 tired of the everyday routine have a 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 tonight we escape to a murderous conflict of greed and passion for a coast-wise tramp steamer headed for Central America as John and Gwen Bagney tell it in their exciting tale Maraca I am standing in the little patio of a cantina near Maracas the air is heavy with a scent of tropical vines, tequila and gunpowder there's broken glass everywhere and the most appalling silence Captain Kelso is standing here with me so is Estelle and General Topaz and his men their swarthy faces serious completely erasing their earlier gaiety the party is over we're all waiting for General Topaz to give the order and then that maybe I'd better start at the beginning I know now I should never have taken the birth that's made on the Bruno she's a coast-wise tramp out of San Diego but at the time I figured working under that loudmouth sadistic slave-driving Kelso was better than the seamen's mission they were carrying a cargo for Santa Gardo and two passengers from the beginning the voyage spelled trouble but one thing we weren't long out of Diego when we ran into the blow I wasn't too concerned about it but I went to notify the old man purely as a matter of routine I found him sprawled across his bunk his mouth open, snoring there were a couple of empties on the floor and another in the basin Captain Kelso Hey Skipper Hey Skipper Storm, we're running into weather So, something wrong? No sir, I just thought you'd like to know God, no I know Get back to the bridge I suppose I have to change course sir Haven't you been in the blow before? Maybe I should've checked your papers before I signed you on You are a sailor aren't you? Yes sir, I've been to sea a couple of times Well, get out of here and quit bathing and don't bother me again, I got a headache You should have What's that Mr. Doyle? Nothing sir Nothing Back in the wheelhouse I watched the well deck below disappear completely again and again beneath the angry white woman and then if I didn't have enough on my mind it was the passenger George Miley I hate passengers that don't belong on freighters always under foot, always asking fool questions and Miley was no exception but what was worse he was also the shipper of all that cargo a number two hold farm equipment from Miley and Gavin, Los Angeles Mr. Doyle Oh we had orders to people like to him Mr. Doyle You shouldn't be running around the ship in this kind of weather Mr. Miley, you'll get yourself hurt I want to see the captain He's not here sir Where is he? He's in his quarters asleep sir Tell the captain I want to see him I can't do that Mr. Miley I'm a personal friend of Captain Kelso's He'll see me Sorry but he left strict orders not to be disturbed for anything But the sea is wild, it'll bash my cargo to bits Your cargo is alright sir Now why don't you just go to your state room and relax Young man When I want to discuss my business with a mate I'll call you When I want to talk to the captain I mean exactly that Now get in If he's asleep wake him Go to the kicker cobra out of his bed Go wake him yourself I will Now she'll also report you for your insolence Yeah I'll do that What did he think somebody was going to steal his precious cargo? He was on the dock when we loaded it He was in the hold when we stowed it And on the deck when we battled the hatches We were so afraid we'd contaminate it Why didn't he send it air express? I was still burning about it When the second came to relieve me Went down to the galley to have a cup of coffee He inked the spigot of the coffee and so hard That hot coffee splashed in and out of the cup And all over my pants I spun around so mad I saw red Yeah I saw red alright A shining red page boy Bob And underneath it a Marking face And about a hundred and ten well distributed pounds There were only two passengers on board So that made her Mrs. Miley May I have a cup of that? What? Coffee Oh yeah sure Do I surprise you that much? No no As a matter of fact I just thought that Yes I know everybody thinks that If they meet George first And if they meet You first Then I warn them about George Oh Was he very unpleasant? Not of me if that's what you mean Yes he does that to people What did he want you to do? Stop the storm? You know I'm better than I do I don't think you like me I'm sorry I've got something else on my mind Oh don't be so serious I was only kidding you So? So it's going to be a long trip Excuse me Mrs. Miley I've got to get back to the bridge Everybody calls me Estelle What do they call you? They call me Doyle Mr. Doyle excuse me Oh Mr. Doyle I hope I haven't rushed you Passengers You see what I mean they get in your hair one way or another Only one day out And already she was bored Already she was looking for a way to pass the time And somebody to pass it with Well you can ignore the passengers But the cargo that's the life Blood of shipping The storm quieted down I went below to make sure it was all well secured Number three hold filled with canned goods was okay So was number four which carried a cargo of radios Then I went into number two To see how Miley's farm Implements were faring And immediately I was glad I had One end of a crater chart loose And wouldn't do for Miley to find that I brought my flashlight closer to check For possible damage and That's when I saw them Highly polished stocks of A dozen rifles Farm equipment huh I ripped open a few more crates Yeah they were all the same rifles No wonder George Meiling Was so concerned with his cargo Captain Kelso I told you to keep out of here You know what we're carrying a number two hold Sure cargo farming equipment Well the only digging it'll be doing is for graves What do you mean? The crates of rifles Meiling's transporting What are you doing a number two hold? Listen Kelso I signed on this ship as mate But when it comes to carrying contraband that's something else The cargo is listed on the bill of lighting As farm equipment as far as I'm concerned That's what it is understand Mr. Doyle Yeah I understand What's your cut? What are you talking about? Kelso you're just unsurprised enough How much are Meiling and Gavin paying you? If you got something definite on your mind spring it All right I will I want my share Why you You might talk to the wrong people Like say Poor officials Why you punk What do you think you are? Get out of here get out before Get straight Kelso if I'm going to help carry trouble I'm going to get paid for it And you can tell that to that jerk Meiling Why don't you tell me yourself All right Meiling so you hurt me It wasn't my fault He was snooping around the hall Mr. Meiling I didn't know anything about it He's a Meiling fool yet Don't upset yourself captain There's enough profit in my cargo For all of us No reason why we can't let the man share With us now he's there You're making a mistake Why don't you let me handle him You had that opportunity captain We'll do it my way now And what's my share your way We'll talk about that I want a third A third? You're greedy No I'm afraid we can't let you have that much Why not? There are already three of us in the deal My partner Gavin in Los Angeles Myself and the good captain here All right then I'll settle for a fourth How about shall we say Three thousand dollars You're really off your rocker That hold is loaded with those crates You better take it Mr. Doyle You're sad about informing the poor officials Won't do much good Unless you get to poor I'm afraid you're not in a very good position to bargain I'd say I was Because you see Myling You either give me a fourth Or every man in the crew will know What we're carrying before night You know what happens then You got a big split on your hands Everybody shares You're a very smart man Well Myling Is it a deal? In just a moment We will return you to escape There's a fellow that makes a nice little thing Singing popular songs Fellow named Crosby, Bing Crosby Then comes another fellow named Frank Fay And begins to analyze the words to the songs This man Crosby has been singing Is it justice? Well who knows But it's one of the funniest sessions on the air If you heard their broadcast last month Frank Fay will pay Bing another visit Tomorrow night on Bing's Regular Wednesday night CBS show Bing Crosby, Groucho Marx Burns and Allen, Dr. Christian They're all Wednesday night stars on most Of these same CBS stations And now we return you to Escape And the second act of Maracas The first day of the voyage of the Bruno Was drawing to a close Not 12 hours ago I'd shipped out of San Diego With exactly a dollar and 62 cents And a Canadian dime to my name And now The potential Jackpot potential The night was clear and dark As I came off watch There was no moon The storm had blown itself out to the southwest And now only a light wind Across our port beam marked its passing Yeah It was the kind of a night I always liked at sea Quiet and dark But this night I would have felt A lot happier if there'd been a moon There were too many dark places Where a man could be ambushed on a ship And the sea is a handy repository For unwanted ballast Including the human variety So I moved warily Conscious of every sound around me Almost jumped out of my jacket When I heard him What? Where are you? Up here on the boat then May I see you a moment? I went up the steps One hand on the railing One hand on the pocket that held my gun I stopped Took a bearing and squinted in the darkness I could just make him out myling Standing near number three lifeboat Over here, Mr. Doyle Yeah, sure What's on your mind? I want to talk to you Yeah, I gathered that It's about our partnership What about it? It's a fine addition to our little enterprise But there's a little problem Ah, the fine print The hidden clause and the contract Oh, nothing that can't be worked out I'm afraid I was a little hasty Spoken advisedly in the captain's quarters Oh While my partner Tom Gavin Is a very reasonable man I feel sure he would never endorse A four-way split You know, there's a lot of overhead To a proposition like this Clear profit Get to the point, will you? Isn't it obvious? We have one too many partners One has to be liquidated Which one? That's a decision I'll leave up to you Captain Kelso wouldn't hesitate To do it to you if I gave him the chance That's a charming idea But no thanks, I'll run your guns But you handle your own liquidation Then I'm afraid you leave me no alternative, Mr. Doyle Keep your hands up and be good enough to move back And I'll wait a minute Get over there between the lifeboats I hadn't even seen him reach for a gun Yet there it was pointing into the pit of my stomach As he forced me backwards between the lifeboats Where there's no railing If only I could get to my gun, I'd have a shooting chance I didn't know what the sound was But it startled Merling just enough for me To pull my gun and hit the deck His bullet went miles, mine found its mark But he'd made the choice for me Murder or be murdered And I'd have to explain it I wondered what I would tell them But nobody saw it, maybe nobody even heard it Maybe I could just keep my mouth shut Maybe the wind had carried the sound away I moved quickly across the boat deck Stumbled over a david crank handle This must have been the cause of the sound that startled Merling This was the thing that had saved my life I stooped down to pick it up And became conscious of something else A foot A foot in a spiked heeled sandal Mrs. Merling She stared at me without expression I didn't know how long she'd stood there In the shadow of the ventilator I tried to bumble out some kind of an explanation Of how it had happened, how it wasn't my fault I didn't know how much she'd seen But I stopped abruptly when I heard him Coming up the ladder, bellowing like a bull Who's out there? What's that shooting about? Oh, it's you, Joel What are you... Where's Merling? What are you doing up here? Where's Mr. Merling? What happened? George had an accident, he fell overboard What? He was drunk, he didn't know what he was doing He would have killed me if Mr. Doyle hadn't happened along And interfered Yeah, but I heard shots That was George When he lost his footing, his gun went off Twice? Yes, twice I suppose you'll have to make some kind of a record of this In your logbook Yeah I'd better lower a lifeboat and look for one Oh, I wouldn't do any good, Kent George can't swim I watched Kelso walk away I knew he didn't believe any of it The minute he was out of earshot, I turned to her What did you lie for? Why didn't you tell the truth the way it happened? What do you care? You're in the clear I don't like the way you did it Well, it's done, so forget it You ought to be grateful to me What for? I saved your life How do you think that thing got on the deck, that handle You mean that you That's right, I threw it George would have killed you if I hadn't Hey, wait a minute That means that you wanted him dead Earlier tonight in the galley I thought you were just passing the time with me I thought that you You thought what? Let's just say I did you a favor And you did me a favor Now we're even The bereaved little widow She made that seascum Kelso look like a choir boy I don't know what she had in a vicious mind I couldn't be good Not that it made any difference to me I had only one interest One interest only, my share of the loot Now that Myling was dead, the split should be bigger And then I remembered Had done the stupid thing I'd ripped open quite a number of those crates In my hurried inspection of the cargo And I hadn't crated them up again Those shiny rifle butts were visible We couldn't risk poor officials seeing them I hurried in the number two hold And was busy nailing up the cases When Kelso came down Just protecting my investment You've gotten around an awful lot tonight, Doyle I'm an active partner Well, if you want to stay that way You'll take orders from me Myling's gone, it's every man for himself now I don't like you, Doyle That's mutual That was some cock and bull story you and her cooked up You heard her tell it I've known Myling for years I know he never touched that dropper like her Talk to her about it That's the trouble I can't prove a thing But you watch your step, Doyle Don't you get any idea you can cut me out Let you cut him up Yeah, well, I'm gonna watch you too, Kelso I'm gonna watch you close You can quit fighting over it, boys There isn't going to be any money to split What? The cargo's already been paid for Tom Gavin collected for it in Los Angeles Before this ship ever sailed Myling told me it would be paid for At the end of the run Myling promised me George promised a lot of things And George isn't here You never intended for him to reach the end of the run Is that it, Mrs. Myling? Oh, oh, smart You and Gavin had a cute little thing cooked up Between you, didn't you? And I stepped in and washed your dirty linen You haven't anything to squawk about You're alive, aren't you? And neither have you, Captain You'll get paid for the freight Freight? For that measly amount I took a chance On losing my license and my ship Freight! I order Keep away from me Freight, leave me alone I said shut up If she thinks she's gonna get away with it Shut up! Now listen You hear that? Listen, it's ticking Only two things tick A clock and a time bomb Here we've been shouting Screaming at each other as the minutes ticked away And now we wildly fanned out with flashlights Trying to track down the source of the sound Fighting time Minutes Maybe seconds I was the one who had found it I didn't one of the cases of rifles I'd opened Enough TNT to blow the whole ship apart And us with it We held our breath white and tense As I pulled the clock mechanism away From the detonator Dismaddling the bomb And it was only one person who could have done it The one who insured the cargo, the shipper Myling had been on board so it had been Gavin How do you feel about your Mr. Gavin now, Mrs. Myling? How do you like being a sucker Along with the rest of the boys? You're right I'm the biggest sucker of all No wonder Tom was so sure George Would never come back And do you know how he roped me in? With the oldest cliche in the world He was going to marry me when I came back In my widow's weave Never mind the broken blossoms What about us? We're carrying contraband And all the risks that goes with it And not a nickel for any of us If you too have finished feeling sorry For yourselves, old man Kelson, like the floor There's no law of gravity that says this cargo Has to go to Santa Gordo, is there? You've got an idea? Sure I've got an idea, but I'm boss You understand, do you? If you've got an idea Okay, Mrs. Myling? All I want is a chance to see Tom Gavin squirm You'll get it, I promise you You gotta be enterprising in this business, do you? There's more than one way to turn a buck And there's more than one side to a revolution Like Kelson said No reason why our cargo should go on to Santa Gordo There were others who wanted needed rifles The guerrillas And what was more important, they had plenty of money Gold And Kelson knew a man in Maracas Who knew a man who could put us in touch With the guerrilla chief So we altered the course Ten days later we steamed through the Gulf of Theresa And entered the obscure little bay of Maracas Estelle, we were partners now I dropped the Mrs. Myling Kelson and I, three ill-assorted people What a show to make the rendezvous We walked up a steep winding hill to a little cantina And just as Kelson had promised His friend's friend had made the contact All we had to do was wait It was a hot night so we sat in the picturesque little patio And then we heard them First it sounded like a roar of thunder From over the horizon And then it took form First a boisterous cloud and then distinct shapes Horsemen, a dozen souls Shooting and poking at the gallows up A gang of renegades Unshaded, sweat stained Each piece are looking at the other All wearing cross-cottage belts Some breros and sporting firearms Of assorted caliber and make You are Captain Kussel? I am Topaz, the general Topaz Well, the shipments are at it, General I'll have it unloaded Here is no hurry Anytime come my men will take it off In the meantime we have come long way The hills there die So are my men We have to drink now But I thought maybe we'd better You brought lovely lady Topaz is happy And when Topaz is happy He must have drink Amadeo, Tequila, Cermesa for the men And for my friends Ready? Let's have a drink I have never seen so much liquor consumed so fast Tequila and Cerveza A violent combination And it had a wild effect on them The more they drank the more uncontrollable it became Scouting and shooting glasses The property of the Compton Parapas With a kind of uneasy feeling We wanted to include our business quickly Unload the rifles, get paid and get out Even Kelso began to be uneasy Well, General, fun is fun But we can't hang around here all night Twenty times my friend, twenty times More tequila, Diego Play for us Senorita, is this not nice? You are lucky You're sick, moonlight and Topaz Please, General, Captain Kelso is right You should send for the cargo You think so, eh? Mario, Shadow, get the man Unload the rifles You are happy now, senorita? This kind of settling liter We have drink, no? No, I... You think Topaz drink too much, eh? Amadeo, hold the bottle up Eh, I must be drunk I hit the bottle, not the cord He was a good enough shot to make my blood run cold All of them were The more they drank, the better their aim General Topaz was having a riot at the stand With a span of 44 shooting boards And it was a relief When the cases of rifles began to pile up And suddenly The general's mood changed He was bored with his marksmanship Bring me one I want to see how good the gringo's guns are One of his men ripped open a crate General Topaz grabbed a rifle, held it in his hands Inspected it and threw it violently at me Watch this! This dog! You make fun with Topaz Open them all! His men literally tore the tops off Dozens of crates with their fingers And I told Colden the pit of my stomach I hoped it had been a mistake But it wasn't, it was a grim joke For Gavin hadn't meant that cargo to go through So he hadn't wasted real rifles on it He'd sent case after case of dummy cargo Oh, they were rifles all right Good enough to fool me down in the hold If only I'd taken one out, examined it I might have discovered in time that they were phony guns That would never fire a shell Cheap, hot metal limitations With highly polished pine stocks Great stuff for kids under a Christmas tree But not quite good enough for General Topaz It's important to man I have important war And for this you'll pay Mario, Diego, Mino, Charo, Amadeo, Tano A great hotel for these bastards And so it's dawn And we three Estel, Calso and I Are standing here in the patio General Topaz and his guerrillas are drunk But not dead drunk Rather deadly drunk Ten of them The firing squad lined up facing the three of us Their guns aimed straight at us And on their dull faces Murder The general with his flamboyant sense of drama Raises his gun just as the first rays Of the sun streak through He has a sense of the drama, General Topaz But no sense of humor But when so final it might be funny A double, double cross Fire! Escape is produced and directed by William N. Robeson Tonight we have presented Maracas by John and Gwen Bagney featured in the cast were Bill Conrad as Doyle Ted Decorcia as Captain Calso Joan Banks as Estel Paul Priese as George Meierling And Juan O'Hanandez as General Topaz Special music was arranged and conducted by Del Castillo Next week You were on a schooner in the South Sea And dead ahead lies the island of Falota And the most desperate man of this lawless region You have never seen him But you have sworn to kill him Next week we escape with an exciting tale of the strangest bargain ever made As George F. Warts tells it in his famous story, Sunk Goodbye, Dan, until this same time next week When once again we offer you escape Festive music for a festive holiday One full hour of it That's the treat in store for you when you tune in the Thanksgiving Day Festival Over these same CBS stations The corollaires and the symphonet combine talents for this great show Plus Leonid Hambrough pianist, Oscar Shumsky violinist Bambi Lin, young Broadway star and many other favorites Remember 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thanksgiving Day For the whole family, the Thanksgiving Day Festival Over the entire CBS network Now stay tuned for Hit the Jackpot Which follows immediately on most of these stations This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System 10 p.m. View L.O.V.A., Boulevard One Time