The_Last_Mission

Cloak and Dagger is an NBC radio series, a foreign intrigue adventure adapted from the book Cloak and Dagger by Corey Ford and Alistair McBain. Ford also was host of the series. Cloak and Dagger was broadcast from May 7 to October 22, 1950, as part of "a mystery block with several other shows of far inferior quality". The program was sustaining for all 22 episodes

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Are you willing to undertake a dangerousmission behind the enemy lines, knowing you
may never return alive. What youhave just heard is the question asked during
the War of agents of the OSS. Ordinary citizens to this question answered yes.

(00:26):
This is cloak and dagger, blackwarfare, espionage, international intrigue.

(00:51):
These are the weapons of the OSS. Today's adventure, the Last Mission.
The story of an American OSS agentin Canton, China is suggested by actual
incidents recorded in the Washington files ofthe Office of Strategic Services, a story
that can now be told. Hemust have had another name, but I

(01:14):
never knew what it was. Everybodyon the waterfront called him Charlie. He
was old and he limped, andhe should have drunk less and shaved more.
We'd see him on the wharves inthe afternoons, in his dirty dungarees
and thorn sweated, begging cigarettes fromsailors. Then evenings he would hobble into
leechen Stoven, where I worked,and beg for something else. Hey,

(01:38):
turn yer, Hey, Hey,ain't you gonna buy Charlie one little drink?
No, I'm not Charlie. Nodrinks on the house than on arbor
Tonight tonight, Gerana, be drinksin the house. Are you forgetting it
was just five years ago? TonightCanton teralle Japanese. Hey, we gotta
celebrate, don't we? He what'you matter? Say something wrong? I

(02:00):
don't like your sense of humor.I don't see what you got again,
the Japs, Danny, with allm nationalities mixed up in you, you
probably got some Jap blood yourself.No, I haven't. Every other time,
maybe Spanish and Russian, even Irish, but there's not a drop of
job blood in the ponies, right, I don't get steamed up. I

(02:23):
still say, there's no reason foryou to hate him. Why do you
care who's running Canton? I toldhim then. I don't know why I
did. I never told anyone elsehow. They had murdered my family nineteen
six years before, my father,my mother, my two sisters. The

(02:45):
Japs had killed them all, andif we hadn't got out of the city
ahead of them, they'd have killedmy brother, Florian and myself. So
he wasn't always a waitress and thewaterfront dive hunt on you. No,
when my brother didn't always prowl thestreets looking for trouble, I got the
job to thank for that. No, maybe you can understand. We got

(03:08):
visitors. What do they want now? Checking identification papers? Again? Uee,
press arise, always arise in thepresence of the suggest remember that here

(03:30):
ad no your papers? Press here? Danya Bonnia born in Madrid. You
are Spanish by you have Russian firstname and an Irish middle name. What
does that make me? Perhaps makesyou anyway? Arian? Captain? Yes,

(03:52):
it would be very dull in Cantonif we put all the beautiful girls
in chail. That is true.Your peppers are you know that, miss
Bunny? I know your peppers?Press? Oh me, I ain't got
no papers, Captin. What you'redone with them? I guess you must

(04:15):
have lost them? What is nationality? I do know that need and nobody
never told me. Seems like I'vebeen around Canton since it was knee high
on you American? Perhaps American?That's good. I came away, I
know No wait a minute, hour, the horse is well here. I
ain't gonna do you guys no goodlucked up on the brig. But I

(04:36):
could help you plenty if I wasfree to mold you around the dog.
You're come out? What your man? Or man? How could that hep
us I get around, cap'n Oh, Charlie talks to everybody, and everybody
talks to me, and they ain'ttoo careful what they say. Needed.

(04:58):
If anybody was planning any monkey business, sabotage or anything like that, oh,
Charlie would be just about the firstto know about it, and you
would report it to us. Whynot. You're the guys. You're running
the show, so you're the guys. I take orders from you, what

(05:20):
I mean? They saw what hemeant, and when they left, he
was still sitting with me, grinningas if you were proud of what he
had done. I got up withouta word and went to the bar and
bought a drink. I brought itback and held it out. Hey,
do you buy that for me,Tony? Yes, I bought it for

(05:43):
you. Well, now that's mightynice. Have you let me have it?
I'll let you have it there.What's the ideas thrown good whiskey in
the face? What's the idea that? I couldn't find words to tell you
what I think of your Charlie,but I wanted you to know I was

(06:10):
sorry afterwards. After all, Charliewas old and hungry and half cracked.
I should have saved it for somebodyelse, someone closer and dearer to me.
I should have saved it from mybrother Florian, who was waiting for
me when I got home. Itold you never get it here, Tanya,

(06:30):
hurry up and change your clothes.We're going to a party. Party.
What party, Florian, Well,it's sort of an anniversary banquet,
you know, five years in Canton. There's gonna be a lot of important
people. There are Chinese Japanese,both big celebration, and we're going to
celebrate with them. Oh. Weweren't invited, of course, but I

(06:53):
know a fellow at the door.He's gonna let us in. We rubbed
shoulders with some of the most importantpeople in Canton. Be even with the
men who murdered your mother and father. Oh no, don't be like that,
Tanya. That was a long timeago. These aren't the same fellows
who took nineteen. They're Japanese.Yea, you are not going to the

(07:14):
party, Florian. We got nothingto celebrate. No, maybe you are
not gone, but I am whybecause I know what side my bread is
putting on. That's why the jumpside. As long as the top dog,
Yes and it looked like they're goingto be top dog for a long
time. I see you're retraited toour family, Florine. We haven't got

(07:36):
family, Tanya. We haven't gotanything, and we never will have unless
one of us starts playing on thewinning team. See you later. I
didn't sleep well that night and laterin the dark, feeling as if I
were alone in a world of enemies. That same feeling haunted me all the

(08:01):
next day at le chains. Charliedidn't come to the towern that evening.
I didn't see him till I wasthrough working, till I stepped out into
the dark street. Then a shadowyfigure came staggering up to me. You're
drunk, charlieber go home. That'sjust when I was thinking, Orry,

(08:26):
I can't see him together. Hisstreet keeps going round and circles. Eh,
how about you canna steal chowry on. I'm sorry, I want to
get home myself as late. Comeon, tellys worreal purple child. He
grabbed my arm and hung on toGirl. It seemed easier to do what

(08:48):
he asked me to argue about Girl. I had never seen his home,
but he remembered the address and Ilet him toward it through the deserted streets.
Sir. It was the kind ofplace you'd expect Charlie to live in,
a filthy, two story dump inthe worst part of Canton. He

(09:11):
was still holding my arm as Itook his key and unlocked his door for
him. Good night, Charlie,go to bed and sleep it off.
No, good night, and Johnny, we can have a wren. I
don't want it drunk. Come onanyway, come on, do you here?

(09:35):
But he didn't let go. Hisfingers were like a vice around my
waist. He jerked me across thethreshold. He shoved me into the pitch
black room and slammed the door.You filthy old bomb. Let me out
of here. Sorry. I hadthe man handle you like that. It
was the only safe way of gettingyou in here. I thought someone else

(09:58):
had said it. I thought theremust be three of us in the room.
Then the light flashed down and theywere just two, just Charlie and
me. Surprised. Dania, I'msorry, but I have to play it
safe. You see, Tania,I am an American, an agent of
the OSS. I didn't speak andstared at him, tried to understand tried

(10:31):
to connect him with the shuffling littlewharf rad I'd always known as Charlie.
He realized, of course, Tanya, that this is something of an act
of faith, exposing my identity toyou like this. No one else in
Canton knows who I am. I'dthought a long time before I decided to
let you in on it. Whenyou told me about your family, I

(10:52):
had a hunch I could trust you, And then when you threw that drink
in my face, I was sureof it. But I mean, that's
right, I'm still Charlie. Butwhy have you done this? Why should
you trust me with your life?For a very good reason, because I
need your help my head. Yousee, I've operated alone here for a

(11:13):
long time. Well it has beentoo tough. But now no Jab intelligence
is tightening up a lot of things. I can't do alone anymore. That's
why I need you. But Ihave no experience. I don't know anything
about courage, and you hate theJapanese. That's worth a lot more of
an experience. What do you wantme to do, Charlie? Come on

(11:39):
upstairs. He led me up along, narrow, muckety staircase. He
opened the door to a tiny guardlike a room just beneath the roof.

(12:00):
It was hard and stuffy. Thelight they switched on was so dimmed that
at first I couldn't see. Doyou know what this is, Tanya?
Radio transmitter? That's right? Yousend messages to whom American submarines operating off
the Chinese coast, And what Isend is all the information I can get
about jap shipping entering and leaving theport of Canton. I see, Tanya,

(12:26):
you weighed on sailors at leech handsall day. You drink with I've
never drunk with a Japanese sailor,but you could. Sailors talk a lot
when they're drunk, and if theydon't talk enough, I could provide you
with knockout drops. They'd sleep peacefullywhile you examined their papers. He I
see it scares you a little andlittle? Yes, you see? W

(12:50):
what a lever on the wall?Homos touches it better enough? Oh what
is it, Charlie. It's alittle precaution I've taken. I wouldn't want
this transmitter to fall into japan Hishands. They could do a great deal
of damage with her. But thelever in the wall that can do a
great deal of damage too. Itsets off an explosive that it'd blow this
building sky high. I wasn't sorryto leave that room. We went downstairs.

(13:22):
A few minutes later. He stoodin front of me, watching me.
Tania, let me explain something.We're all volunteers in the OSS,
and the people who help us arevolunteers too. You don't have to do
this unless you want to. Iunderstand, Charlie. If you refuse,

(13:43):
I won't worry about what you know. I'll still trust you. I don't
intend to refuse. It doesn't scareyou too much. When I think of
my father and mother and sister,it doesn't scare me at all. It's
a deal. It's a deal,I un I don't have any liquor.

(14:05):
We might have a smoke on itto American cigarettes. I haven't had one
for years, thanks to a freeworld, Tanya, to a free world.

(14:31):
That night, I slept word nowI had friends and allies. That
is, I slept well until sometime shortly before dawn, and then the
sound of my bedroom door opening awokeme. I wasn't frightened. I knew
who it was and what he wantedhad happened so many times before. I

(14:54):
waited until he reached my dresser,until he bent over my purse. Don't
take any of my money, Florian, Oh, oh you're awake. Well
I was just yes, I know, but I really can't spare any this
week. I need a little Igot You don't need it any more than
I do. I'm broke, Tanya. Know where am I supposed to get
money to live on? Not outof my purse? Please close it,

(15:16):
Florian? All right, all right, where is it? Hey? What's
this? What? Where you getthese? What? Florian? These American
cigarettes? I got them at thetavern? Who from from a job?

(15:39):
Soldier? A job? So yeah, he had taken them off an American
prisoner war and a job gave himto you. Yes, why not?
You accepted them? Naturally? Iaccepted them. Where So now my noble
sister is accepting gifts from the enemy. Either you had a great change of
heart on you or else else?What or else? You are lying?

(16:11):
Beginning the very next night, Iflirted with every Jap sailor who came into
Lee chains. I kept my mouthclosed and my ears open. I used
every trick I knew to persuade themto talk and when it became necessary,
I used something else, the littlewhite pills that Charlie had given me,

(16:34):
a nama to drink now, butthe evening is young, daddy. Come
on, come on, let's drinkit close to the Emperor. Stand on,
can't of course you can't. Youcome on, that's it now,

(16:56):
to this son of Heaven, hisImperial majesty. Drink. Oh, it
was so easy, Charlie, hewas out cold. I just reached into

(17:17):
his pocket and they were his papers. No, I'm sorry, not a
soul. He put the papers back, of course, after I'd copied them.
Here's the information? Am I doing? Charlie? I knew I was
doing well, And as time wenton I did even better. We would

(17:38):
hear reports on Charlie's radio of Japships, torpedo and sounk in Chinese waters,
and Charlie would say, that wasthe baby you told me about last
week. Chuck up another one forTanya, the scourge of the jab Merchant
Marine was proud, and I washappy, and I believe my father and

(18:03):
mother and sisters knew, and thatthey were proud too. And then came
the night I went straight from leeChen's tavern to Charlie's house to tell him
what I'd heard Tako on my room. Huh. That's one of the nipst
biggest ships I know, Charlie.And she's carrying industrial machinery to Yokohama,
one of those factories they've stripped infu Chau. Sure about the sailing time,

(18:25):
quite sure? Tomorrow night at teno'clock, good enough, I'll tip
off the subtride away and they'll belaying for her. If she isn't traveling
in convoys, she isn't check andthey'll get her like a sitting duck.
It's late, Tanya, better getgoing. I'll see you tomorrow, Charlie.
Now during the day, I'm goingdown to Tonghost Junk on the river.
I'll be back here by evening.Good night, Charlie, let me

(18:48):
see if the coast is clear.Okay, go ahead, good night.
It was late, the streets weredark and deserted. I would have taken
a rickshaw home, but it wastoo late for that, so I walked,

(19:12):
or rather I tried to walk,and it was hard to keep myself
from running. I told myself Iwas a fool to be afraid. The
streets were safer than in broad daylight. There was no one on them.
There was no one who could possiblyI stopped. I thought I heard footsteps,
some one walking behind me. Iturned. There was no one there,

(19:38):
at least I couldn't see any one. I started walking faster, and
I grabbed the revolver that Charlie hadgiven me. And then I heard the
sound again. This time I stopped. The world around. There was a
street lamp behind me, and Isaw a shadow on the wall of the
building, the shadow of a man. Who's there? Come up and show

(20:03):
me who you are if you don'tshoot, Take it easy, Florian.
You wouldn't want to shoot your ownbrother with you, Florian? What are
you doing here? Where will youfollow me? Oh? Just curious,
that's all. I've been wondering forquite a while what you were up to?

(20:25):
For quite a while. I've seenyou go to that place several times.
I even took the trouble to findout who lives there. It's an
old Furtherday court, Charlie. That'sright, Charlie does live there. He's
sick. Oh he's sick. Yes, just just an error of mercy,
huh, exactly, an errand ofmercy. You act as if you didn't

(20:49):
believe me. Of course i'd believeyou. I certainly don't think you're in
love with you, oh boy?And what other reason would you have to
visit him? We walked the restof the way home together. I was
sure he didn't believe me, butI couldn't go back to Charlie to warn

(21:11):
him, not without getting florry andmore suspicious in the morning, I thought,
But then I remembered that Charlie wouldbe on Tonghaw's junk on the river
in the morning. Leechen's Tavern openedat noon the next day. The minute
I walked in, I knew somethingwas wrong. There were too many Japanese

(21:33):
soldiers, far too many. Theysat at the bar drinking, They played
cards at the tables. They loungedagainst the walls, puffing their cigarettes and
eyeing me as I crossed the roomand whispered to Lye Chen, why are
there so many of them? Liechen? Maybe your prather can't tell you.
Tanne, my brother he and backroom. He saw you come back,

(21:56):
see him. I knew then Iwas sick with anger and shame. But
I was sicker still when I sawhim sitting alone in that back room,
when I saw the smirking triumph onhis face. Good morning, Tanya,

(22:18):
that's your sick friend this morning.Don't stand and stay. I haven't done
anything so terrible. After all,one spy more or less. How much
did they pay you, Florian?Quite a bit, it seems, if
none. For a long time therewas one operating in Canton. They haven't
been able to get their hands onhim until you betrayed him. Yes,

(22:41):
yes, though they still haven't foundhim. There are some soldiers waiting for
him over at his place where youwent last night, I mean, and
there's a crowd of them here.They about me picked him up pretty soon.
Didn't you get a bonus for betrayingme too? Or I might have,
but I wouldn't sell out my ownsister. I kept you un a

(23:02):
clear I told him you helped mespot him. Thank you, Florian,
I know at all. Tarnya.By the way, I can pay you
back some of the money I liftedfrom your purse. After all, if
it weren't for you, I wouldn'tbe sitting really now with a couple of
hundred yen even the score. Huh, Why you say there was so much

(23:26):
I could have said, but Ididn't waste the time. Only one thing
mattered. Now Charlie was still free. I swore, by the memory of
my mother and father that I wouldkeep him free. It was a half
hour before I managed to slip awayfrom me chins unnoticed. Charlie had introduced
me to Tongue Hall, and Ihad been aboard his junk the week before,

(23:47):
so the gorillas on guard around theboard recognized me. They led me
to a cabin. It's Donya,Charlie Tanya. I thought you were Tongue
Hole. He just wanted to showthem me to worried from Hong Kong,
some sort of important not as importantas the news I have for you.

(24:10):
I poured it all out and helistened thoughtfully. I found the transmitter,
of course, but that's not goodto them. Couldn't they use it to
send false messages Without the cord book, the subs would know the messages were
forny, they'd figure out what hadhappened. But where is the code book?
Right here, Charlie, Then there'sno reason why you can't escape.
Oh none that I can see.My usefulness and Canton is over. Yeah,

(24:32):
they'll pull out both of us.You'll take me with you. Sure
Tomhoe will take us up Rivert.Well, here he is now. I
hope that courier's report was better thanthe news Tanya brought me Tong Hoo.
It was about captive American fliers.Charlie, what about them? We'll tell
them. I have been brought intoContong. They'd being sent to prison camps
in Japan. They shell tonight aboardthe Gota Marule Takota ma rule, Charlie.

(24:57):
That's the ship I told you aboutlast night. Ah, it's the
ship already of the subster. Torpedothere well, torpedo our own men,
then, Charlie, I will ifI don't command the order, gotta let
them know the flyers are aboard.They gotta let the chip go through.
You cannot tell them, Charlie,you cannot get to the transmitter. I
have to Japanese soldiers. They're waitingfor you. So I'll get past them

(25:17):
somehow. Charley, No, don'tgo back there. They'll kill you if
you do, and they'll kill thoseflyers if I don't. There are fifty
of them, there's only one ofme. I said I would go back
to him. I said he wouldneed help getting past the jumps. I
said I wouldn't leave Canton without him, and in the end, because I

(25:38):
let them no choice, he allowedme to stay at his side. He
told me his plans before we leftthe boat. They'll be waiting for me
in the room downstairs, but wewon't go that way. There's a trap
door and the ceiling of the radioroom. If we can get into the
building next door and out under theroof, we'll be able to jump over
under my building. We may getin and send the message without even letting
them nowhere there. A half hourlater we were creeping up the stairs of

(26:04):
the building next door. A fewminutes later we stood huddled on the edge
of the adjoining roof. All right, that's jump. Try to land as
quietly as you can, and thenflat on our stomachs. We crawled toward
the trap door and pried open itsrusty hinges and lowered ourselves into the radio

(26:26):
room. Charlie sat down at thetransmitter, his cold book in his hand.
I went to the door, myrevolver and mine. Have you made
contact with them, Charlie the soundsdownstairs? No, not yet, Charlie,
hurry, yes, but if youCharlie, yes, listen. Someone

(26:51):
coming upstairs, two of them,at least maybe three. Okay, get
going down. No click, Ithrow the trap door and over the roof's
order. I'll be right by behindyou. I made contact. Now all
I have to do is finish themessage. Now get out of here.

(27:11):
It was a lie. It wasthe only liar that Charlie ever told me.
As I crossed the roof, Ilooked behind me, and he wasn't
there. I went down the stairsnext door and out onto the street,
and he still wasn't there. Imoved quickly through the crowd, still looking
back, still waiting, and stillhoping. And then he had pulled the

(27:40):
lever that destroyed the transmitter. Later, a long time later, I learned
that the Kotamaro had passed safely throughthe submarines with fifty American flyers aboard.
Charlie had said his message in time. He had performed his last service for

(28:03):
the OS. The last but one, I mean the very last, had
been to die for it. Andonce again, the report of another OSS

(28:27):
agent closes with the words mission accomplished. Listen again next week for another true
adventure from the files of the OSSon Cloak and Dagger. Heard in Today's

(28:52):
Clock and Dagger Adventure as Charlie wasI and Martin, Tanya Rana Ravern,
Florian Arnomas. Others were Ralph Bell, Raymond Edward Johnson, Carl Weber and
Guy Repp. Script was written byKenfield and music was under the direction of
John Guard, sound effects by MaxRussell and Frank Blackmer. Engineering Don Apple
to Day's Oss Adventure was based onthe book Plulk and Dagger by Cory Ford

(29:15):
and Alastair McBain. This program wasproduced by Lewis G. Cowen and Alfred
Hollander under the direction and supervision ofSherman Marx. Three Times Mean Good Times on NBC