 Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape! Escape! Designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half hour of high adventure! A lying in a wartime prison camp, surrounded by a desperate and brutal enemy. While your own forces are slowly approaching to save you, your frightened captors plan to kill you. Listen now, as escape brings you Anthony Ellis's exciting story, four went home. Gimme three. Honest man. You're holding up a botpocket, to be honest. Come on, come on. Dutch one. Don't you know it's drawn to an inside straight. He'll never learn. Be good, baby, be good. Sap. Oh, I'm happy. I'll play these. Wow. A lot of bull. Listen to him. Play these, bull. How about you, cursive? Me? I'm honest. Three. Honest. Oh, great. I'm honest. And the dealer takes... One? Two. Okay, who bets? First bet. Of course you'll. Okay, okay, I'm thinking. High check. There were five of us, reading around the floor clockwise. Jerry Mitchell Infantry. He was the kid. The Nazis got him at the bulge. He'd seen a lot of war and he was sick because of it. He was a good kid. Mitch? I'll see it and raise a half. Oh, wait a minute. Next to him, I'm said. Henry Dutch Armstead Infantry. He'd been in the bulge too, along with Mitch. He was from Pennsylvania. He used to play football. In fact, he made a career of it for seven years. Went from school to school, south and west. Call himself a football bum. His pal was Mitch. Dutch was okay. A big guy. Dutch? A call. Then Sandy Saperstein. Dark, wiry sap. Machine gunner. He taught math in a small upstate New York school and turned in his uniform somewhere in Belgium. A quiet man. Sap? Call and raise 50. Then there was Curcio. Andy Curcio, kid from Danbury. He had a job in a half factory waiting for him when he got home. Curcio had been blown out of his tank, which is lucky for him. The other guys didn't do so well. And Curcio never forgot it. He was still fighting the war, even the prison camp. Curcio? Apple. I'm out. What have you got, Dutch? Bullets and dolls. Three deuces, three. That beats me. I have a small straight. Straight to what, Sap? To the eight. That's tough. Mine goes to the ten. Bull. Ever see anything like that? Righty, Donald, yes, sap. Oh, yes, I got it. Three, eighty-five for Sergeant Neston. Give my good shuffle, huh? Oh, sure, sure. Anything. Put them away, fellas. There goes the lights. Oh, well, another day, another dollar. Got a raise, eh, sap? Ah, funny, funny. Right here with Ariel, dad. Saturday night, Saturday poker game with the guys. We knew it was Saturday because we kept score of the days on the calendar. You didn't count days you kept score with them. And the game was to see who was gonna win. You were the days. I guess as prison camps go, it wasn't bad. It wasn't good. It was nothing. The Nazis didn't talk to us much and we didn't talk to them. All except Curcio. We had to watch him because he loved to shoot off his mouth. The next hour or so, I lay in my bunk thinking... thinking about Juni and home. I figured most of the others were asleep until a pair of legs swung down from the bunk above and dropped to the floor next to me. It was supper, Steve. You sleep, Sarge? Hey, listen, I got an idea. Again? I think this one will work. I'll knock it off, Sappie. Get some sleep. Oh, wait a minute. Look. What's that? I found it last week. A piece of coat hanger. Yeah, but it's all twisted. I know. I did it. I think I can open the door with it. Unlock the door with that? Uh-huh. I tried it. When? Last night when you were all asleep. I didn't have time to get it open because I heard the guard telling me, but I think it'll work. Here, let me see that. You see, the lock's old-fashioned. Mitch? Yeah. None of those dreams again, I guess. The kid doesn't look too good. Yeah, I know. Come on. What are you going to do? See if we can work for the door. How long ago did the guard pass you here? About ten minutes. It gives us five more than before he comes back. Hey, what do you think, Sarge? We can make a break? Let's wait and see if we can open it. Okay, go ahead. I just got to catch someone on the bottom. I felt it last night. You haven't told the other guys, have you? None of those sense getting them all excited. Yeah. Come on. It was cold standing at the door. We were always cold in the camp, but that night I noticed it more. Saperstein worked away with this bit of wire, this tongue sticking out between his teeth and concentration. About four minutes must have passed when... I'd try the knob. Close it quick. Guard's coming. Can you lock it again? I think so. You might have heard Mitch. You'll hear. Stop it. Another minute and get it locked again. Yeah, if I can. It took another ten minutes to lock it, but I think it took a while. Saperstein and I agreed that I should talk to the guys in the morning after inspection and see if we could work out a plan. I figured the best way would be at exercise. Mitch was cleaning up the room and Saperstein was playing handball with fellas from another unit, so they were just Armstead and Curcio and me. It was too cold to sit, so we walked up and down the enclosure. It's cold as witches' nose. And you're not just kidding. Look, I want to tell you guys something. What is it, Sarge? Saperstein and me got the door open last night. Paul, you're kidding. You and Locke... Keep it down, will you? Now, Locke, from what we hear, our guys are about 80 miles west. Maybe. Okay. Now, if they get closer, we got to take a chance one way or the other. Well, let's get out of here. That or try and figure what the Nazis will do to us when the guys are going to spring us up. I've been thinking about that. Plenty. There's more than a thousand of us in here. I've done it before. Gas, machine guns. Well, that's the chance. What about the fence? Do you think we can get over? Might. Yeah, but it's electrified. Not over there, Curcio. Not by the gate. Paul, let's right under the tower. They'd see us before we got anywhere near the searchlights. That's what I mean. That's the chance. It's all right with me. Sure. We'll see the other guys later. Oh, hey. Hey, what about Mitch, though? I don't know. How do you think, Dutch? He goes with. Sure he does. You think he can make it? He's in bad shape, Dutch. He might blow up. You leave that to me. The kid's okay. He's just a little nervous. He's okay. He can make it. Why don't we try it, Sarge? Tonight? Might as well tonight. Oh, boy, wouldn't that be something? Oh, boy, give me a couple of more Nazis before this war is over. Yes, well, you do that. Come on, we better get back with the others. Hey, is he over there? Bombers. Give it to him, good boys. Lancasters. No, they're ours. Lancasters. A buck. Okay, a buck. What do you say, sons? It doesn't learn much in aircraft recognition, does it? Air Lancasters. Oh, bull. We had thought of breaking out before, but it never came to anything, mostly because it couldn't be done in daylight. It was no sense trying to dig, either, on account of a rock underneath. We'd found that out a long time back. But now, with a key, it was different. We didn't get a chance to talk together again until just before final inspection and lock-up. Mitch was the big kid. He was the big kid. He was the big kid. He was the big kid. He had a lock-up. Mitch was the big problem, and I put it up to him the way it was. That's great, fellas. Count me in. You think you're up to it, Mitch? Me? Sure. Of course. He'll be all right, I'd tell you. Now, wait a minute, Dutch. Let him decide for himself. Now, we want you to go, Mitch, but if you don't feel like you can make it, that's work, that's swell. How about that, Mitch? What's the matter with you guys? I'm coming with you. I'm okay, honest. He's coming. Oh, watch out for him. He's coming, that's all. All right. All right, knock it off, inspection. Shut up, Curcio. Everything okay, huh? Oh, help me, Curcio. You pull something like that again, I'm gonna bust your wide open. Bullies are just a stinkin' knife. That's enough, Curcio. Okay. Now, if we get out, we start headin' west. Make as much time as we can before it gets light. Then hide out until tomorrow night. With luck, we ought to meet our guys along the way. What happens if they pull back? Maybe the guard who said they were 80 miles away was giving us the needle. Well, what about that? Well, listen, what about it? Maybe they want us to make a break so they can have an excuse to... Take it easy, kid. You see what I mean? Well, keep on walkin' till we find them. Hey. Hey, fellas, how about poker? You know, celebration last night? What do you say? Yeah, sure. It's okay. Fine, but break them off, Zap. I feel lucky tonight. We will return to escape, and tonight's story four went home in just a moment. Daily, the broadcasts of Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia strike through the Iron Curtain, bringing the truth about the free world of the captive peoples behind it. Help send a message by giving to the 1952 Crusade for Freedom. And now, back to escape. We played poker badly. Every one of us looked at cards and thought of something else. I guess Mitch was the worst. He was really scared. And Mitch hadn't always been a scared guy. He talked a lot about what he was going to do and joined up with our fellas. Talked about his girl and home and too many things. Because we knew he was scared, we let him go on talking. Then it was lights out. I made the guys lay down on their bunks. Nobody was going to sleep for sure, but the rest wasn't going to hurt. It was a little after nine. Say, uh, say Dutch. Um, what was the scar when you played pan? When I played with who? Um, the tech. The year you went to the ball. 34-6. We won. Yeah, that was about 34-6, 34. Boy, what a shlug. Got my feet busted in that one. Okay. Yeah. Kid, you okay? Me? Sure. Rare to go. That's a boy. Hey, what's the time, Sarge? Not even 9.30. Lots of time. Take it easy. Sure. I found myself singing a song under my breath over and over the way you sometimes do, you know? I knew it backwards. I remember seeing the movie with Junie at home and all the little things that happened that night. The movie, the coke afterwards. Everything except the name of the song. Hey. What is it, Sarge? Well, fellas, what's the name of this? Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Oh, yeah. You're talking to my tongue again. You must remember this. Yeah. Oh, it's kiss. Yeah, kiss is just a kiss. Boy, it's more than that. Hey! I know. Time goes by. No, as time goes by. As time goes by. Yes. You remember Bergman? Yeah. You know, my wife Junie's Swedish, and you know how the Swedes say Ingrid Bergman? No, how? Ingrid Bergman. No kidding. Yeah. Ingrid Bergman. Get out, Sarge. You think? We'll get out. If anything happens. Nothing. Nothing is going to happen, kid. Sure. I know. But if it does, what do you tell my folks? Nothing's going to happen, bitch. Mitch, why don't you stick it out here? Hey, kid, you'd be okay. No, I'm fine. Maybe a little nervous, you know? Sure, sure. You guys think I'm chicken, huh? No, kid, you're okay. Listen, I got some Pokemon that you collect from a couple of you, and I don't forget. How am I going to forget? I'll be busted for ten years paying up what I lost in here. What's the time, Sarge? Ten-thirty. Ten-thirty. Ten-thirty. The guard passed our door every fifteen minutes. I count it from nine o'clock. And he was coming back for the sixth time. And he had passed six more times. Then we'd go. I thought about Mitch and the others. Talk about the flip of a coin. This was it. You give a guy three stripes on his sleeve, and he does the thinking for the rest. And if he thinks wrong, what about that? There was still time to call it off. And there was still time when it was a couple of minutes to twelve. Stay in the camp, and maybe the Nazis wouldn't get sore enough to knock us off because our fellas had releases. There may be. How do you look at a man's face and know what he's got in his mind? A Nazi's face. A Nazi's mind. Okay. Now we'll wait until the guard passes at twelve, and then, sap, you get to the door and get it unlocked in a hurry. Why not unlock it now? No, no, we can't take a chance. I want it quiet, real quiet. You understand? Stay in your bunks until I say. Are you ready, sap? Knock it off. How's it coming, sap? Shut up, Curcio. Sorry, Sarge. Take your time. Take it easy. It's bending when I put on too much pressure. It's okay, just take your time. You'll get it. You sure? Yeah. All right. We go now, Sarge. Now stay single file. When we get out of the building, get as close as you can to the wall. You'll have to time the searchlight as we go, Curcio. You bring up the rear. Give the signal to drop when you see it. I'll do the same in front. Okay. What about the gate, Sarge? I told you. We make a run for it. Get over one by one each time the light passes. Sap opened the door. We went out into the corridor. It was crazy. I kept thinking how crazy it was as we moved along to the entrance to the building. Curcio was last. Saperstein was in front of him. Then Armstead and Mitch and myself. I could hear the kid breathing behind me. Quick, jumpy breaths like he was winded from running. And then we were outside in the enclosure. The light down. We flopped to the ground. And that bright watchdog looked right over us. And beyond, cutting through the dark. They'll see us. Shut up, Mitch. We're going to be okay. And we went another ten yards past another building. And now we'll make it. There's the searchlight made a return trip. We were about a hundred yards from the gate when we stopped and crowded into a narrow alleyway between the cookhouse and a shed. From there on it was open and country across the enclosure to the gate fence. And that was going to be tough. The guard's tar was almost directly in front of us. What's next, Sarge? The noise the better. It's a good idea. Okay, Sarge. All right, I'll go first. And you, Mitch. Dutch. Sap and Curcio. All right, William. Yeah, okay. Put your little poles. Oh no. You must shut up. Put your mouth shut as far as you can. Come on. Keep in quiet. Shut them up. Shut them up. Get out of here. Get out of here. Shut them up. Shut them up. Come on. Get out of here. Dutch, keep in quiet. Quiet. Get out of here. Get out of here. Out of here. Get out of here. Get out of here. Don't fight this. Take it away from me. Don't try to take it easy. Hey, look, the gate's open. Foy, how I'd like to get through there? They must think we already got over. Hey, the searchlights stopped. They left the gate open. What the devil's going to do? It's me. Can you see anybody up in the tower? Wait a minute. Nobody. What do you think, son? I don't know. But maybe we won't have to go over the gate. I get all right, Dutch. Dutch? Kid! Hey, what's with him? He passed out? He... He just suddenly didn't move anymore. The kid's dead. He just... went kind of limp. You'll be crazy. You choked him. You killed him. I did. I didn't... I wanted him to keep quiet, that's all. You saw that, Sarge, didn't you? I just tried to keep him quiet. Yeah. He's dead. Hey, what do you say, Sarge? We can't stay here, huh? Okay. I'm going across. If I get through, follow me one at a time. We walked across to the gate. It was dark. There wasn't a sound. There was not Nazi around. Dutch came last, Carrie and the kid. I guess it wasn't more than 10 minutes later along the road that we saw the first of our tanks. Patton's tanks. Then we knew why we'd been able to walk out of the gate. We kept moving back and we didn't say anything. Not until we got to a medical outfit and left Mitch's body with him. The four of us just kind of stood around waiting for somebody to take us back west. She... If we waited 10 minutes... Yeah, just 10... he was a good kid. It wasn't your fault, Dutch. It could have happened to anyone. Sure. It breaks, I guess. It's not your fault, Dutch. It's okay, Dutch. Well, come on, you guys. We can't find any cigarettes just standing here. We'll just be a couple of minutes. We'll beat you back here, Dutch. Yeah, Dutch. We'll be back in a couple of minutes. Escape has brought you four went home written and directed by Anthony Ellis starring William Conrad as the sergeant. Featured in the cast were John Boehner as Olmsted, Peter Leeds as Curcio, Bob Sweeney as Mitch, and Jack Krushen as Saperstein. Editorial supervision is by John Meston, and the special music for Escape is composed and conducted by Leith Stevens. Next week... Across a jungle savannah, your body flaming with fever, while behind you lies certain death, and ahead the endless torches of perpetual imprisonment. So listen next week, when Escape brings you Evelyn Wall's classic story, The Man Who Liked Dickens. Tomorrow night, Lux Radio Theatre adapts an Academy Award winner, the African Queen bringing you Humphrey Bogart in his original role, co-starring Greer Garson. Also tomorrow on most of these same CBS radio stations, listen for Lloyd Nolan in a story titled The Man With Two Heads on Suspense. Roy Rowan speaking, this is the CBS Radio Network.