 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 transcribe do free you from the four walls of today for a half hour of high adventure you are groping your way through the belly of a sunken ship of fortune and pearls secured by your belt while above on the ship that tends you working the pump that sends air to you is an adversary whose plans include the taking of your pearls and your life listen now as escape brings you John Russell story the adversary it was at dusk and on an ebb tide that the purling schooner of fancy free came smartly up into the wind and dropped anchor in the harbor of Thursday Island and it was after dark when her master came ashore and paid off his canaka crew he was a big man this captain with a crop of black hair a smooth long jaw and gray eyes as he went swinging along the waterfront the crowd parted right and left before him now news of any arrival travels fast on Thursday Island and with such a figure as this the conversation at the Portuguese bar had been going on for some time one thing I know for certain he's got the trimmer slugger in these parts and where's he from smake first time I ever laid eye on him or his boat was this evening if he was from these parts Portuguese captain smite would know him well wherever he's from he'd be like the rest of you up to no good oh you know use for pearls of your Portuguese you're all cut from the same claw thieves drunkards brawlers and worse you fat devil you're a better than the worst of us I know and can account for my shortcomings it is not so with you who make a living like so many sea gypsies what's he saying captain smite I'll drink your drink I only wanted to know the strangest smite he's another pear there perhaps yes it could be I'll find out more when he comes for his rom yeah warm me a drink for to keep and one full little outfit yeah a toast to Thursday Island there's the island we're the only honest man to grace it shores came by Lannan look at the size of that one my name is smike if it's me you're talking to my name is weatherby John weatherby I'm master of the fancy free that's the luggard in the arbor ain't it and so captain weatherby I've come to spend some time with you captain weatherby what is your pleasure um but first I'll have my say that's your right moment back you drank a toast to which I take exception that's how you said the only honest man on Thursday Island came by land I did now then I don't mind what you call yourselves to yourselves as long as I'm in your midst anyone that says I'm not honest and can't prove it I'll knock the seven bells out of him since you're a stranger here where there be I'll tell you something I'm senior captain on Thursday Island and I say what I wish when I wish and it's like I said before the only honest man on Thursday Island came dummy he never even got it said you little fella don't give your friend a hand you'll need help for a while yet my name is elf and I ain't finish my drink no yes sir now I'll have that rum right away captain weatherby now on Thursday Island there was no prying into a neighbor's affairs unless one was prepared to push the inquiry with a knife and so it was that nobody questioned where whether he came from or his purling license or the motley crew he picked to replace the skilled canaka boys he'd let go his new cook was Chinese his head diver a manila man and his mate a giant North African who went for the name of buttermilk but questions or no as the months past a legend was growing about captain weatherby oh he chased you right across the Pacific to pay a tough and see my area that's his sort you'll never add toughens in your life out five nights ago he was in here and he drank five hard cases under the table and when they left his square the whole bill himself honest with a bee they call it honest whether bees up to something they say nothing but good about him your right as rain Portuguese last month he stayed in quarantine voluntary like just because of that island steamer and the cholera scare then paid his crew their monthly wages anyway his crew a good master wouldn't allow a one of them to set foot on deck well they ain't been exactly trained by the Queen's name what I want to know is this why is he got the fastest lugger in these parts man by that collection of trash you still hold that blow against whether be smart but he's all right I brought authorities pilots and other masters and the old lot they all like I don't listen that will be the Brisbane steamers trying to get a bloody passengers back aboard she sails at midnight Australia I wish I was going I'd like to see Australia again yeah she'd probably like to see you too oh now captain like it's not it's her pilot the fern shores blowing for pilot ever since she put in here whether be in that ship's pilot been trying to drink the island dry I wonder where he is now down at the docks like is not pouring his pilot friend aboard the steamer another rump or the game and another for little Alfie and in truth whether be was down at the docks his coat turned up against the squalls that were blowing wet from the ocean he was standing in the shadows by some packing crates watching from a distance the yellow cargo flares that showed the loading of the fernshawe was still in progress then just as captain whether be was turning away another figure slipped from the shadow and moved to confront captain whether be yeah I'll take harvest if you please captain whether be what I said harvest now don't move captain I've got you well covered and I'm not afraid to shoot taken after all these years the taken bless me if I didn't think I'd done you win I should have died but I didn't know thanks to you and what are you doing on Thursday Island I dropped in from Samurai meaning to catch the Brisbane steamer I've been doing some diving up the way but I'm only a fair diver and my luck's been poor until tonight until tonight and why the change little beetle because I chance to see you my old friend and I was strolling along the front and I made inquiries and I heard what they call you in these parts honest whether you was you have it in mind to blow on me to tell what I know of you and if you go to jail not a chance but do me no good what then I just want half of your new speculation your latest devil what makes you think I've got a plan to you can do you think I couldn't smell it out I know your methods too well fine public character no suspicion only by all complete and I also know you sneaked your crew out of town tonight your luggers ready to slip cable this minute and most important I happen to know what the furniture was carrying up order this trip for the devil you do the season sweeper pearls 20,000 pounds worth suppose I was after those pearls how would I get that's for you to do a me to profit bar so you let me do the daddy then take over nice right captain honest whether be last me if it is not a no whether you're with me you're against me taking the sight the Lord an adversary there shall be and he shall bring down thy strength from me all right all right then deacon I'll put up with your blackmail and piracy and I'll take you on as an adversary and you'll be part of the enterprise good good and now whether me told me this how are you to get the pearls that are aboard the steamer there I shall have to die for them deacon die for them and like it or not since you've declared yourself in you'll be a party to it you mean you're going to sink her that's exactly what I mean deacon within two hours of silent the fernshaw will be resting on the bottom of the passage you are listening to the adversary tonight's presentation of escape it's back again it's Saturday daytime's on CBS radio it's romance romance every Saturday on most of these same stations bringing you the world's great love stories some new some old all fascinating adventures in listening the story this Saturday Daphne Des Moillers celebrated novel Frenchman's Creek dramatizes the love of a noblewoman for a pirate and now escape and the second act of the adversary within half an hour the little lager fancy free was standing out to see the master captain weather be in a small and shivering passenger sheltered in the lee of the deck house the deacon had wanted in on the profit but he had hardly countered on mass murder as a means to it one man's death he might have countenanced but to murder a steamer was something else whether be you can't do it you can't drown a whole ships company java here the vulgar the KT of the mega they all fell a trifle off the track their bottoms were ripped out on tribulation show the same thing might happen to the fernshaw but how there's a light on tribulation show so there is it's a fourth order fixed diopteric unattended now suppose that light were moved but like you say it fixed it besides the keeper lives only a mile away on horn island you couldn't move it suppose a man were to land on the lee of tribulation show and with a canvas blanket the light to west now if that same man were to take a discarded light ship lantern that he might have aboard his lager and after anchoring some half mile away show this light it is masted what then what you're mad whether do you begin to see the possibility for error you you really going to record I am taken wouldn't do that what is it close he can get below with a tribulation show and there's man's work to be done yet tonight weather bit below but a milk how close now to the south you 300 yard and the hell put over but a milk and drop a hook we're going ashore to have a look at tribulation right now it is a fact that no one knows or is ever likely to know the actual explanation for the record of Brisbane steamer which left Thursday Island and came to grief some two hours later on tribulation show but the records declare that she went clean off her course and a coral reef laid her open as neatly as a butcher's knife lays open a carcass she sank within five minutes the next morning is the dawn spread in iridescence over those waters captain weather they anchored his lager between the tips of the two sunken masks all right but a milk get my equipment ready I get diving suit well taken you'll note for yourself there's not a trace of evidence we've not been spied the lantern we used is sunk canvas destroyed and tribulation light as it was before your evil weather be pure evil taken is there so much difference between a lot than a little come now they can cheer up here we are and there are the pearls 20,000 pounds worth of them just over son I don't want any part of me within three hours I'll be back out on the pearling banks about my business never having heard of the wreck get you strap diving shoes next week any time I choose I'll be walking the streets of Thursday near the news and who will be as surprised as captain whether be that hard-working man honest whether be with a fortune in his belt to dispose at leisure already now put helmet captain yes deacon I've not a problem in the world except you me why me you are evidence this stinking crew doesn't matter I've kept them too befuddled to know what's happening but you you could be Queen's evidence I'm not forgetting you now listen to me whether be I want no part of what kind of an adversary you call yourself deacon I don't present a sport from you come below deacon now is the time to change your luck come below once and for all no no I won't go down with you not down there you're a diver aren't you deacon I can't not in that that ship I can't blasted deacon I thought at least you'd be amusing hey very well when I come back I'll knock your silly captain you want a helmet one thing but a milk yes captain you see that fellow white man maybe he want to go below good you'll give him other soup yes captain maybe he touched pump or raised plus you knock seven bells out of him otherwise no water savvy I savvy good now help me with the element yes put on now okay now captain you know here that in helmet you white fellow move away captain go water side now you fell up from plenty good captain need much air listen you I've got to talk to you captain say you know good look I'll give you money anything just cut those lines captain die we cut line no breed down there yes that's right you'll die but I'll pay you more than he will line stop moving captain on ship now what about it you want money no what do you want then I give you anything you say just cut those lines and leave white fellow no good but don't you understand you'll kill me after he gets those pearls and comes up captain say no order yeah you got to listen to me look put me in the long boat turn me loose I'll take me chance of the open sea rather than with him I can't stay here you stay no I won't I won't just wait here like a fool for him to come up and kill me when he pleases I got down below there with him first and fight it out you want that a dive suit go water side I don't know I don't know I've got I've got to think nothing black fellow boy pump good captain need down there and down below everything went exceeding fine for captain weatherby in a matter of 20 minutes or less he had found the strongbox broken it open with an iron bar filled his canvas sack with pearls and was making his way back towards the companion way through which he had entered the ship the light was getting stronger as he came back then suddenly he stopped a dim form was facing him a man as tall as himself clad in a diving rig and weatherby was smiling as he thought same type helmet as mine same shape only other like that is on fancy free why all that's only oh it's the deacon so you come down taken off so you're going to dispute the prize with me claim your veterans all right I was going to kill you one way or the other one crack on your helmet with this bar deacon and your eardrums are gone you'll be just an unfortunate diver who drowned while working but at least you proved an adversary worth his salt now I'm moving at you deacon good you move to her we're going to fight it a little closer that's it now now I'll split your skull set out another bottle of rum portigy I'm cold clean throw to the mirror five days out there at the wreck and no thanks from anybody not even from the man you brought back him he's crazy as a tick calls himself a deacon a man of the cloth look at him over there sitting alone at the table talking to himself scripture but what of captain weatherby they say you found his lager and cut over the rag there was two people could have told us that story one was a deacon as he calls himself and the other a great bulk of a West African and he went down after where there be never come up you need gear to go that deep that bleeding crew couldn't manage a word between the lot old out he's wrong in his heart let him be snared in his own pit in the net which he is his own foot taken Lord break down the arm of the wicked and the evil man they don't know what he's about my tell me what of weatherby he found him down the wreck the pearls all in a great sack tied to his diving belt and he was drowned drowned his suit had been cut to ribbons by shards of broken glass he was drowned for fair right inside of his suit but the glass my what was the glass of a broken mirror a mirror it served as a facing for the saloon door leading out of the companion way it's like he stopped to take a look at himself just that one last time well a toast to captain weatherby rest his soul the only honest man who came by sea to curse the island under the direction of Norman McDonald escape has brought you the adversary by John Russell specially transcribed for radio by mr. McDonald featured in the cast were Lawrence Dobkin John Daner and Ben Wright with Alec Harford Charlie long and Barney Phillips the narrator was Vic Perron your announcer George Walsh the special music for escape is composed and conducted by Leith Stephens next week you are running through the alleys of a Mediterranean village the blackness of the Italian night confusing you while somewhere in the dark behind you coming closer as they search for you are a man and a beautiful woman who mean to take your life so listen next week when escape brings you Kathleen Heights story and ordinary man this Sunday night Lionel Barrymore opens the doors to the Hall of Fame turning the spotlight on another little known drama of American history whose workings were instrumental in shaping the nation's destiny empire builders dreamers with high ideals men and women whose pioneering made history these are the heroes and heroines of the Hall of Fame starring Lionel Barrymore this Sunday night on most of these same stations the top dramatic show of them all the Lux Radio Theater has heard Monday night on the CBS radio network