 This is the story of a man who never belonged anywhere, whose backyard is the world, whose ways of life are the dreams of escape for those who want action but never find it. The man, John Steele, adventurer. A lot of people, like the man says, takes all kinds. So I wasn't especially surprised when a mutual friend told me Joe, a big Joe was fresh in from Europe with a pile of dough and ideas just as big. Joe King. Joe was in town looking for me. I never particularly cottoned Joe, but the mutual friend gave me the hotel and told me to call. Drink, smoke, name it, take what you want, take a seat. Open house, Joe. King. King. Still with that, huh? King. Yeah, sure of a name. Is that my name, King? It's also Joe. That's it. Hooch. Yeah. Ronas. Smoke. Fill your pockets, drink, smoke, be happy, happy, kid. Now, Sid, anything you want? Sure. Well, where do you stay? Want me to send out for a sirloin? Rolling out the rug, huh? Very you, you anytime. Sure, sure, Sid. All I can say is, uh-huh, ought to happen more often. Sure. Early, uh... What's all this gonna cost me? Cost? What are you after? What's the angle? Oh, no, that's nice. That's what you think of me. Am I hurting your feelings? Oh, 12-year-old Scotch, high on the rocks, dollar cigars. It's not like you, Joe. Ha-ha, King. King. Uh, no, no, John, not hurting my feelings. After all, say, when did I ever step on your toes? Ha-ha, I did, I did, huh? Me and the whole company. Company. The whole regiment. Okay, okay. So I gypped, so I was a little bit of a crook. So I helped myself to cigarettes. Cigarettes? Okay, lots of things when I was supply click. Other times, other places, maybe I didn't know any better. Drink up. Bygones. Still got a whole bygones against me, Steve. Mmm, good. Ha-ha, still gonna... Scotch smells real good. Just want you to know, Joe... You're gonna keep calling me. Take more of this to change my mind about you and some of the things you did. That's plain. It's a good drink, but bad manners. Me, I mean. Shouldn't take a man's whiskey and call him a crook. You want me to go now? Ha-ha, I have another. No, I like a guy who comes right up clean and says it to you. Yeah. What I remembered about you... I like that. Right out clean. You do? I like a guy who looks you in the eye and wimmo tells you. Ha-ha. Sure. King, you're a crook. Only now I'm changed. Uh-huh. Changed, huh? Uh-huh. No more, no more. Not me straight, square, clean Sunday school. I'm stricken at Sunday school. Open book. It's good to hear. Straight, square me. You hear from them from here on in. What do you want with me? About an island. An island? Why don't you come take a look? Now wait, you gotta believe no crooked schemes. And I bought an island for me to retire. Yeah, just for me. I got all the money I need. And I want you to come take a look. I went. I don't know why. I still didn't trust King. It's hard to trust a guy when you remember him taking everything that wasn't screwed down tight. Taking from his buddies. But there was something in his face. A new kind of look. A proud look that took away his old narrow kind of hungry pinch. It made me curious. It made me think, who was I to set myself up as a judge? Sure people change. It made me want to go look. Hey, hey, Kramer! Where's that old guy with the boat? Your boat? No, no, I'm having one bill. Kramer, the old guy with the putt-putt-furry stuff around for the orchard harvest. In and out of these inland channels? Supplies. Uh, that your island up there? Now wait, can't see nothing from here. Kramer! How far is she out? Four miles, I think. Come on, Kramer! We ain't going to get along doing things like this around here. I like to move. Four miles out, huh? Four and forty-four. I know what you're thinking and I'm telling you to forget it. I was only... Forget it! No drugs, no gun or no emicron. I know all the offshore border rackets. I'm not interested. Okay, you say. Sure. I'm straight. I got mine. I got what I wanted. Now I got the island. So stop thinking crooked stuff. Load him and Kramer. Load the battered old mortar scowl. Supplies. Every conceivable kind, size, shape and description of supplies. Supplies for building, provisions for living. And I couldn't help noticing a lot of the supplies were all GI war surplus. And a lot of the rest came from Europe with foreign labels I couldn't make out. So I studied something I could read, King's Face. A narrow-pinched look. A look I remembered from his thieving days. It was coming over him again, pulling in his cheeks tight so the bone stood out sharp. And his eyes glittered bright, bright and green like the rest of the social waves. Just keep the fresh milk and meat and butter coming like I ordered, Kramer. Keep it fresh into yourself. Where he wants me, just goes to steal him and I got my bones. He thinks I need him. You hear, you hear, keep it coming. You're a jerk. Don't call him that. Huh? He's an old man. Well, him and those farmers, his farmer frontier, is all along the shore. Brewed in vegetable farms. Yeah, yeah, I saw him. When the first minute they saw me come down to the shore to the village, their village, the mainland over there. What about them? Well, the way they look at me. What's the matter? I'm dirt. They got marks on me. I pollute this place. What's the matter? My money no good? I paid cash. I paid the 10 grand deposit down in cash. Back in the city. I got the right. Just the deposit? Deposit, yeah. I got 30 days. But you loaned the place? I got a month to make up on mine. Put in the balance. Oh. How do I know I'm gonna like it? 50 acres, bushes, trees, that big old stone hut right up there in the hill. Looks like a fine old house to me. No, like a jail. Built them the last in those days. I don't know. Huh? How many acres, I say? Uh, you said 50. Is that a lot? There ain't no farm boy. Well, not too big. I said nobody was on here. Deserved, that's what the broker said. Deserved it for years. I, uh, I never been alone in a place like this before. That's the idea here, isn't it? No, of course I do all right. Did all right my own deals, but always did all right and make my own deal cities. But, you know, in the big cities. Uh, cities, you know, big cities learn how to operate them on you. Heh, heh. You get by in them all only, only never, not, not, not like here. Well, well, we just gonna stand here on the beach? No, no, I, I guess no. Get dark, won't it? Are you afraid? What? Yeah, I can like it. Well, I don't know these things. Why won't you along? Why did you decide you wanted an island? See, you show me, huh? You show me things, these things. You know what to do. Well, let's start with the supplies. Get them up to that house. We need something to eat. Sure, that's it. See, why I wanted you along, John? Why, why I wanted you? Piece of the unknown. There's much of these when in a moment we hear more in the story of John Steele, adventurer. Why do you want the island? King, the city guy, who even in the army was a crook. Why was he afraid? I knew he was afraid. The way he kept behind me when we started carrying the first load of supplies up from the sandy beach, always behind me, letting me lead the way through the thick green undergrowth, told me he was afraid. He was afraid, but I knew he was no coward. A couple of times when things had gone bad in the war, and the supply men, cooks, the clerks, the bakers, had been handed guns and rushed in, he'd done all right. He'd held his square yard. He'd been a petty thief, but he hadn't been afraid. He was afraid now. Why you stop? Thought you might want to take the lead, breaking a path for once. Gee. Go ahead, he is still playing a little langle, letting me take the scratches. Vic? Your island, you take the lead. Bugs. He's bugging the world all around. Look at them crawling, jumping, flying, thickest thieves. Well, what's funny? Oh, that's what's been bothering you. If I look at... Get right here, my arms, bite, crawl all over. Get, I said. Go ahead, steal. Out of these bushes. Start. Up the house. I'm not going to get out of these bushes so easy. Huh? The place has been let go too long. It's gone wild. No, not around the house. It's all a picture in the book. Real estate book. Gardens landscaped like the monkey mux, like a duke. Okay, take a look. But down on the beach, when you look up here from the water... You only saw the top of the house. Take a look, I said. Bushes, I would be going through. Bushes and... Get out! Get away from me! It's only a bee. The place is lousy with bees. What about the house? Where's the house? What do you mean, take a look? Take out your arm. Huh? Right through these bushes here. Huh? Cold. Oh, I'm hard stone. Can't be. Bushes, bushes, right up to the house. Where's the door? Go ahead, leech. Steal along the side. Come on, will you? These bees. The bees are around my head. Leave, will you? Get me out of here. Leave! Find that door! Find me. Flipping and sliding, almost dropping his supply crate. Sliding forwards into me, almost making me drop mine. Kept on, pulling, pushing, tearing. Quigs, leaves, branches, thorns and brambles. Ripping into my arms, my neck, my cheeks. I kept on going. My right shoulder up against the stone wall and from all around, from overhead, I heard the angry sound of bees. Come on. Come on, they're gonna sting me. They're gonna chase me. I ain't afraid of them. My place, my island. Find the door, grab it, fix it. So wait. First, find that door. Hold. Come on. Hold on, hold on. These bees. Come on, in through here. Get the bees out of here. Come on. Quick. Stepped. Found the step. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on, come on. It's in front of the house here. There's your door. Steps here. Or cover this green stuff's moss. Hey, hey! Watch this. It's slippery. It's moss. I'm all right. Yeah, door. For me, that's what I want. Get in that door. Come on. Come on. Here, across the veranda. The bees. Watch where you're going. There's a hole on the stone floor here. Got the key? Put the kitchen down. Yeah. Go on. I'll fix all those bugs. Got it? Here. It's big. It's a big key. Yeah. I put down the door. Bugs, bees, all them birds. I'll fix them. They ain't gonna stay here. Sure. Come on. I ain't no outdoors, man. What's the idea? They got no right being around here. What's the deal, huh? It's mine. It's mine. I'll fix them. They got no right to be here. The door. Locks open, but... The door. I'll fix it. I think I'm done. I got it. I got the stuff. I got the real stuff. Sure. Come on. Give me a hand with the door. See? See? All right. Sure. All the windows boarded up. Yeah, sure. Only you. Right behind you. You're going in. Look out. Run the ceiling on the walls. Crawling. Let me out of here. Spiders. House spiders. Let me out. They won't hurt you. The big furry house spiders that had taken over the old stone island mansion. He saw them crawling the walls and he ran. I ran after him, but he disappeared. Disappeared into the crazy wild overgrowth that covered the heart of the island right down to the sandy beach. I slowed up. He had no boat. The island wasn't big, and I had enough cuts and scratches. I tried to find the path I'd broken on the way in. I found it and started down slow, down towards the beach. I took my time ducking branches and bush twigs. Then my nose began to tickle. Smell. It made me sneeze. Then my eyes began to water. I was caught in some kind of mist, a green oily mist coming at me through the bushes, settling down over the trees, and all of a sudden it got hard to breathe. You face the distant king. I'll show you how to pick him. Mine, your head is free, mine. What it's going to be? I'll pick you out, pick him. I heard him, but I couldn't see him. The oily green mist was coming thicker. The air was shining in greasy green. My eyes were burning. My tongue tasted like I was sucking iron, and I couldn't breathe. I put my hand into the bowl of my face, and don't throw the bushes. Thought they hissing sound, but the sound of him. Crazy what the eyes be like. Go again. Turn that off, turn that off. Turn that sprayer off. Listen, you're going to turn it off. Don't just tell me, Max. Any eyes, break them. Break your head to go knocking me around. Knock around my thing. Come on. Turn it off. Okay. Only next time. Don't come in your hands at me. Are you a jerk? What you call me? A dumb jerk. What do you know about these things? Get right off this island, Buster. Call your guy. Sure. Call him out of the boat. I'll get him. Okay, I'll bang the bell. My eyes are so bad I can't see 10 feet. Go ahead, smart guy. It is time you leave. Call that man you'll pay. I'll be glad to get off your stinking island. Suspense and action. One leads to the other, and the result will hear in a moment with the climax of another adventure with John Steele. Time Joe did lead the way, but not before he picked up his portable sprayer. He was like the type of man who needs a gun. With a sprayer in his hands, he wasn't afraid. We went down to the little old wharf, and he started clanging the bell. I kneeled down and splashed my face with seawater. The salt from the water made my face and hands burn, but it cut and dissolved the oily chemical off my skin and out of my eyes. I shook the water out of my eyes, and I started to get up, and I saw inches from my face and water flat on their backs, floating by. Say, Steele, has anybody got a right to blow a stack once in a while? I'm sorry about the bus spray. I didn't know you were in there supposed to get hit by the spray. Sure, sure. Don't forget it, how about me telling you to go to get off? Anyway, I've been ringing the bell, I've been on the side of Ole and Kramer coming. Look for yourself, no bull coming across. Say, uh, are you sick of something? Look up. You look. You're nuts. Me, look at the water. Where'd you get that spray? Just bug spray? Where? Hey, my business where? Is something the matter? I don't see nothing of the... Hey, it worked. That's what you mean. Yeah, I see him. Bug's dead, bug's floating. Haha, it worked good. I oughta... Bug's, huh? Hey, you're starting up again. Just bug's. Listen, you're just going to get me sore again. You better let go of my shirt, buster. I'll let you go, but maybe Uncle Sam won't. Why? Those are bees, bees you'll kill. Bees, sure, singer bees. Honey bees. Haha, they ain't going to sting no more. No more, sure, ain't that right? You don't know, do you? Know what? See, what'd you mean about Uncle Sam? Where'd you get that spray? You mean duty, customs duty, bringing it in? I, uh... Haha, I got a lot of stuff in. You did, huh? Sure, my business. Say, my island. Can I get a few bugs to make it livable if I want? What do you mean about Uncle Sam? Come on, I don't want no trouble. I'm just a guy. Haha, I'm just a little guy. Sure, I just want to settle down. No harm, so I speak some German and other stuff in past customs. Haha, don't make that cheap. Haha, no harm in that. No. Ah, hey. Hey, who those boats? Look at all them boats. Look at all those boats coming. Yeah. Hey, what's the matter? Why didn't you go and let them boat? No harm, huh? Tell them. Huh? Hey! Hey, you guys, what's up all the boats? I'm just a boat. I'm on the right with a bell for old man Cramer. Old man Cramer told them what the boat's coming our way to bell. Well, they show up their motors. Hey, hey, hear me. Thanks. Thanks. That's real service, but we're all right. Hey, what's the matter? What's the matter? They're running them all over in the water. They've been bent and looking in the water all the way over there. Uh-huh. What? What were they looking for? You don't get it, huh? Like you. Like you were looking. Now why they all of a sudden looking up at us. They're all like this. Pulling them out there just looking, sitting in the boats. Hey, duck, duck, duck. A gun, madam. Get down, flat duck. Shoot, nice. Well, it was old man Cramer shooting at us. They won't shoot again. No, no, huh? No. How do you know? They're crazy. Why are they shooting anyway? What do we do? Why are they sitting out there floating around looking at us like that? Just keep quiet. I didn't know. I didn't know there was people like that. I didn't ever come. They're just farmers. Farmers. Farmers go around shooting innocent people. Innocent, huh? Huh? Good, hard-working food farmers. That's what they're all doing. Cramer, put some weight into them. Oh, it's starting. That's good. They're all like this. That changed my mind. I'm going to get off here. I'm going to get off here. I'm going to have trouble doing that. I ain't telling nobody. Okay, suit yourself. See you. I know. Just sit down squat. You've been telling me that all day. But you won't do what I tell you. All day? Ten days? We ain't up to last before. I know. I know yesterday. Get a string. Get some fish. Fish only. Just like the bees. You're going to stop with that again? You win. Okay. Keep your mouth shut. Why are you taking off your clothes? I don't think they're going to come. You're going to... I'm going to swim. You don't plan to lie around here and start. They've got no right. They've got no right to ruin me. They've got other kinds of rights. Yeah? Uh-huh. Two kinds. Lord. You've got three farm making fun of laws. Get out of this one. Okay, okay. There's a law regulating insecticides. Laws are rules. Yeah, yeah. You told me. You're willing to tell? I don't care about a couple of cans of bug spray. They do when it kills bees. Okay, okay. I was a jerk. I didn't know bugs, bees. I didn't know. I didn't know you need bees to grow fruit. You really got to swim? Swim and maybe turn me in? All you'll understand, huh? I tell you, you can't. I can't tell them. I told you they didn't take cans of bug spray. It's the other stuff. What other stuff? The other stuff I swindled in. I know them, I know them inspectors. Once I tell them how and where I got the bug spray, they want to know the whole thing. What whole thing? No. Okay. Why do I know they won't turn me in? Turn me in for the war. I didn't remember taking this. You think I'd smuggle bug spray in? Only what? The guy in Europe. My contact guy I worked with. Sure, smuggler. Smuggler like me. He put it in. Favor. President, you know? Little favor. New kind, he said. Powerful stuff. A nerve gas thing. He just threw it in when I told him I was going to get an island. An island, huh? Here's some more smuggling. No. No, sir, help me. I got mine. I was in my head all these years. A place. I wanted a place. I'm sick of people. I just wanted a place where you could be changed. You've got to believe me. I got all I need. Rocks. Pure whites. Back in town. I got them in a place where you think I got the money. All this money. I'll give you some. Only don't leave them. Stay with me. I can't tell a government about the spray. They'll learn about the rocks and diamonds. Help me. Stay with me, Steel. Don't leave me. No, don't. Don't leave me. Come back. Come back here. I wasn't alone for long. A government cutter rolled in and picked him up for questioning by agricultural experts summoned by those local farmers. Yes, there is a law or laws regulating insecticides that kill necessary insects. It's a good set of laws. It comes from a lot older law, the natural law about the mutual dependence of species. Yes, it takes bees to make honey. But it also takes bees to make fruit, legumes and even pretty ornamental plants. And when you kill a bee, like an old farmer friend of mine once put it, you kill me. Stand by for adventure with John Steel. In a moment, John Steel returns with more of his story. John Steel on this transcribed adventure with Don Douglas with Phil Sterling. Script was by Peter Irving, and the entire production was numbered in the direction of Robert Monroe. Of course, all names and characters heard are fictitious, and any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. But here again is John Steel. Well friends, that's it. King of the Island. The story of a man who took what he wanted and laughed at law and thought that set him apart from everybody else. Speaking of islands reminds me of a fishing trip I once took off the south shore of Long Island. The fast-growing second home for New Yorkers. A boat we fished from was called Lady. A trend sleek craft that knew only trouble. It's a real adventure I like to call a date with the lady. So the next week then, and a date with the lady. This is John Steel saying adventure is like the fizz in your soda. It tickles your nose, but you won't do without it.