 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. You are one of four people trapped in an isolated trading post somewhere in the Yukon territory. The blizzard outside making escape impossible. And you know that before the spring thaws release you, before you can leave this cabin behind you, one of your companions by consent of the others will be killed. Listen now as escape brings you less crutchfield story, judgment day at crippled deer. I think it most unlikely that you ever heard of crippled deer crossing and you would have great difficulty locating it on a map even though the Yukon for the most part is vast and empty. Crippled deer is a trading post, one sprawling pine log building nothing more. But it's been my home and my business for 20 years now and in the course of time I have grown fond of it, even grown fond of the bitter cruelty of the great north. He has found two of the long winters, snowbound, dark, but the trappers and miners have all gone outside and we wait along for the coming of spring. But of one such winter I am not fond. I still wake at times from dreaming of it, lies shuddering and fearful in the darkness. That was the winter of the black snow. When the horror came moaning on the wind and no man could look in another's eyes without shame and loathing and hate. Listen Leclerc, listen to it. I know that sound and the gray skies and the black in the west. It's gonna hit us before tomorrow morning. Oh it's close all right. What do you think Joe? Many wolf track in snow last night, much hunting. They're now asleep. I think maybe one day, maybe two then big blizzard come. All right, two days then. That's still cutting it too close. You ought to be here by now. Relentious, ain't you fella? Just can't wait. Honey, what smart cook got that we ain't got? You wouldn't know, Higgins. You would know, wouldn't you sweetheart? At least he's got a civil tongue in his head. And he's also got a lot of things you'd give your right arm for, Higgins. He knows how to laugh and live and how to make other people laugh and live. I bet he does. And he knows how to treat a woman. Yeah, any woman the way I hear it. You shut that mouth of yours right now or I'll make you wish you had. You will. Higgins, in a day or two not a blizzard comes. Close the trails. And we're here then all of us together the rest of the winter. Hear this one building no way to get out. Tell you once and for all I will not have this kind of feeling. Then let him shut up. Can't take a joke. That's enough Higgins. He's got a right to be worried. I worried myself. Marco and Blakey don't have enough grub up there. They get snowed in at that mine. They can possibly last out the winter. And that blizzard is close. Should have come down by now. I was just funny you had a clear. Sorry, Bill. Then watch what you're saying. Now worry. They'll make it all right. Why Marco Moore knows more about this country in a weather than most people. No talk. You sound. What is it Joe. Dog team. Sled coming. Marco must be Marco and Blakey with those binoculars. Maybe we can see them when they come through the gap. He can help me open the window. Might not be them bells. Could be Robertson. Not him. He's too smart a money to get snowed in and this far from Dawson. Come on push. All right here. Let me see now. It's nearly too dark to. There's a sled all right coming out of the gap. It's them. It is them. I can't quite make. No. No it's only one man. Marty. No. No not Robertson. It's Blakey. But Marco is not with him. Blakey coming in alone alone. Two partner gold one come back very bad. Shut up. Don't pay any attention to him. Marco is all right. He better be. But Blakey say he better be. They've been partners three seasons now. There's no reason to think anything is wrong. You look dog team lead dog. Marco's dog. But he's right. Is that big husky with a white star. Marco got him two years ago. I don't know. I just don't know. A critical son. Start for a better chance than maybe a glass of two right whiskey. Blakey. Well the clear ugly and never any and Joe what are you having to try. I. Higgins look at that. Sweet art you make up for all of. Go ahead. Where's Marco. Marco. Any here yet. Should he be. Well he pulled out a few days before I did I stayed on till yesterday working the claim. Of course he might have stopped off some place where stopped off where. Well maybe. Maybe it Jackson River. The fact that the post there's got a pair of mighty pretty daughters bell. Better get your dogs out of harness Blakey and get your stuff inside. May start snowing. Yeah it looks like it's building up a good one. Say Blakey. That lead dog. He's no I need. Well I guess you could call it that that's Marco's dog. Marco traded with me. He. He figured I'd be running closer to the storm so I'd need a better lead dog than he would. So he. He traded with me. I see. You see what. What's this all about Jack like it's a matter of life and death. Four of us talk it over while Blakey was unpacking his slip. It didn't add up. We agreed on that. At least it didn't add up the way Blakey was claiming. It was a born liar we knew that and Marco should have been at the trading post by now even if he had stopped off at Jackson River. When Blakey came in we ate and then we waited some more. Still no sound of another dog slip or Marco. Wind seems to be slacking off some. Blizzard ain't far off. Wind always slacks off first. Who's for game of pinocchio. With all of you. You ain't spoke one decent word to me since I got here. Anybody think I was a wolf and sneaked in out of the woods or something. Why don't somebody say something. How'd you get that bruise under your eye Blakey. How'd you get that bruise. You sit around and stare at me for a couple of hours and any only thing you can think up to say is how'd you get that bruise. What happened. Did you get in a fight with somebody. I got the bruise from a rock. But I was working in the tunnel we drove some rock fell out of the roof and a piece of it hit me that's how I got it. You're a lion. What's the matter with you Bell. You're a lion I said you fought with Marco that's how you got it. I fought with nobody why would I fight with him we was partners was Blakey I mean are we still are what did you fight about Blakey. Nothing we didn't fight about nothing. You've got to have some reason Blakey partners don't start fighting over nothing. I mean we wasn't fighting. I don't know why Marco in here I ain't his mother. Maybe he changed his mind he said he was going to be here that's all I know about them why isn't me he left before you did you said so yourself. Where is he Blakey. I don't know. What's the matter with all of you think I kill him or something. Yeah what. That right Blakey. We think maybe you killed him. Come off of it. You're out of your mind you're kidding that's what it is a joke I have me killing all Marco that's a laugh for you. You're going to tell us about it. About what. There ain't nothing to tell. Look if I had done something why would I come straight here with you're all friends of his where you're expecting where else would you go. Well Jackson River they don't have room to put a man up all right I can add for Dawson or South the White Horse storm too close no time here only place all right answer me one thing. Why why do you think I kill it. Show him the class yeah this might be the reason Blakey. You've been going through my stuff you got no right we did it anyway now what about this I was going to tell you about that. I figured I'd wait and. Make it a kind of surprise surprise. It's rich courts Blakey. Must have opened up quite a pocket it's the richest load between here in McKenzie Bay not rich enough for two Marco didn't even know about it I stumbled on to it after he'd already left that's why I was keeping it for a surprise these two Blakey we are keeping these for a surprise I gave him those gloves and that right and tablet and I needed that pair of socks last winter. Well he told me to pack up anything he'd missed bring it along that proves he was figuring to come here why. Well look I know you're worried about Marco and all yeah but you think in the wrong way all of you you're all you're all wrong you make stuff you're saying you didn't kill Marco but you ain't saying it very good Joe show him what you found in the sled you've got no right to bother my things this that's your knife Blakey it was a fox. I shot it on the trail skin did for the dogs that's how the blood got on it you skin Fox what you do with skin I left it I'm a minor not a trap right I don't know anything about skins now look the whole bunch of you I'm getting fed up with this questions accusing me what do you think you're a quarter some kind I don't have to answer anything I ain't on trial. I'm going to turn in. Next morning the barometer dropped again and we knew that Blizzard would hit any minute. All that day we sat huddled around at Woodstove not talking just thinking about Marco and Blakey and just after dark Blakey went outside to settle his dog team by the time he came back in we decided. What are you all staring at? Blakey we're going to give you a trial. A trial for what? Jury of your peers that's the only law we got that's all we likely to have till spring Robertson bypassed as he got on through the Dawson to be the Blizzard. It's just you and us Blakey. You're crazy you ain't the law. If you got anything to say in your own defense any explanation. I ain't doing no more talking you can't do nothing to me. Whatever you say Blakey. Let's vote. Get it over with. If he won't talk there ain't no use asked him anything else. I say he killed Marco one vote guilty. Two of course he did it. Joe he killed. That's three guilty and mine makes four. That's unanimous Blakey. And just what do you aim to do about it. Well we got to the side. Well I'll decide for you. You ain't going to do nothing. And you know why because of this. Grab them told it. Don't none of you move looks a little different now don't it down Blakey that rifle won't get you out of this. It won't huh. Well I'd say it's made some changes already. Four to one you felt mighty big didn't you. Well how do you feel now. Things is kind of even up a little lengthy. You can't hold as a gunpoint all winter. I ain't figuring to. I'm getting out of here. And none of you better try to stop where you're planning to go. That's my business. But I sure ain't going to stay around here no longer. All of you stay right where you are. He's crazy. Where could he get to know where's maybe but he ain't thought that far all he knows right now is you're going to get away. Well what are you going to do about it. Get your rifles. To go after him. You are listening to judgment day at crippled dear tonight's presentation of escape. Saturday night on CBS Radio's thrilling western series called gun smoke meet United States Marshall Matt Dylan. Marshall Dylan faces another problem this Saturday a problem as real and vital as the old West itself and justice full of action as well. Don't miss the exciting unusual drama on CBS Radio's gun smoke Saturday night at these stations. And now escape and the second act of judgment day at crippled dear. Backing down a fellow man is not a pleasant thing. Even though he's crazed with fear. But there was no choice. The four of us took a moment longer looking at the door that had slammed shut behind Blakey and then ready. Yeah. Yeah let's get it over with come on. Don't let him get away. Joe you're sick and you pick up his trail. He couldn't have got far. He ain't had enough time. Here. Well. Tracks start here. Come. It's pitch dark to me. How can you see any tracks. BC. Come. He seemed to be heading back on the trail. On foot without even snowshoes he's out of his mind. Guilt and fear they do funny things to a man. Leave trail now. Turn this way into the woods. Come. Ron get away from them. That's all he could think about there in the cabin. Crazy clean out of his senses. He's holed up in that storage shed up on the creek bank. I saw the flash. Why don't we leave him there. Let him get snowed in let him start. No no no when a man begins to start he gets dangerous. He has that rifle and there's a whole case ammunition in that shed. He could hang around the cabin and pick us off one at a time. Me go. Me bring him. You think you can slip up on him Joe? You talk. Shoot guns. Make noise. I go. Blakey. Get out of here. Go back to the post. Maybe this will shake him up a little. Dirty murderer. I'll blast him out of there for the last thing I do. You might hit the Indian. Why don't you tell us about it Blakey. About Marco. Get it off your chest. Where did you bury him? You mean you left him for the walls? Joe must have got inside. Everything all right. Go trouble. You come. All right. Let's go get him. We dragged him back to the post. We tied his hands together behind his back and locked him in one of the bunk rooms. Then we sat the four of us. We didn't say much. Not looking at one another. Knowing what we had to decide. Putting it off as long as we could. And then it was Belle who had been in love with Marco and was ready not to go to pieces any minute. Finally brought it out in the open. We can't sit here and put it off for a winner. We got to decide what we're going to do. Get it over with. I suppose you're right. You know I'm right. What's the matter with all of you? What are you afraid of? Big responsibility, Belle. Not from me. Maybe you can feel sympathy for him, but I don't. He don't even count. A hundred of him would make up for Marco. Perhaps you're right, Belle, but what I was thinking. Storm ain't hit yet. As long as there's a chance Robertson will still come. Well, maybe we ought to wait and leave it to him. After all, he's a lurch. He's job. Let Kootenow come now. Blizzard too close. You go very fast to Dawson. No one spend winter here. Joe is right. We can't figure Antonin Blackie over to the police. Robertson's already probably in Dawson. And we can't try to keep him prisoner clear through the winter. I guess we all agree on that. You know what I agree on. So I guess we better make up our minds, huh? Mind's made up now. You know that. Yes, I know that, Belle. Love, my people say. Man who kill friend must die always. I don't know, Leclerc. Telling a man in a fight or a battle when you're crazy, that's one thing. But doing it in cold blood like this, well, it ain't easy to face it. It ain't the same. I guess we all feel that way about it. None of us want to do it. It looks to me like we don't have much choice. We don't. And the sooner, the better. I don't know. The mountain might still come. Make up your mind, Higgins, if you're afraid to say so. Well, I ain't that. Do you agree with the rest of us then or don't you? Yeah. I agree. Well, it's settled then. We might as well get it over with him. How are you thinking to do it, Leclerc? Well, hanging, that's the usual way, I guess. That roof pole outside the front of the cabin, we could take him up on the roof and tie the other end of the rope to that pole. And then make him step off. How much of a fault does it take? I only seen it done once down in the States. You wouldn't do that. Have it go wrong. No call from the sufferer anymore. No, we do careful. We plan it all out. Stop talking about it and do it. Do it and get it over with. We're going to bed. Well, get on with it. Oh, Joe, get a ladder up against the eaves out there, huh? Higgins and me, we cut a piece of rope. Good. I guess we better tell him. You've decided to hang me. You don't even know what you're saying. People don't sit down and decide they're going to hang somebody and expect to get away with it. You can't take the law into your own hands. You're just making it harder for us, Blakely. Harder for you? I'll make it harder for you when Robertson shows up. Robertson ain't going to show up. You're out of your minds. We're going to have to drag you, Blakey. You'll drag nobody. A walk. See just how far you're planning to go with this. All right, we go out through the main room. Belle. Belle, you know what they're figuring to do? Yeah. We'll do something. Stop them. You're a woman, Belle. You're different. I wish there were ten of you, Blakey, so they could hang you ten times instead of once. Belle. Get him out of here. Take him out and get it over with. Yeah, come on. She's crazier than the rest of you. It's all crazy. They look like a nightmare. Watch your step, Leclerc. My crust is freezing. It's slick. Like it ain't real. It really happened. Not to me, anyway. You know, that wind has died down some. Oh, it does just before the blizzard hits. All right, Blakey. Climb up on the roof. Roof? Yeah, and you climb the ladder, you'll want us to help you. I can climb. You go up there by the ridge pole, Blakey. Up there where Joe is standing. Yeah, better let me help you. A lot of snow on the roof. It ain't easy with your hands tied that way. Already roof tied, everything ready. Oh, well, might as well we get on with it, huh? Maybe you better tie it around his neck, Leclerc. Huh? Have you seen it done once? If I can remember. Hey, Blakey, come stand closer to the edge here, huh? Careful, Leclerc. It's dark. Don't slay it. Yeah, that's fine. Right there now. It's a joke, huh? That's what... You're just trying to scare me so we can laugh about it. Oh, still, Blakey. A joke. A real good joke. All right, that's tight. That's very funny. All right. Looks like we're ready. Yeah. Well, you got any last words, Blakey? I guess you better say them now. You jump now. Joe, you jump. Stop pushing. You jump now. We went inside. We left him swinging their figure to take him down on daylight and bury him. I opened a bottle of brandy and we drank some fast in gulps. We needed it because it wasn't easy to do it. Not in cold blood that way. It didn't change much either when we stopped to think about it. It didn't bring Marco back to life, killing Blakey. Even Belle, who was crazy for revenge, was feeling sick. Then we got to thinking about Robertson too, how he never missed stopping by before on his last trip out of Dawson. And then Joe heard it. Dogs. Hey, dogs. Slend come. Robertson. I told you. I told you we ought to wait. Now we're in for it. We got to do something. We got to think of something to tell him and make up a story. Well, with Blakey still hanging out there, what story? Well, we got to do something. All we can do is tell him the truth and hope he sees it the way we did. He's an old timer in the north. He'll understand. We'll make him understand. He'll be snowed in with us here. All of us together for the rest of the winter. We'll make him understand. All right. At least we know it. I think he will. Got a steak and a drink for a hungry man. Michael. Why all the surprise? I promised you I'd be here, didn't I, Bill? Stopped over a couple of days in Jackson River during your gut snowed in. Said today, Blakey make it all right. He was going to leave the mine a couple of days after I did. Under the direction of Norman McDonnell, Escape has brought you Judgment Day at Triple Deer by Les Crutchfield. Starring Lawrence Dobkin with Harry Bartell. Featured in the cast were Lou Krugman, George Ellis, James Nussar and Clayton Post. Your announcer, George Walsh. The special music for Escape is composed and conducted by Leith Stevens. Next week. You are standing alone in a mountain village somewhere in the puppet country of Andorra. The high crags of the Pyrenees trapping the last of the daylight. And you know that in one of the stone houses facing you, behind one of the doors that is closed against you, is a beautiful woman whom you must find before she meets her death. So listen next week when Escape brings you Kathleen Heitz's story, The Wall. Saturday night on CBS Radio, gangbusters reveal the true facts behind a fantastic hotel holdup in which three comical bad guys with a wicked sense of humor terrorize Manhattan hotel guests, rob them and vanish into the night after commandeering the hotel for their own high profit without interference. Here gangbusters true crime case history, Saturday night on most of these stations. Listen while you work. Enjoy young Dr. Malone every Monday through Friday in the daytime on the CBS Radio Network.