 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 somewhere in the Pacific, out of Leyte in the Philippines. Charting a course of south by southeast. When out of the deep of the sea, a new volcano is born and your ship is caught in the middle of it. From which there is no escape. Listen now, as escape brings you Vincent McHugh's story, The Boiling Sea. It should have been an easy trip. It was the spring of 45, the war was almost over and what few jabs were left that far south didn't figure to give us any trouble. I was first made of the hope by victory hauling cargo with the landings in the Philippines. But this trip we detoured south to the Tiley Island of Karazouti and the Malukas to pick up a detachment of rangers, a demolition team, and bring them up to Samar. We cleared for the north about 18-30 hours and as darkness fell, I went out on deck. There I found Lieutenant Drury, the Ranger-C.O. and his top sergeant watching Gam-Kamura, the volcano over on the island. Hi, McCallum. Good evening, mate. Quite a sight, isn't it? Sure is, but it'll get better. We pass closer to it after nighting. In the dark you can see the lava spotting like 4th of July. We've got to look at a small one back on Kazarouti, inactive. This whole group of islands on both sides of the Strait is volcanic, you tell me. That's right. Now you can have my share of them. That big baby there used to keep us awake nights rumbling. Well, they aren't exactly conducive to peace of mind, I'll admit, Sergeant, but they're very interesting. I'd like a chance to study one more closely. No, not for me, Lieutenant. Well, probably won't get another chance now. The men all comfortable, Sergeant? Well, it ain't the Queen Mary, sir, but they're okay. Sorry, this baby wasn't meant for troop transport. No matter, we're used to improvising. Well, good night, gentlemen. Night, sir. Night, Daring. Nice guy. The best. One of them guys with principles. Serious. You know, educated. Them kind usually get clobbered first thing, but he's come through. Plenty. You have a time back there on Kazarouti? Not much. Jap radio station. Half starved out already. Of course they put up a fight they always do, but not so bad. Hey, look at that thing. Belch and smoke a mile high. Flashing like... Yeah. Spectacular, all right. Hey, Lieutenant, could I interest you in a human scalp tan with mangrove bark? Got me a couple of extra back there. Sell one cheap... Oh, thanks, Sergeant. I got one scalp. I hope that'll last me the run. That night, for the first time since we left home, I couldn't get to sleep. I tried reading a while and gave that up, too. Finally, I got a cup of coffee and took one up to Hanigan on the bridge. Hey, thanks, Mac. Just what I needed. We sipped our coffee quietly. The bosson stood silently at the wheel. The time was over 425 hours. We were steaming up through the Moloka Passage. Of course, one degree true, speed 18 knots. A smooth gentle swell. The phosphorescence and the bow wash was bright enough to show our hands and faces. It was peaceful. Hey, Mac. Hey, Mac, you smell anything? Coffee? No, come here. Stand over here. Yeah, a little sulfur and something that smells like wet dust. That's what I thought, too, sir. Well, couldn't it say, isn't there a volcano over there in Halmahara where you might be getting a little land breeze? Yeah, but we passed it an hour back. I'll take it. Hey, Callum. You guys spittin' over the side up there? What's the matter, Brian? I just happened to notice my intake water's heatin' up. How much? Well, it's supposed to be about 25 degrees centigrade around here. It's 29 now. We're pullin' sludge, too. Looks like pumice. Okay. Guess you better call the captain, Hanigan. Smell that, Captain? Yes. You checked the ship, Mr. McCallum? Yes, sir. Boyd and Pullman went over it, too. Well, stop the engine. Yes, sir. Mr. Hanigan, you've checked our position? Yes, Captain. It's verified here on the chart. Sonic depth finder on, Mr. Grenjine? Yes, sir. Turned it out right away. Reads 1143, fabulous. Hmm. See here. This is where we are, about 35 miles west of Gumbaki in Halmahara, nautical miles, that is. Over here, you see? Less than three miles northwest, you've got a vegea. Somebody reported a shoal there once. Hasn't been found again since. Might be anywhere in the general vicinity. See here? It's marked 18 fathoms. E.D., existing staff room. Reported February 1871. I don't know if there is something there. It can't be anything but a submarine mountain. Not with those depths all around it. Yes, probably volcanic. One of those buggers that push up, you know, and sink back down again. Got some of them up in the bull knees. But all we've got to go on is this old captain that came through here in 1871. Probably a whaler. I didn't care where he was so long as he had his foot on a fish. Can't tell, I suppose. Now, here's this old fellow dawdling through here in February. Northwest Monsoon at its height. Felly good winds, mostly north or western north. Current sets about two knots of the wind. So if he's out in his reckoning, you see, it's probably because he's whaler over to the south of east than he thought. Like this. That puts us pretty close to the trouble. We can't go up to the southeast because we don't know how far out he was. If he was out. Now here, we could go this way, but it seems foolish to backtrack on our course and then go west to get clear. Don't see why we wouldn't be safe if we cut across the angle to the southwest. Sounds right to me, Kevin. Yes, sir, it should be safe enough. Well, let's hope so. It's a grand gene, stand by the depthfinder and sing out if you get any shawling. Yes, sir. The ship was at dawn GQ where the engine stopped. The neary ocean silence hung over everything. It was still dark, but a soft glimmer was beginning to show behind the peaks and how they happened. Start the engines, half speed. Yes, sir, half speed. The returning pulse of the engines like a reviving heartbeat seemed to bring the ship back to life. You're about 225. 225. Our pie victory began to gather way, turning. The bosson got her around, met her and settled on course. Hattigan stood by the bridge farm. For minutes we stood quietly watching, waiting. Now there was a rosy smear in the east behind us, agloming on the sea. I could just make out the bow and a man silhouetted in the crow's nest above him. Engine room says 32 degrees centigrade, Captain. Up three degrees. Yeah. Stand on the phone, Mr. Hattigan, report any change. In another few minutes we'll be able to see a little more. Captain, man in the crow's nest, he's waving. Captain, the time of the race is 38 minutes. Rocks set ahead. Full left rudder. Full left rudder. We could see it now, not 500 yards ahead. Nothing in a nightmare had ever been so awful as that jagged rocky crest, hunching and lifting like the back of a great dawn lizard in the yellow light. It came fuming out of the seas, slimy with the first mud of creation. The slow swell pitched up on it. We could feel its deep grumbling roar through the noise of the engines. The ship was turning now, no one spoke. We stared with slow understanding of the horror that began to form in all our minds. The monster was not a single peak. The ridge we'd seen coming up in the southwest was extending. It's often a long curve of points and benches all across the south. Keep it turning. Keep it turning. But it was already too late. Clear across the red pink wash of dawn, a black spur joined under the east. And when we looked north, the swell was living up on a jag of new rock that thickened to the west and hooked our down into the southwest. The hope by victory was completely encircled. We were trapped in the middle of an emerging volcano. You are listening to The Boiling Sea, tonight's presentation of Escape. Keep the family intact this holiday weekend by driving safely. Observe speed laws. Stay on your side of the road and don't try to save time at the risk of losing a lifetime. Driving's more relaxed, more fun that way, and safer too. And now back to Escape and the second act of The Boiling Sea. Took a few seconds for the full impact of the situation to hit us and circled. Trapped in a crater of jagged rising peaks on every quarter of the compass. Still, nobody said anything until Captain Hazard spoke in a quiet voice. All right, stop the engine. Then we all know. The wash dropped away and the hope by victory settled, floating dead in a fuming black-brown lake that bubbles like mud coming to a boil. The terrible, stony, rumbling dried up through the soles of our shoes. I got you fellas into this. Oh, no, Captain, you did the best you could. How could anyone know where an uncharted mountain would come up out of the sea? Anakin. I don't want to get you fellas too excited up there, but you better quit smoking. We're getting 68 degrees centigrade on this thing. Got any eggs in one boiled? What is going on up there? Brownie, we're in a volcano. Well, I always told you something like this would happen. You know, you gotta watch where you're going. 68 degrees centigrade, sir. Jonah made it. Yeah, we don't know. Maybe there's a hole in it somewhere. We can wait till it settles down, get the boats out. Yes, Mike, golly. Maybe not, Mr. McCallum. If we do a good job of surveying, maybe they'll forgive us for getting into it in the first place. No one mentioned the chance that we might never get out. We lived in the crater of a mountain in eruption. It was still working and thrusting, but its force had begun to die down. In the west and southwest, its highest peaks will maybe be 50, 60 feet above the sea. In the north and northwest, much lower, we could see the swell breaking over in two places. Mr. Hannigan, you will check and recheck the position. Yes, Captain. Mr. Grandjean, you will take bearings and measurements of the rim, starting at zero degrees and working all around the compass. Yes, sir. Mr. McCallum, you will pass the word and we're going to try getting out of here just as soon as the first shock is over. Don't want them to think we're not doing anything. Yes, sir. Might let the people down in the engine room know and the gun crew and tell Lieutenant Drury and his rangers. Yes, sir. All right? Thank you, gentlemen. I carried the message to the other officers. Men were hanging over the rail looking at the dead fish in the putrid water. Everybody was coughing. Sickly gases came up in spurts and slow blobs. Here and there, a small geyser patted down stones and mud on the water. There was a washer gloomy sun on the crags to the west. Beyond lay the glimmer of the Malooka Passage like the hope of life itself. It seemed very distant now. At breakfast, the captain was still cheerful. All right, gentlemen. We may as well eat. May not have another chance for a while. What do you think, sir? Well, look as if the first one is about over. We'll get the boats out after breakfast. See if we can't find a hole in it. Just a western omelet for me, mess. What if we can't do that, sir? Maybe we can find a place to get the boats across. It isn't far to Armahira, you know, about 36 miles, but I'd hate to... I wish I knew more about how these volcanoes behave. It might sink down again in an hour or two or it might keep building up. Could I make a suggestion, Captain Hazard? Yes, go ahead, Lieutenant Drury. My boys have trained in demolition work. If we can find the right place, I think we might be able to blast a hole big enough for the ship to get through. Yes, thank you, Lieutenant. Yes, we've been thinking the same thing. Only trouble is, a blast like that might set the whole business off. I suppose we'd better wait till we've tried everything else first. We take the boats out right after breakfast, sir? Yes, Mr. McCallum. You will take one and go north to the rim. Follow it to the east. Mr. Hannigan will take the other south and follow it west. Lieutenant Drury, a detail of your ranges can go in each boat. What about communication, sir? We don't have radios in the boats. We'll have to use flare guns. One flare if you find a hole big enough for the ship. Confirm it with a handlet. Then two flares to command. The usual recall signal. Yes, sir. Well, gentlemen, we're in God's hands now. 50 yards, sir. Here's her in slowly, bossing right into the rocks. Yes, sir. Take a look at that water, man. Don't see anything like it's slimy gas bubbling up. I'm very inviting. Take a look at what's ahead, Lieutenant. Yeah. Doesn't look like any rock I've ever seen before. It's something monstrous, something tortured about it. Yeah. It's all yours, Lieutenant. Ready, Sergeant Vota? Ready, sir. Easy, bossing. All right, hold it. Steady. All right, you guys. Go! Get specimens of the rock. Vota, you're going up the top and check. Yes, sir. Doesn't look very promising. No, it's only 20 feet high, but we haven't got enough explosives to blast through here. Must be gaps somewhere. There's Vota on top. Vota, can you see anything? And he breaks to the east. Yeah, for sure, though. All right, come back. We'll go down farther. We cruise slowly along the rim through the dirty, brown, black, simmering waters, stopping every few hundred yards to break off specimens of rock. It was hot. We felt as if our bodies were drenched in a heated grease. The crater had a general downhill trend of the eastward. In the northeast sector, it came to what appeared to its lowest point. Here, the swell broke clear across the shallow peaks. This is the best place for blasting we've seen yet. Yeah, it doesn't look bad. It might be possible. Let me take four of my men on those rocks and try to find some likely openings for charges. Just in case. Okay. Move in close again, bosson. Listen, Drury, those rocks are wet, and that swell is plenty of power. Watch yourselves. Don't worry about us, matey. We don't mind wet feet. Uh-huh. Set her easy, bosson. Okay, boys, over we go. Come on, get the lead out. Come on, bosson. You stand by with the lines secured, ready to toss them just in case. How about this, mate? You think we'll have to try it? Blaster, sir. I don't know, Walt. Looks like maybe, unless Hannigan found something, we should have been... I don't know. Blasting in this stuff is like lighting a firecracker in a dynamite factory. You may have to take the chance. Yeah. Now, look back there. I tore the ship. A dirty yellow guck. We ought to break out the gas mess. We had gas, man. What is that? An explosion, sir. Underneath us. The whole thing's going up. No, no. It's sinking. Look. The men, they're sinking. From the line, bosson, hurry, heave. Drury, quick, pass it on. All of you, hurry. All right. They're all on. Heave. Bring them in. Heave. Fast as you can. Heave. Okay, here's Drury. Heave. Get them in. Hurry. Come on, hurry. Come on. What's happening? The whole thing's moving. Keep heaving. Boto. Where's Boto? We got him right here. Come on up. Heave. Oh, God in heaven. All right. Here's the next one. That'll be close to the three. All right. It's becoming easier now. Here's another. That's hangly. Poor. Come on, fella. Grab, huh? One more. Trouble, huh? All right. Get out of here. The line's coming too fast. Hey, sir. Trouble. Where's Trouble? Wait, Lieutenant. Stop him, Warren. Call it, Drury. You can't do it. Trouble's still in there. You can't go back in without a line. Tie it around his waist wall. I'm going to. All right, but tie into that line. Then we'll be able to haul you back. He's right disappearing into the murk on the sludgy water. The sharks are increasing in violence now. They jired their teeth in our heads. We looked toward this shipment, saw the western river, the crater thrusting up in a great wall behind it. Then Wall's head appeared close to the boat. His face black and he shook a hopeless no. He dived again two or three times, and then let us pull him in. But Drury wouldn't give up. Come on. Pull him in. He's fighting us. Well, fight him back and get him into this boat. Yes, sir. Here. I'll give you a hand. Heave. Let me go. We've got to get trouble. Let me go. You can't waste any more time. Get in. It's no use drawing. But he's in there somewhere. We can't just let him stay there. No! No! All right, folks, take her up. I'm sorry about trouble, Lieutenant, but he is one man. There are a hundred men back there in the Hope by Victory. Yeah. Sorry. Being worse every minute. We're gonna do anything. We've got to do it fast. Hey, look! Over there with a rock sink. That gap's big enough for the ship. Yeah, maybe, but it's a deep one. It's gotta be. The whole thing may go up any minute like a Roman champ. All right, Boston, fire one flare. Walls, get the hand led. I've got it. All coils. Don't even drag it. Ten fathoms. We'll quarter across the gap. Sing out if you feel anything. The boat moved slowly across the old edge of the crater and out into the open sea. Walls holding the lead line, sugars headed. He felt nothing. He was carefully in the swell and courted back into the crater. I could see the Hope by Victory creeping toward us. She'd recalled Hannigan's boat and it was dragging ahead of her in a narrow-ass curve. They were like vessels under shell fire. The whole center of the crater was writhing with smoke and erupting guises of mud and stone. We could see rocks falling on the deck. Behind the ship, the western crags now jut at 300 feet high, lifting and working and black agon. The ship was coming on fast. We were the last chance. Did you feel anything, walls? Nothing. Can they make it, sir? They've got two fire, two flares. And we'll stand out to sea and make a target for them. Hurry. This thing's about to blow its top. All right, here too, boss. Inwards down here. You'll never make it. That gap's too small. We're tight squeeze. The captain's got it perfectly centered. I'll be better. It's coming full speed if he misses. Hiding it's through. Another minute we'll know. Men, if they crash, we'll have to work fast. Unless the shock is enough to set the whole thing off. Here they come. The swell's breaking on the ball. He's not slacking speed, and it's too small. It's too small. She's coming through. She's coming through. We're not out of this yet. Hey, he's not cutting his feet. He's not going to leave us here. Calm down. He's turning between the two boats. You'll get us on one side and can't get on the other. Look, captain's signaling from the bridge. First and give a full speed. Give her everything you've got. Parallel his course. Get the gear spot and hang on. We'll pick you up later. You heard him? More time, don't worry. Help me get that line while it's thrown down and don't miss. Power wash, bosson. Hold it alongside. All right, here comes the line. Got it. Make fast. Hurry before we lose the stock. And make it good and fast. Give the works, bosson. Hold her in. We're fast. Brother, just in time. All right, bosson. We've cut the engine. We're on the top. So we ain't going to sleep on a bed of coals tonight. Brother, I ain't never felt anything so good as to pull on that line. 20 knots. Full speed. Pulling us away fast. Maybe two miles already. You can't be too fast for me. Just look at that thing, will you? It's an inferno. Yeah, it's true. Did blow its top. Walt, help the bosson with the tiller holder in. Grab the gas-wap jewelry. Help me nod her back as far as we can. And stay down, everybody. Stay down. There's a wave coming. A tidal wave. Look at it. Come on. Come on. Pull. Everybody, keep down. We thought we were safe. It's 50, 60, maybe 100 feet. We'll take the whole ship. Keep down and hang on, then. Here it comes. Here it comes. Look out. I don't know how, but we're all right, man. Fave had lifted us to the level of the rail of the Hopi victory. But a seismic wave does not crest an open sea, so it came as one great smooth swell that lifted as high and passed and let us swoop back down again. A few minutes later, the ship picked us up and we all paused to look back at the emblem of fire we left behind us. Well, I guess maybe the captain was right. We must have been in the hands of God. All except trouble. Well, Lieutenant, you wanted to study a volcano close to... Did I? Well, remind me, Votor, to cross that study off my list. Escape, produced and directed by David Friedkin and Morton Fine, has brought you The Boiling Sea, a story by Vincent McHugh, and adapted for radio by John Dunkel. Featured in the cast were Ted D'Corsia, Herb Butterfield, Harry Bartell, Herb Ellis, and Tony D. Also heard were Jack Moyles, Clayton Post, and Jim Hayward. Your announcer, Bill Anders. The special music for Escape is composed and conducted by Leith Stevens. Next week. You are stranded with a carnival just this side of the iron curtain, when out of nowhere a fortune is within your grasp, riding a number on a roulette wheel hundreds of feet high. While at your shoulder, laughing at you, a killer clown from whom there is no escape. So listen next week when Escape brings you David Friedkin and Morton Fine's story, Carnival in Vienna. Stay tuned now for Night Watch, which follows immediately over most of these stations. There's comedy with my little Margie Sunday Nights on the CBS Radio Network.