The bushmaster moved slowly and kept watching the cat. He tightened. He was going to strike at any second. He struck and missed. The cat was barely out of reach. Now, she was walking back and forth again. Oh, she was asking to die. Missed again. By a fraction of an inch. He was striking now without even going to a full coil. Missed. Again and again, always missing by the tiniest margin. Each time, the cat sat barely out of reach, and every time she counted with one precise spat of a daily paw, bracing her skinny frame on three stiff legs, and then suddenly I realized what she was doing. The bushmaster was tiring, and one strike was just an instant slow. But in that split second, sharp claws raked across the evil head and ripped out both the ligless eyes. The cat had deliberately blinded that snake. He didn't bother to coil now, but slid after her in a fury striking wildly, and every strike was a little slower than the last one until finally. As the snake-snack stretched out at the end of a strike, the cat made one leap and sank her razor sharp teeth just back of the ugly head. Sank him until they crunched bone. With tooth and claw, she clung as the monstrous snake flailed and lashed on the floor, striving to get those hideous coils around and trying to break her whole to shake off that slow and certain paralyzing death that gradually crept over him. And at last stilled his struggles forever. Oh, I took a deep breath. The first in minutes, the cat lay on her side on the floor, panting, resting from the fight just over. Oh, she had a right to rest. That brave, beautiful alley cat. It just saved my life and maybe others as well. But as I turned toward the stove, I suddenly became very humble and I knew all at once what a small thing a human being really is. I and others aboard were still alive only by the nearest accident. You see, there were three reasons why that cat had fought and killed the world's deadliest snake. And those three reasons came tottering out from under the stove on shaky little legs. Three kittens with their eyes bright with wonder and their tails stiff as pokers. And up on the decks, hundreds of passengers were waiting for the news that terror was ended. Well, they could wait a little longer. I pulled open the doors of the cabinet, found a can of milk and a saucer. Then I dropped down on my knees. Suspense. You've been listening to A Shipment of Mute Fate, written for suspense by Martin Storm. Heard in tonight's story were Bernard Grant as Chris and Inga Swenson as Mother Willis. Others included in the cast were Ralph Bell, Bob Dryden, Frank Thomas Jr. and Frank Milano. Listen again next week when we return with Two Horse Parley by Walter Black, another tale well calculated to keep you in. Suspense.