 Adventures by Morse. Carton E. Morse presents The Cobra King Strikes Back, featuring Captain Friday. If you like high adventure, come with me. If you like the stealth of intrigue, come with me. If you like blood and thunder, come with me. Angkor Thom, the shell of an ancient city carved out of the jungle's north of Saigon, French Indochina, is nothing more than a monument to a dead nation. Every member of the scientific expedition felt it, the moment they arrived. But how did this party get to Angkor Thom? And why? Let Captain Bart Friday and Professor Lebrun tell you. Captain Friday? Well, when Dr. Howard Carter, leader of this expedition, disappeared from Saigon, he left word appointing Professor Lebrun and myself co-leaders of the party. He instructed us to meet him at Angkor Thom. Upon arriving, we not only discovered Dr. Carter wasn't here, but that the place is cloaked by some subtle, terrifying influence, some eastern mysticism. The natives say it's the curse which was used centuries ago to ruin the great Khmer nation and cause its cities to be lost in the sullen jungles of Cambodia. They believe the curse still hangs over the land and will remain until the precious seven-headed emerald cobra returns. But Professor Lebrun can tell you better about this religious symbol. Oui. The ta prom cobra is a great seven-headed cobra statue carved from purest emerald and is coiled upon a base of solid gold. There is a rumor it is about to reappear in Cambodia. If it did, there would be a religious uprising among the natives of Cochin, China. Everyone with Khmer blood will flock back into the jungle, rebuild the ancient cities, and re-establish the ancient Khmer kingdom. Yes, that's just what the French government's afraid of. That's why they're sending me along with the Carter expedition. If the giant religious symbol does reappear, it's my job to make it disappear before the rank and file of natives hear about it. Yes, Edouard Dr. Carter has made you a part of our party. He is very much opposed to this move. Dr. Carter does not want violence. All he wishes to do on the expedition is glimpse the famous emerald cobra and discover another of the lost jungle-covered Khmer cities. Well, I've got a second reason for joining the expedition. Skip Turner and I were supposed to deliver a prisoner, Fen Lo, from Hawaii to Saigon. He slipped through our fingers. I believe he's somewhere up here in these northern jungles. I expect to get him back. And so the party came to Angkor. On the evening of the first day there, Captain Friday and Skip Turner with Professor Lebrun were walking through a banyan grove when suddenly they were set upon by natives. They were bound hand and foot and thrown in a howder on the second elephant in a caravan of elephants, camels, wild ponies, and mules. Oh, boy, oh, boy. What's the matter, Skip? Don't you like riding elephants? Oh, I'm sick as a dog. So sick on an elephant. Riding an elephant seems to be something like riding a fishing smack in a storm, eh? Lots of disturbing motion. Not telling me. Oh, carriage skip. No, look at the elephant's driver sitting out there on the beast's head with that sort of an ice pick. He's quite relaxed. I'm going to die. No one ever died from North Yole Boy. Watch the driver. It's most interesting. See how he sits there off his sleeve, tapping the elephant first on one side of the head, then on the other to keep him in the proper direction. It's quite a picture in the moonlight. Darker than sin in this howder, though. Dark and the smelly. Lebrun, what's the meaning of this anyway? Kidnapped, Captain Friday, kidnapped. Who are these people? Why are we captives? Where are they taking us? My word, Captain. I demand to know. But, Captain, I'm in the same pickle as you. Why become ferocious with me? Because you promised protection for your entire party and for your secretary. Skipping myself are the only ones in danger, according to your own words. Now, here you are, trust up in a howder on top of an elephant along with us. Fine protection you have, I must say. Oh, now, Captain, you mustn't fret about me. I'm not. I'm wondering about my secretary back at Angkor. Oh, now, this may be just a passing band of Indians and has nothing to do with the Camilla Trouble. Just a band of gypsies, I suppose. That may be, you can't tell. Band of gypsies with elephants and camels and enough other animals to make up a good-sized zoo. Oh, my stomach. Anything I can do for you, Skipper? No, just let me die, peace. Hey, who's this guy next to me? So dark. What's that? Is there a fourth person in the howder? Oh, if that roll in motion would only stop for just a minute. Feel wrong, Captain. See if there really is another person in here. It's so blame-dark. Feel around. On the Sam Hill, am I going to do that with my feet tied together and both hands tied behind me? Wait a minute, wait a minute. Yes, there is a fourth person, all right. Strange he hasn't spoken to us. He may be a native guard. No, his feet are tied. Here, who are you? Oh, must be knocked out. You don't suppose it's Dr. Carter, do you? Just a minute. No, no. His face is smooth. He's unconscious, all right. Is that you, Groening Skip? No, I was the other guy. He'll be around now, any moment. How much longer do you think they'll keep us in here? Oh, probably travel the rest of the night and then we'll rest during the day. What's the idea of that? Oh, it's a protection from the deadly heat of the daytime. Oh, it's Perry Mills. Hello, youngster. How are you feeling? What makes it so dark? Where am I? We're in a how-down aboard a mighty big elephant. Oh, is that what that rolling motion is? That's the explanation. Where are you, Captain Friday? I can't see anything. I'm not far off. I'm tied up as tightly as you are. Just you and I? No, lad. I'm here, and so he's skipped on now. Is that you, Professor LeBron? Yes, Perry. What about Celia and Patricia? What's become of them? Well, don't you know? No, I was with them at the hotel when a native came and said Professor LeBron wanted me to come down to the banyan grove. Oh, so? Very neat trap. When I got down there, a half a dozen natives jumped out of the brush. I tried to fight and got knocked in the head. We had the same experience. Man, I've got a headache big enough for this elephant. Hey, who is this gang, and why are they taking us? Well, wherever it is, it's through some of the wildest country I ever laid my eyes on. Can you see anything outside? You can see out the front of the how-down. Whenever we leave the dense forest and cross an open space, I can catch glimpses of the vegetation of the moonlight. I never saw anything like it. We're beyond the pale of civilization. We're probably in territory unknown to white men. Hello? Our elephant stopped. You mean the agon is over? Just a moment till I pick up. Well, I'll be. What is it? What sort of a world is this, LeBron? The last time I looked out there, there was nothing but jungle. Now look, it seems to be a wild city. Look at that tower. It's like a great cathedral. Now let me get a look, will you? I need some fresh air anyway. Well, I'll be a cock-eyed son of a gun. Hey, that'd make the Empire State Building look like a hole in the ground. It's magic. How can such a thing as that be out here in this jungle? Wait, there may be another lost city of the old Khmer Empire. We must be at the end of our night's journey. The gate's open. We're going inside. Clanging of those gates sounded too much like prison gates to be pleasant. I'm getting over my sick to the stomach feeling. At least I can stand up. How do you feel, Patricia? Terrible. Don't you really feel any better? Yes, a little, I guess. Who'd ever thought riding a camel would be like that? Well, I'd rather be on a ship in a storm any time. And they smell twice as bad as they ride. Oh, it was pretty terrible. How in dizzying fell flat on my face when they sat me down on the ground? Yeah, I would have, too. Only that dirty, grinning, little slant-eyed man caught me and carried me in here. In India, they have the untouchables. Here, they seem to have the unwashables. Were you scared? No, no. I was too sick. I wasn't too sick to be in a panic. I thought of all sorts of ghastly things while those men were leading me in here. Well, I didn't care what happened to me. But who are they? What do you suppose they want with us? Oh, everything's gone wrong since Dr. Cardi disappeared in Saigon. Yes, I'm missing dead pretty thoroughly just now. I have read about the strange tribes stealing white girls and selling them in the slave markets. Hey, stealer, you don't suppose that's what's happening to you? I don't know. Well, they lured Perry Mills away from us at the hotel in Angkor, just so they could kidnap us. It was stupid of us to leave the hotel. Well, it wasn't our fault. When the native came in and said Captain Friday had been hurt, we had to do something. Now, never get away with it. I'll bet anything, Captain Friday, and skip around our trail right now. Gee, I never expected to be kidnapped aboard a camel. And I never expected to be seasick in a jungle. I've been looking around this room. Have you noticed? Oh, I haven't noticed anything. I've been feeling so sorry for my insides. Look at all the inscriptions on the wall. This is one of the ancient Khmer ruins. Well, it's the barest room I ever saw. Big stone chamber with nothing in it, but rice straw for a bed. Evidently, it's never been used for a prison before. Straws nice and fresh. Didn't you have a peculiar feeling when that great gate in the wall opened and all our caravan of animals began to march through? No, no, Celia. I tell you, I was just plain sick. Well, so was I, but I still had reactions. It was just as though great eyes were watching every move we made. I have that same feeling now. But that's silly, Celia. We're in a room with rock walls two or three feet thick and not a window on the place. Well, I don't mean human eyes. Celia, what are you talking about? Are you ill? No, I'm perfectly all right. The eyes I'm talking about are not looking at me. They're looking inside me and through me. They're like great searchlights. Celia, hysterical. No, I'm not. But ever since we left Saigon, I've had a growing sense of impending disaster. My whole body fairly sings my nerves are so taut. Shh, they're unchaining the door. What is it? Someone put something inside the door and closed it again. It isn't another cobra, is it? They wouldn't dare do that. They wouldn't dare. Change elephant, camel, and wild pony caravan was waiting in the Cambodian night in a banyan grove on the edge of Angkor Tom. First, Captain Friday, Skip Turner, and Professor Lebrun were trapped and thrown aboard an elephant. And then Perry Mills was tossed in the howder after them. And finally, Celia Carter and Patricia Young were added to the victim. They were placed on a camel. All through the night, the queer caravan crashed through the Cambodian jungles. And then suddenly, they came to the ruins of an ancient Khmer city, a gate opened in the wall. The caravan went in, and now here we are with Patricia and Celia in a great bare stone room, empty except for rice straw to sleep on. And then the door was unchained and opened. It isn't another cobra, is it? No, it looks like an earthen bowl. I wish we had better light. These pitched torches stuck in the wall don't help very much. Patricia, where are you going? I want to see what it is. Oh, don't go. You can't go. What is it? Looks like stew. Anyway, something to eat. Oh, food. Well, they certainly don't intend us to starve. Here, look at it. Oh, I couldn't eat a bite. Well, I can. I'm hungry. What a horrible-looking mess. Why, almost anything might be in there. Probably is, too. Just the same, I'm hungry enough to eat almost anything. Are you really going to try that? Of course. It's nice and hot. But how? You haven't any spoon or fork. Then I'll use my fingers. Stick your fingers in the food? Well, I prefer that, to putting my face in it. You have your choice. Right in the soup. Go ahead. I feel as though the head waiter was watching me out of the corner of his eye. We'll probably be eating with our fingers, like experts, before we get out of Cambodia. Oh. I burned myself. My dear child, you needn't have to put your whole hand in here. Wipe it off on the straw. Well, a piece I wanted was slippery. I had to go clear to the bottom for it. Did you get it? Well, certainly. What do I do now? Hold it up and nibble off the bottom of it? For goodness sakes, don't put the whole thing in your mouth at once. You'll strangle. I feel better already. It's probably the food. The boss always said nine-tenths of a person's courage is in his stomach. There's a lot in that, I guess. Well, this is wonderful food, Ash. Listen. I wish that would stop. Every time I hear that chant, I have the most terrible sinking sensation. Oh, just some wandering musicians, I guess. I'm going to lie down here on the straw until you finish your meat. Then we'll drink the soup out of the bowl. Never be able to get our mouths over the edge. Let's try straws then. Maybe they'll love. Patricia, what's the matter? What are you looking for? Didn't you hear someone speak? What? I heard a man's voice. I know I did. Someone outside? No, in this room. Oh, you must have been. Shh, listen. Foolish children. Well, now I hear it. He's in here. Can't see him. Shh. Ignorance, poor, misbegotten souls. Why do you dash yourselves against the wall of mystery? It separates the east and the west. Who is it? Where are you? Children of the lesser world. Listen to what I have to say. Go forth and tell your men folk that their quest is futile. Go forth and persuade them that unless they express willingness to turn back, some of them will die. But we didn't come here ourselves. We don't want to be here. We were kidnapped. The forces that brought you have the power to return you. Go forth and tell your men folk to return. Tell them to go forth from Cambodia. Tell them to leave forever the shadow of the beloved, Angkor Tom. Unless they do this thing, they will die, and their women folk will be sold into slavery. Their women folk? He must be talking about us. What does he mean, go forth? We're locked in here, aren't we? Only we could see him. We can't get out. We're locked in. We don't know where we are, and we don't know where the rest of the party is. Listen to me carefully, o sisters of outer darkness. Rouse thyself from thy bed, and proceed as I shall direct you. First take from the wall one of the tortures. How's the air, now, Perry, my lad? Better? Much better, thanks, Professor. That food put new life into me. Well, lies there on the store and rest. You'll be all right. Your head isn't badly injured. What's the matter with Captain Friday? What a mess. Looks as though I should stick to my own line, hunting city criminals. Now, now, Captain, don't brood. I could be sure Patricia is safe. I should have stayed with them back at the hotel, walking into a trap like that. Oh, no, you needn't blame yourself, Mills. A queer place we've been stuck into. Ever see such a barn of a room? Part of an old Khmer temple. Big thing, all right. Where's Skip? Lights at them I can hardly see. He said he was going to investigate. Smart lad Skip, eh, Captain? Always nosing around. Not at this sort of business, I'm afraid. We're both a little out of our element. Aren't we all? What we need is Dr. Carter, the head of our expedition, in a case like this. And do you suppose we're at the end of the caravan's journey? Or is this just a resting place? Oh, I should think the latter. Sort of a watering station, supply depot, you might say. Can't be very far from Angkor in one night's march. If we could make an escape. Is that you, Skip? Hey, you bet. Hey, Captain, I got information. Real dope. A tip, eh, Turner? Patricia and Celia are here too. What? What did you say, Skip? It's the truth. I just got to low down. It's a straight good. Did you see them? No, but the guard told me. What guard? Why that dark, complexed bozo outside our door? Does he speak English? No, I talk pig Latin at him. Sure he talks American. Well, ain't he a regular, old-time Louisiana cotton man? Eh, leave it to Skip, Turner. Why, sure. Signed on a boat at New Orleans, and then jumped ship when he got to Singapore. And now he's in the kidnapping business. Nothing other kind. He's working for a gang in India, running narcotics into Siam and down through the Malay Peninsula. Well, it sounds to me as though you got his life story. Sure, and it cost me 20 bucks too. Oh, well, Captain, my expense account. Never mind that. What else did you find out? Well, according to him, this caravan's on a return trip from bringing in a big supply of dope, see? Now, on a return trip, they usually travel light, unless they just happen to pick up some parrots or monkeys for some zoo, or else maybe a load of rice. Well, this time, somebody hired him to grab us off of Angkor and bring us here. Then we're not in the hands of our actual enemies. We are not. This is as far as we go with the caravan. It goes on north and then west on its regular route. Now, they have turned us over to our real captors here at the temple, or whatever it is. But what about the girls? Are they safe? Yeah, he said they were shut up in some other part of this place. Hey, do you know what this joint is? Maybe you can tell us. Well, I sure can, teacher. Get a load of this. This is the temple of the guerrillas. What do you think of that? It leaves me perfectly cold. Oh, yeah, well, I don't mean. I don't care a hoop about being locked up in the same building with a bunch of hairy apes. Buy a dang, sir. Oh, come now, Skip. This may have been what you say at some time in its history. Perhaps back in the ancient days of the Camille regime, they did actually worship the guerrilla here. Though I doubt it. The guerrilla is an African ape, and we are a long, long way from Africa. I don't care nothing about them ancient Camillers. I'm talking about here and now. And Gar told me that his gang brings in a big he-guerrilla for the priests here at this temple twice a year. Well, he says they must have a whole flock of them pinned up here someplace. I think your talkative friend, the guard, has been ribbing you. He's probably anxious to give you your money's worth. Well, anyway, somebody paid his boss a good, big price to kidnap our party and drag us in here. You believe that, don't you? Yes, that's possible. But transporting guerrillas here, that's a little hard to believe. Well, he said they were shipped by a boat from the east coast of Africa to Rangoon, and they was picked up there by the caravan. Did he say who owned the caravan? Yeah. Yes, I'm Indian Prince. I can't remember his name. But getting back to this guerrilla business, after all, this is a snake worshipping country. It isn't natural that a religion would spring up about an imported animal. You ain't calling me a liar. I'm only repeating what I was told. I think I look around our dungeon. That's a good idea, Lebrun. Don't wander off too far. So we're in the hands of the real enemy now. Suppose that means we've been turned over to the native priests who are so intent on stirring up a revolt with their seven-headed emerald cobra. I'd give a good deal to know what's become of our guide to Kwan. He seemed a pretty decent fellow. Hey, I've been around long enough to know you can't trust an oriental. That's a broad statement, Skip. The code of honor among the orientals is decidedly strict. Well, in my dealings with him. Which has been with the criminal element. Yes, a fact. Then you're trying to measure the whole oriental world by the handful of criminal orientals you ran against in San Francisco. You're right, Perry. Yet I don't trust this to Kwan, fellow of yours. I bet the San Francisco mint that to Kwan isn't very far from us right at this minute. You mean you think to Kwan has something to do with our being kidnapped? Exactly. Undoubtedly, this is the work of your precious to Kwan and probably my ex-prisoner, Fenlo. Hey, I think you hit it right on the button, Captain. But why in the world would they do that? Well, we're probably interfering with their plans. It's easier for them to hold us captives in this out-of-the-way prison until their activities are well underway than would be for them to keep an eye on us if it were free. Well, I hope your French government that put us on this job will hurry up and get us out of this. Why, should they try to rescue us? They don't know we've been kidnapped. We were supposed to go to Angkor just as we did and drop from sight into the jungles. All the French government knows we're carrying out our original plan. Oh, that's great. Nobody knows and nobody cares what's happened to us. What I'd like to know is what's become of Dr. Carter. He seems to have vanished off the face of the earth. Probably holed up in some ancient ruins the same as we are. But Captain Friday, what about the node? Remember, he left Saigon of his own free will. Maybe he did, and maybe he didn't. You think the note was faked? Could have been. Well, then you really think Dr. Carter is a prisoner too? I do. Skip, could you all go over these quarters carefully? Yes, sir. Top to bottom, inside and out. Any possibility of escape? Not a chance. If you could bribe the guard to talk, couldn't we bribe him to let us tie him up and escape? Well, I suggested it to him. Well? He shut up like a clam. I even waved a couple of hundred bucks in front of his eyes. He turned his back and walked away and I couldn't get another word out of him. Oh, what'd you find, Professor? Oh, wonderful luck he takes these ancient cameos. No modern builder would ever think of burying bronze bars in stone to make a door. It's a lost art. Oh, beautiful work. Yeah, that's the first time I've ever been on the wrong side of prison bars. Well, live and learn. Why? Where's Perry? He was lying there on the rice a minute ago. Well, I'll be a son of a gun. The light's bad, and perhaps he's moving about. Perry? That's queer. Oh, man, can't disappear right before your eyes. Let's take a look around the room. You go that way, I'll go to the left. The light is so vague with these lead torches. If he'd gotten up, one of us would have seen him. Hey, this thing gives me the willies. Let's keep the conversation going. One person can vanish, so can another. I know. You two follow along the walls. I'll go through the center of the room. Good. We'll all head toward the door. Well, if I start vanishing, you're all going to hear about it. The torches and the wall give off more smoke than light. When we get to the door, if we don't find anything, we'd better speak to the guard. He probably already knows what's happened. Talk about your oriental magic. Here we are. Well, I drew a blank. Same here, not a sign. The guard is gone. He's into a soul outside the bars. Well, what do you know about that? Try the door. Hey, look. Look here. The door's open. Open? Something queer here. Shall I take a snoop around outside? Go ahead. Quietly, now. Maybe you talk the guard into giving us our freedom after all. Not that bird. Then he discovered the door was open and went outside. No, that's impossible. Couldn't have stood up and walked out without our seeing him. Did you ever see such a deserted place? It's like a graveyard. Hey, listen. Doesn't seem to be so. See you tomorrow. Come back, come back. That's Patricia. Come on. What terror of the ancient temple has descended upon Patricia and Celia? Was there something after all to the story of the Negro Guard? Remember, it is the temple of the guerrillas. Listen next week to episode five of The Cobra King Strikes Back, entitled The Living Image of Cambodia. Watch for adventures by Morse.