May 6, 2025 • 24 mins
A high-adventure anthology series that transports listeners to exotic locales and thrilling situations. Each episode offers an escape into suspenseful and action-packed narratives.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Did you miss out on that big football game last week?
Can't get rid of that head cold? I want to
get away from it all.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
CBS offers you Escape.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You are groping your way slowly through the dark hold
of a ship at sea, moving carefully step by step,
searching intently for something you dread to find, because you
know that this ship carries a cargo of death.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
The Columbia Broadcasting System and it's affiliated stations presents Escape,
produced and directed by William N. Robson, and carefully plotted
to free you from the four walls of today for
a half hour of high adventure.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Tonight, we escaped to a harbor front in Venezuela and
a grim voyage that started there, As told by Martin's
Storm in his Gripping story, a shipment of mute fate.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I stopped on the wharf at Laguira and looked up
the gang plank toward the liner chan K standing quietly
there at her moorings. The day was warm under a
bright tropic sun, and the harbor beyond the ship lay
drowsy and silent. But all at once, in the midst
of these peaceful surroundings, a cold chill gripped me, and
(01:53):
I shivered with sudden dread, dread of the thing I
was doing and was about to do. But too much
had happened to turn back. Now I'd gone too far
to stop. So I set the box down on the
edge of the wharf, placed it carefully so it's to
be in plain sight and within gunshot of the captain's bridge.
(02:15):
And then I turned and started up the gang plane.
I knew what I was going to do, but I
couldn't forget that a certain pair of beady eyes were
watching every move I made, eyes that never blinked and
never closed, just watched and waited.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Oh a bigger part. What it's mister Warner?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Hello, mother, Willis, how's the best looking stewardess on the
seventh seed.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
I'm fine, mister Warner, I guess better and along, now
get on with I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Now wait a minute, that's a fine greeting after two months. Will.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
It's just that I'm so busy.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I don't believe a word of it. Sailing days tomorrow.
You're simply avoiding me, that's all.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Oh no, really, I'm not.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
And on the trip down from New York you said
I was your favorite passenger.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
But I'm only near.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Wait a minute, what's that you're carrying in your ingreener?
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Nothing?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Just supplies, supplies. Let you have a luck? No, please,
what do you know? It's a cat?
Speaker 4 (03:04):
It's Clara, mister Warner. Mister Bowman said I had to
leave her ashore.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And I just couldn't.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Who's mister Bowman, the new chief steward.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Clara has been aboard with me for two years and
I just can't leave her here in a foreign country,
especially with her condition. It's a delicate now.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, I see what you mean. Well, I hope you
get away with it.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
You you won't tell anyone.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Not a soul. As a matter of fact, if things
don't work out right, we may both end up smuggling.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
Happy to have you on board on the trip down
two months ago, Christopher, I'm very glad you're coming along
with us on the run back to New York.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Thanks, Captain. When there is one thing though, I'm having
a little trouble with the customs men here, and I
wondered if you might.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
Just cant do it. Christopher. I just cave with your
father this morning, told him I've done it for you.
If I possibly the center of the question New York.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
You know, yeah, I thought he would. I wired him
from upriver last week.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
I hate to refuse, but it's absolutely out of the question.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
The captain win, I'm afraid I don't follow you there.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Responsibility to the passenger's son. Have women and children aboard
on a liner. The safety the passenger comes ahead of anything.
But with proper precaution, something might happen. I don't know what,
but something might.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
You've carried worse things, there isn't.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Anything worse, and then you skip it a float to
bare me out. Now, Christopher, I simply can't take the chance.
And that's final.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Final. Well, it wasn't final if I could do anything
about it. I hadn't come down here to spend two
months in that stinking back country and then be stopped
on the edge of the wharf. Two months of it heat,
brain insects, malaria. I'd gone clear in past the headwaters
of the Orinoco, traveled through country where every step along
the jungle trail might be the last one. Oh, Sanchez,
(05:04):
you better start looking for a place to camp. Be
dark in a little while.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
Very soon we turned the river camp on rocks by water.
This very bad country.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
This very bad country. You've been saying that for ten days. Now,
very bad country we wander, this very bad country. I'll
skip it. For all the luck we've had so far,
it might as well be Central Park, Central And understand,
I'll never mind if we don't find something here. What's
the matter? Quiet? Now, Sex, what's wrong? See Bushmaster? Bushmaster,
(05:39):
the deadliest snake in the world. Bushmaster. Its Latin name
was lacasis muto mute fate. It lay there in the
center of the path, a ten foot length of silent death,
coiled loosely in an undulent loop, ready to strike violently
at the least movement. Here was the one snake that
would go after any animal that walks, or any man.
(06:00):
It lay there and watched us, not moving, not afraid,
ready for anything. The splotch of its colors stood out
like some horrible, gaudy fore man, lying there on the
brown background of the jungle, waiting for someone to step
on it. Here was what I'd come two thousand miles
for a Bushmaster, Sanchez. I didn't want that slake kill.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
No kill senor he gone bush muster A very smart,
very quick must always see bullet in time to dodge the.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Anyway he's gone, and the only one we've seen in
five weeks.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
Oh, we find the other this very bad country.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
We'll lay off that gun the next time. Don't shoot
you understand?
Speaker 6 (06:36):
Why are you saying no?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Shoot? You want Bushmaster? Sure, but I want it alive,
Maria Cristo.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Senor Woner, you tell me you want bush Muster, but
you're not say alive.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
You're getting two hundred dollars for it for dead man?
Speaker 6 (06:53):
What is two hundred dollars? Tomorrow we go back to Caracas.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I'll make it five hundred centses.
Speaker 6 (06:58):
I catch waters, rattlesnake, any other kind, but I know catch.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Bushmaster, satchs. I'll give you a thousand dollars.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
Will go back to Caracas.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well, it cost me fifteen hundred American dollars. But three
days later Sanzuz brought me the snake in a rubber bag.
He was shaking so hard I thought for a moment
the thing had struck him.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
One thing, you make sure, Senor Wonder, not turn him
loose in Venezuela, because he know either one who catch him,
and he know where I live.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
All right, sancezz, I'll keep an eye on.
Speaker 6 (07:29):
Him come then, he know you pay me to catch him.
All the time he watch and wait. You know, forget that,
Senor Warner, because he no forget not ever.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Well, after going through all that trouble and danger and
laying out fifteen hundred bucks, I wasn't going to let
a pigheaded ship captain stop me at the last minute,
at least not as long as the cables were still
in operation. Between Laguira and good morning, Captain Wood, the
boy at the hotel said, you want to see me.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
That's right, Christopher, and sit down.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
It seems you weren't willing to let matters stand the
way we left them yesterday.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I'm sorry to go over your head, Captain Wood, but
I had to. The museum sent me all the way
down here for it, and I'm not going to be
stopped by red tape. This will be the only live
bush Master ever brought to the United States. Mmm.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Yes, and if I had my waive it well, orders
or orders. I got a cable from the head office
this morning. All right, I suppose we talk about precautions.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
I'll handle it anyway.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
You say, gotta have a stronger box. That crate's too flimsy.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
What's stronger than it looks. And that wire screen on
top it hold of wildcat. But anyway, I bought a
heavy sea chest this morning. I will put the crate
inside of it.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
It sounds all right. You got a lock on.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
It, heavy padlock. It's fixed so that the lid can
be propped open the crack without unlocking it. The snake's
gotta have air.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
But in dirty weather that lid stay shut. I'll take
no chances.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Fair enough.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
I will keep the thing in my inside cabin where
I sleep. I can have it in the baggage room,
and nobody on boards to know about it.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Whatever you say, captain, but we won't have any trouble.
After all, it's only an animal. It doesn't have any
magical powers.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
And I saw a bushmaster in the zoo at Caracas.
Once headed the glass cage. The double walls had never moved.
Just lay there, look at your as long as you
would insight.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Gave a man the creeps. I didn't know they had
a bushmaster at the Caracas zoo.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
They don't now found the glass broken one morning the
snake night watchmen was dead. I never found out what happened.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Well, the watchman must have broken the glass by accident
some way away.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
They figured it. The glass was broken from the inside.
We sailed in four hours.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
We steamed north into the Caribbean, with perfect weather and
a sea as smooth as an inland lake. The barometer
dropped a little on the third day, but cleared up
overnight and left nothing worse than a heavy swell. But
in spite of the calm seas and the pleasant weather,
I found myself feeling more and more often an ominous foreboding.
(10:27):
I was developing an almost unnatural fear of that snake. Well,
I stayed clear of the passengers, pretty much got the
habit of dropping into Captain Wood's quarters several times a day.
He kept the heavy box underneath his berth. I'd approach
it quietly and shine my flashlight through the open crack.
Never once could I catch that twelve foot devil asleep
(10:49):
or even excited. He'd be lying there, half coiled, his
head raised a little, staring out of those beady black eyes, waiting.
It'd still be like that. I turn away to leave.
Maybe that's what bothered me, A horrible and constant watchful waiting.
What the name of heaven was he waiting for.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Well, hello there, mister Warner.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Oh how are you, Mother Willis?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Ah, but you and the captain spend an awful lot
of time around this cabin. I'm beginning to think that
two of you must have some guilty secret.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Oh no, nothing like that, Mother Willis. I don't know
about Captain would, but I well, I certainly don't have
any guilty secret. Well, she's running quite a swell out there,
mister Bowman.
Speaker 7 (11:38):
Yeah, it's a little heavy, all right, mister Warner. Yes,
a storm passed through to the west of us yesterday
when the glass dropped, think it, miss us then? Huh, yeah,
that's what the mate figures.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Sure stirred up some water.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Though this will put half the passengers in their bunks,
makes it great for my department.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
Two thirds of them will want a steward to hold
their heads.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
He'll keep Mother Willis so busy, she'll have wait. Look
at the size of that wave.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Huh but break jo huss of it.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
We're gonna take it on the port bow hang on, Well,
that was a freak if there ever was one, not
another wave in sight.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
You see him like that sometimes, even in a calm sea. Well,
I gotta get below, mister waterer. That water probably did
some damage on the officer's deck.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Ye ay, suppose it. What did you say?
Speaker 7 (12:27):
The wheel companion wave was open on the port side.
Rich cabins must have taken a pretty bad smashing up.
They're right below the Here is something wrong, mister Warner.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
No, No, nothing at all, mister woman, at least I
hope not. I looked first for Captain Wood and couldn't
find him. Of course I knew it was only one
chance in the thousand, but the chances against that freak
wave were one on a thousand and two. Well, I
couldn't waste any more time, so I stumbled down the
(12:59):
companionway in a lot hung the passage to the captain's cabin.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Oh oh, come on in, mister Warner.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Willis hi?
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Isn't this cabin a mess? Trying to get some of
these things out to dry?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Yeah? Well, I just wanted to check where's that box
that was under the captain's bunch, but where we didn't know?
It was nearly dark when we met together the chart room.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
All the way around it. We've risked all the time
we can. We've got to warn the pressngers oh, we
do it, Captain, call them all together in the lounge. O.
If we did anything like that, we'd be asking for
a panage.
Speaker 7 (13:34):
We'll get one, whether we ask for it or not.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
Pick a few men and go through the cabin decks.
Tell them individually inside deck cabins. Watch for any act
that looks as though it might cause trouble, and we
will keep an eye on them. Handle the crew with
the same way. Right, Okay, as soon as you've finished
all the deck offices and start searching again. Our only
chance of preventing a riot is to find that damnable snake.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
The slow nightmare that followed grew worse. For the hour,
none of us slept, All the ship's officers not on
duty kept on with that endless search. Passengers locked themselves
and their cabins were huddled together in the lounges, knowing
all the time that no spot on board could be
called safe. Fear was a heavy fog, and the lungs
(14:23):
of all of us and every light on the vessel
burned throughout the night. Morning came and brought no railing.
Terror and tension mounted by the hour.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
And now missus Kane, stop getting yourself or worked up
and go back to your cabin. The horrid things probably
crawled overboard anyway, you're just.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Saying that you're paid to see it. You don't know.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Nobody does now, Now everything's going to be all right.
Or if you could only do something, if all of
us could only get off the ship, they could umiicate it. Yes,
that's what we've got to do. We've got to get
off the wait when it's she's gonna jump, let me go.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
Good night's work with a buman and get a down
rock Heaven. Whatever you do, don't turn her loose.
Speaker 6 (15:16):
You never know when it might strike you.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
You can't put on a coat or move a chair
without risking your life.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Now something's gotta be done. It might be right here
in this flower.
Speaker 7 (15:24):
That's all right, Miss David.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
You got to quiet down, Take it easy, take it easy.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Huh. Well, you're a great officer. Why don't you do
something about it? That thing might be crawling around here,
right under our feet somewhere.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
I said, shut up, a you're trying to start a panic.
I gotta write to talk.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I don't want to die. Nobody's gonna tell you.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
The second night passed and morning came around again. A
gray and rainy day, just as grim and tense dragged passed,
and the night came down again, third night of the terror. Again,
every light burned in the whole ship seethed in the
throes of incipient panics, faced by a horror they'd never
met on the sea before. Crew and officers alike were
(16:07):
on the verge of revolt. Passengers sat huddled in a
trance like stupor, ready to scream at the slightest unknown sound.
At seven bells, I made my way forward to the
chart room and found Captain Wood bent over a desk.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Ah, Hello, Christopher, come on in, sit down.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
It's got to be somewhere, Captain Wood, it's got to be.
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
You could search this ship for six months and never
touch all the places aboard. You can only hold out
for two more days.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
We'll be in what's the home office?
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Say, oh, here's the latest wireless from them? Keep quiet
and keep coming. O else can we do? How is
it on the decks?
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Pretty bad? Anything could happen.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
That's why I took the guns away from the men.
One pistol shopping. We'd never rot on our hand.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Oh, the whole thing's my fault, Captain Wood. That's what
I can't forget it. It was only some way I
could pay for it myself alone.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
No, I know how you feel, but it's no more
your fault than mine or that man who asked you
to bring the snake back alive. Nobody planned this. You'd
better try a little sleep.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Sleep, mister Bowman.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
Made some coffee down the stairs Gally a while ago.
Better go down, get yourself a cup, and then rest
up for.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
A couple of hours. Rest. I can't rest, Christopher, it's
no good going.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
What are you gonna do. You can't help anything. You
just tumbled through a hatch half asleep and break your neck.
Go on and get some coffee.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
One way or another.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
We've got to hold out for two more days.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
The light was on in the stewards gallon. The coffee
pot was standing on. The stove was still warm, so
I didn't bother to heat it. I poured out a cup,
carried it over, and set it on the porcelain tabletop
in the center of the room. I started to light
a cigarette. The door of the pan cupboard beneath the
sink was standing slightly ajar, and I happened to glance
(18:12):
down toward it. Out from the dark interior the cupboard
shone two glittering points of light two inches apart. I
dropped the cigarette and moved slowly backward. I'd found the bushmaster.
As I moved, the snake slid out of the cupboard
in a single, sinuous glide and drew back into a
(18:35):
loose coil on the galley floor, never taking his eyes
off me. I moved slowly back, waiting in a moment
for that deadly, slithering strike. How had he known it
was me? He'd stayed quiet when Bowman was here. How
did he know it to pick the first time in
three days when I didn't have a gun o. My
hands touched the wall behind me, and I stopped. Only
(18:57):
then I realized in terror what I'd done. The button
and the door were on the far side of the room.
I backed into a dead end. I stared at the
snake in fascination, expecting any moment the ripping slash of
those poisoned fangs. The horrid coils tightened a little, and
then were still again. Ten million years of evolution to
(19:17):
produce this moment. Homo sapiens versus lacasis muta man against
mute fate, and all the odds were on fate. I
knew then that I was going to die. I could
feel a sweat run down between the painted wall and
palms of my hands pressed against it. My skin crawled
and twitched, and the pit of my stomach was as
(19:40):
cold as ice. There was no sound but the rush
of blood in my ears. The snake shifted again, drawing
into a tighter coil, always tighter. Why the devil didn't
get it over with? And then for just an instant
his head veered away. Something moved over by the stove.
I didn't dare turn to look at it. Slowly it
moved out into my line of vision. There was a cat,
(20:02):
that strawny cat Clara that Mother Willis had sneaked aboard
in Leguira. Its back was arched and every hair stood
on end. It moved, stiff legged, now walking in a
half circle around the snake. The bushmaster shifted slowly and
kept watching the cat. He tightened. He was going to
strike At any second. He struck and missed. The cat
(20:24):
was barely out of reach. Now she was walking back
and forth again. She was asking to die, missed again
by a fraction of an inch. He was striking now
without even going to a full coil, miss again and again,
always missing for the barest margin. Each time the cat
danced barely out of reach, and each time she covered
(20:45):
with one precise spat of a dainty paw, bracing her
skinny frame on three stiff legs. And then suddenly I
realized what she was doing. The bushmaster was tiring, and
one strike was just an instant slow, and in that
split second, sharp claws raked a car evil hadn't ripped
out both of the lidless eyes. That cat had deliberately
blinded the snake. Well, he didn't bother to coil now,
(21:08):
but slid after in a fury, striking wildly and rapidly,
always missing, and every strike was a little slower than
the last one, until finally, as the snake's neck stretched
out at the end of a strike, the cat made
one leap and sank her razor sharp teeth just back
of the ugly head, sank them in until they crunched
bone with tooth and claws. She clung as the monsters
snake foiled and lashed on the floor, striving to get
those hideous coils at her, trying to break their holes,
to shake off the slow and certain paralyovan death that
(21:29):
gradually crept over him, and at last still his struggles forever.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Well.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I took a deep breath. First in minutes, the cat
lay on her side on the floor, panting, resting from
the fight just over. And she had her right to rest.
That mangy, brave, beautiful alley cat had just saved my
life and maybe others as well. But as I turned
(22:02):
toward the stove, I suddenly became very humble, and I
knew all at once what a small thing a human
being really is. I and others aboard were still alive,
only by the merest accident. There were three reasons why
that cat had fought and killed the world's deadliest snake,
And those three reasons came tottering out from under the
(22:25):
stove on shaky little legs, three kittens, with their eyes
bright with wonder and their tails stiff as pokers. Up
on the decks, hundreds of passengers were waiting for the
news that the days and nights of terror were ended,
and I could waited a little longer. I pulled open
(22:45):
the doors of the cabinet, found a can of milk
and then I dropped down on my knees on the
floor of the galley.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Escape is produced and directed by William N. Robson and
Tonight Brought You a Shipment of Mute Fate by Martin Storm,
adapted for radio by Les Crutchfield, with Jack Webb as
Chris Warner, Raymond Lawrence as Captain Wood, and DJ Thompson
as Mother Willis. The special musical score was conceived and
conducted by cy Fure.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Next week.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
At this same time, when you're tired from a hard
day at the office or leaning over a hot stove
all day, when you want to get away from it all,
CBS again offers you escape.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Good night.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Then until the same time next week when CBS again
brings you Escape. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.
Did you miss out on that big football game last week?
Can't get rid of that head cold? I want to
get away from it all.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
CBS offers you Escape.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
You are groping your way slowly through the dark hold
of a ship at sea, moving carefully step by step,
searching intently for something you dread to find, because you
know that this ship carries a cargo of death.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
The Columbia Broadcasting System and it's affiliated stations presents Escape,
produced and directed by William N. Robson, and carefully plotted
to free you from the four walls of today for
a half hour of high adventure.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Tonight, we escaped to a harbor front in Venezuela and
a grim voyage that started there, As told by Martin's
Storm in his Gripping story, a shipment of mute fate.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I stopped on the wharf at Laguira and looked up
the gang plank toward the liner chan K standing quietly
there at her moorings. The day was warm under a
bright tropic sun, and the harbor beyond the ship lay
drowsy and silent. But all at once, in the midst
of these peaceful surroundings, a cold chill gripped me, and
(01:53):
I shivered with sudden dread, dread of the thing I
was doing and was about to do. But too much
had happened to turn back. Now I'd gone too far
to stop. So I set the box down on the
edge of the wharf, placed it carefully so it's to
be in plain sight and within gunshot of the captain's bridge.
(02:15):
And then I turned and started up the gang plane.
I knew what I was going to do, but I
couldn't forget that a certain pair of beady eyes were
watching every move I made, eyes that never blinked and
never closed, just watched and waited.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Oh a bigger part. What it's mister Warner?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Hello, mother, Willis, how's the best looking stewardess on the
seventh seed.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
I'm fine, mister Warner, I guess better and along, now
get on with I'm sure.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
Now wait a minute, that's a fine greeting after two months. Will.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
It's just that I'm so busy.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
I don't believe a word of it. Sailing days tomorrow.
You're simply avoiding me, that's all.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
Oh no, really, I'm not.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
And on the trip down from New York you said
I was your favorite passenger.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
But I'm only near.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
Wait a minute, what's that you're carrying in your ingreener?
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Nothing?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Just supplies, supplies. Let you have a luck? No, please,
what do you know? It's a cat?
Speaker 4 (03:04):
It's Clara, mister Warner. Mister Bowman said I had to
leave her ashore.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And I just couldn't.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Who's mister Bowman, the new chief steward.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Clara has been aboard with me for two years and
I just can't leave her here in a foreign country,
especially with her condition. It's a delicate now.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yeah, I see what you mean. Well, I hope you
get away with it.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
You you won't tell anyone.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Not a soul. As a matter of fact, if things
don't work out right, we may both end up smuggling.
Speaker 5 (03:40):
Happy to have you on board on the trip down
two months ago, Christopher, I'm very glad you're coming along
with us on the run back to New York.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Thanks, Captain. When there is one thing though, I'm having
a little trouble with the customs men here, and I
wondered if you might.
Speaker 5 (03:53):
Just cant do it. Christopher. I just cave with your
father this morning, told him I've done it for you.
If I possibly the center of the question New York.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
You know, yeah, I thought he would. I wired him
from upriver last week.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
I hate to refuse, but it's absolutely out of the question.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
The captain win, I'm afraid I don't follow you there.
Speaker 5 (04:11):
Responsibility to the passenger's son. Have women and children aboard
on a liner. The safety the passenger comes ahead of anything.
But with proper precaution, something might happen. I don't know what,
but something might.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
You've carried worse things, there isn't.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Anything worse, and then you skip it a float to
bare me out. Now, Christopher, I simply can't take the chance.
And that's final.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Final. Well, it wasn't final if I could do anything
about it. I hadn't come down here to spend two
months in that stinking back country and then be stopped
on the edge of the wharf. Two months of it heat,
brain insects, malaria. I'd gone clear in past the headwaters
of the Orinoco, traveled through country where every step along
the jungle trail might be the last one. Oh, Sanchez,
(05:04):
you better start looking for a place to camp. Be
dark in a little while.
Speaker 6 (05:07):
Very soon we turned the river camp on rocks by water.
This very bad country.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
This very bad country. You've been saying that for ten days. Now,
very bad country we wander, this very bad country. I'll
skip it. For all the luck we've had so far,
it might as well be Central Park, Central And understand,
I'll never mind if we don't find something here. What's
the matter? Quiet? Now, Sex, what's wrong? See Bushmaster? Bushmaster,
(05:39):
the deadliest snake in the world. Bushmaster. Its Latin name
was lacasis muto mute fate. It lay there in the
center of the path, a ten foot length of silent death,
coiled loosely in an undulent loop, ready to strike violently
at the least movement. Here was the one snake that
would go after any animal that walks, or any man.
(06:00):
It lay there and watched us, not moving, not afraid,
ready for anything. The splotch of its colors stood out
like some horrible, gaudy fore man, lying there on the
brown background of the jungle, waiting for someone to step
on it. Here was what I'd come two thousand miles
for a Bushmaster, Sanchez. I didn't want that slake kill.
Speaker 6 (06:21):
No kill senor he gone bush muster A very smart,
very quick must always see bullet in time to dodge the.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Anyway he's gone, and the only one we've seen in
five weeks.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
Oh, we find the other this very bad country.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
We'll lay off that gun the next time. Don't shoot
you understand?
Speaker 6 (06:36):
Why are you saying no?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Shoot? You want Bushmaster? Sure, but I want it alive,
Maria Cristo.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Senor Woner, you tell me you want bush Muster, but
you're not say alive.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
You're getting two hundred dollars for it for dead man?
Speaker 6 (06:53):
What is two hundred dollars? Tomorrow we go back to Caracas.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I'll make it five hundred centses.
Speaker 6 (06:58):
I catch waters, rattlesnake, any other kind, but I know catch.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Bushmaster, satchs. I'll give you a thousand dollars.
Speaker 6 (07:06):
Will go back to Caracas.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Well, it cost me fifteen hundred American dollars. But three
days later Sanzuz brought me the snake in a rubber bag.
He was shaking so hard I thought for a moment
the thing had struck him.
Speaker 6 (07:18):
One thing, you make sure, Senor Wonder, not turn him
loose in Venezuela, because he know either one who catch him,
and he know where I live.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
All right, sancezz, I'll keep an eye on.
Speaker 6 (07:29):
Him come then, he know you pay me to catch him.
All the time he watch and wait. You know, forget that,
Senor Warner, because he no forget not ever.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Well, after going through all that trouble and danger and
laying out fifteen hundred bucks, I wasn't going to let
a pigheaded ship captain stop me at the last minute,
at least not as long as the cables were still
in operation. Between Laguira and good morning, Captain Wood, the
boy at the hotel said, you want to see me.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
That's right, Christopher, and sit down.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
It seems you weren't willing to let matters stand the
way we left them yesterday.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I'm sorry to go over your head, Captain Wood, but
I had to. The museum sent me all the way
down here for it, and I'm not going to be
stopped by red tape. This will be the only live
bush Master ever brought to the United States. Mmm.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Yes, and if I had my waive it well, orders
or orders. I got a cable from the head office
this morning. All right, I suppose we talk about precautions.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
I'll handle it anyway.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
You say, gotta have a stronger box. That crate's too flimsy.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
What's stronger than it looks. And that wire screen on
top it hold of wildcat. But anyway, I bought a
heavy sea chest this morning. I will put the crate
inside of it.
Speaker 5 (08:50):
It sounds all right. You got a lock on.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
It, heavy padlock. It's fixed so that the lid can
be propped open the crack without unlocking it. The snake's
gotta have air.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
But in dirty weather that lid stay shut. I'll take
no chances.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Fair enough.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
I will keep the thing in my inside cabin where
I sleep. I can have it in the baggage room,
and nobody on boards to know about it.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Whatever you say, captain, but we won't have any trouble.
After all, it's only an animal. It doesn't have any
magical powers.
Speaker 5 (09:20):
And I saw a bushmaster in the zoo at Caracas.
Once headed the glass cage. The double walls had never moved.
Just lay there, look at your as long as you
would insight.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Gave a man the creeps. I didn't know they had
a bushmaster at the Caracas zoo.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
They don't now found the glass broken one morning the
snake night watchmen was dead. I never found out what happened.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Well, the watchman must have broken the glass by accident
some way away.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
They figured it. The glass was broken from the inside.
We sailed in four hours.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
We steamed north into the Caribbean, with perfect weather and
a sea as smooth as an inland lake. The barometer
dropped a little on the third day, but cleared up
overnight and left nothing worse than a heavy swell. But
in spite of the calm seas and the pleasant weather,
I found myself feeling more and more often an ominous foreboding.
(10:27):
I was developing an almost unnatural fear of that snake. Well,
I stayed clear of the passengers, pretty much got the
habit of dropping into Captain Wood's quarters several times a day.
He kept the heavy box underneath his berth. I'd approach
it quietly and shine my flashlight through the open crack.
Never once could I catch that twelve foot devil asleep
(10:49):
or even excited. He'd be lying there, half coiled, his
head raised a little, staring out of those beady black eyes, waiting.
It'd still be like that. I turn away to leave.
Maybe that's what bothered me, A horrible and constant watchful waiting.
What the name of heaven was he waiting for.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Well, hello there, mister Warner.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Oh how are you, Mother Willis?
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Ah, but you and the captain spend an awful lot
of time around this cabin. I'm beginning to think that
two of you must have some guilty secret.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Oh no, nothing like that, Mother Willis. I don't know
about Captain would, but I well, I certainly don't have
any guilty secret. Well, she's running quite a swell out there,
mister Bowman.
Speaker 7 (11:38):
Yeah, it's a little heavy, all right, mister Warner. Yes,
a storm passed through to the west of us yesterday
when the glass dropped, think it, miss us then? Huh, yeah,
that's what the mate figures.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Sure stirred up some water.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Though this will put half the passengers in their bunks,
makes it great for my department.
Speaker 7 (11:55):
Two thirds of them will want a steward to hold
their heads.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
He'll keep Mother Willis so busy, she'll have wait. Look
at the size of that wave.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Huh but break jo huss of it.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
We're gonna take it on the port bow hang on, Well,
that was a freak if there ever was one, not
another wave in sight.
Speaker 7 (12:17):
You see him like that sometimes, even in a calm sea. Well,
I gotta get below, mister waterer. That water probably did
some damage on the officer's deck.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Ye ay, suppose it. What did you say?
Speaker 7 (12:27):
The wheel companion wave was open on the port side.
Rich cabins must have taken a pretty bad smashing up.
They're right below the Here is something wrong, mister Warner.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
No, No, nothing at all, mister woman, at least I
hope not. I looked first for Captain Wood and couldn't
find him. Of course I knew it was only one
chance in the thousand, but the chances against that freak
wave were one on a thousand and two. Well, I
couldn't waste any more time, so I stumbled down the
(12:59):
companionway in a lot hung the passage to the captain's cabin.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Oh oh, come on in, mister Warner.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Willis hi?
Speaker 4 (13:05):
Isn't this cabin a mess? Trying to get some of
these things out to dry?
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Yeah? Well, I just wanted to check where's that box
that was under the captain's bunch, but where we didn't know?
It was nearly dark when we met together the chart room.
Speaker 5 (13:25):
All the way around it. We've risked all the time
we can. We've got to warn the pressngers oh, we
do it, Captain, call them all together in the lounge. O.
If we did anything like that, we'd be asking for
a panage.
Speaker 7 (13:34):
We'll get one, whether we ask for it or not.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
Pick a few men and go through the cabin decks.
Tell them individually inside deck cabins. Watch for any act
that looks as though it might cause trouble, and we
will keep an eye on them. Handle the crew with
the same way. Right, Okay, as soon as you've finished
all the deck offices and start searching again. Our only
chance of preventing a riot is to find that damnable snake.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
The slow nightmare that followed grew worse. For the hour,
none of us slept, All the ship's officers not on
duty kept on with that endless search. Passengers locked themselves
and their cabins were huddled together in the lounges, knowing
all the time that no spot on board could be
called safe. Fear was a heavy fog, and the lungs
(14:23):
of all of us and every light on the vessel
burned throughout the night. Morning came and brought no railing.
Terror and tension mounted by the hour.
Speaker 4 (14:34):
And now missus Kane, stop getting yourself or worked up
and go back to your cabin. The horrid things probably
crawled overboard anyway, you're just.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Saying that you're paid to see it. You don't know.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
Nobody does now, Now everything's going to be all right.
Or if you could only do something, if all of
us could only get off the ship, they could umiicate it. Yes,
that's what we've got to do. We've got to get
off the wait when it's she's gonna jump, let me go.
Speaker 5 (15:03):
Good night's work with a buman and get a down
rock Heaven. Whatever you do, don't turn her loose.
Speaker 6 (15:16):
You never know when it might strike you.
Speaker 5 (15:17):
You can't put on a coat or move a chair
without risking your life.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Now something's gotta be done. It might be right here
in this flower.
Speaker 7 (15:24):
That's all right, Miss David.
Speaker 5 (15:25):
You got to quiet down, Take it easy, take it easy.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Huh. Well, you're a great officer. Why don't you do
something about it? That thing might be crawling around here,
right under our feet somewhere.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
I said, shut up, a you're trying to start a panic.
I gotta write to talk.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I don't want to die. Nobody's gonna tell you.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
The second night passed and morning came around again. A
gray and rainy day, just as grim and tense dragged passed,
and the night came down again, third night of the terror. Again,
every light burned in the whole ship seethed in the
throes of incipient panics, faced by a horror they'd never
met on the sea before. Crew and officers alike were
(16:07):
on the verge of revolt. Passengers sat huddled in a
trance like stupor, ready to scream at the slightest unknown sound.
At seven bells, I made my way forward to the
chart room and found Captain Wood bent over a desk.
Speaker 5 (16:21):
Ah, Hello, Christopher, come on in, sit down.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
It's got to be somewhere, Captain Wood, it's got to be.
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (16:29):
You could search this ship for six months and never
touch all the places aboard. You can only hold out
for two more days.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
We'll be in what's the home office?
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Say, oh, here's the latest wireless from them? Keep quiet
and keep coming. O else can we do? How is
it on the decks?
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Pretty bad? Anything could happen.
Speaker 5 (16:50):
That's why I took the guns away from the men.
One pistol shopping. We'd never rot on our hand.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Oh, the whole thing's my fault, Captain Wood. That's what
I can't forget it. It was only some way I
could pay for it myself alone.
Speaker 5 (17:03):
No, I know how you feel, but it's no more
your fault than mine or that man who asked you
to bring the snake back alive. Nobody planned this. You'd
better try a little sleep.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Sleep, mister Bowman.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
Made some coffee down the stairs Gally a while ago.
Better go down, get yourself a cup, and then rest
up for.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
A couple of hours. Rest. I can't rest, Christopher, it's
no good going.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
What are you gonna do. You can't help anything. You
just tumbled through a hatch half asleep and break your neck.
Go on and get some coffee.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
One way or another.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
We've got to hold out for two more days.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
The light was on in the stewards gallon. The coffee
pot was standing on. The stove was still warm, so
I didn't bother to heat it. I poured out a cup,
carried it over, and set it on the porcelain tabletop
in the center of the room. I started to light
a cigarette. The door of the pan cupboard beneath the
sink was standing slightly ajar, and I happened to glance
(18:12):
down toward it. Out from the dark interior the cupboard
shone two glittering points of light two inches apart. I
dropped the cigarette and moved slowly backward. I'd found the bushmaster.
As I moved, the snake slid out of the cupboard
in a single, sinuous glide and drew back into a
(18:35):
loose coil on the galley floor, never taking his eyes
off me. I moved slowly back, waiting in a moment
for that deadly, slithering strike. How had he known it
was me? He'd stayed quiet when Bowman was here. How
did he know it to pick the first time in
three days when I didn't have a gun o. My
hands touched the wall behind me, and I stopped. Only
(18:57):
then I realized in terror what I'd done. The button
and the door were on the far side of the room.
I backed into a dead end. I stared at the
snake in fascination, expecting any moment the ripping slash of
those poisoned fangs. The horrid coils tightened a little, and
then were still again. Ten million years of evolution to
(19:17):
produce this moment. Homo sapiens versus lacasis muta man against
mute fate, and all the odds were on fate. I
knew then that I was going to die. I could
feel a sweat run down between the painted wall and
palms of my hands pressed against it. My skin crawled
and twitched, and the pit of my stomach was as
(19:40):
cold as ice. There was no sound but the rush
of blood in my ears. The snake shifted again, drawing
into a tighter coil, always tighter. Why the devil didn't
get it over with? And then for just an instant
his head veered away. Something moved over by the stove.
I didn't dare turn to look at it. Slowly it
moved out into my line of vision. There was a cat,
(20:02):
that strawny cat Clara that Mother Willis had sneaked aboard
in Leguira. Its back was arched and every hair stood
on end. It moved, stiff legged, now walking in a
half circle around the snake. The bushmaster shifted slowly and
kept watching the cat. He tightened. He was going to
strike At any second. He struck and missed. The cat
(20:24):
was barely out of reach. Now she was walking back
and forth again. She was asking to die, missed again
by a fraction of an inch. He was striking now
without even going to a full coil, miss again and again,
always missing for the barest margin. Each time the cat
danced barely out of reach, and each time she covered
(20:45):
with one precise spat of a dainty paw, bracing her
skinny frame on three stiff legs. And then suddenly I
realized what she was doing. The bushmaster was tiring, and
one strike was just an instant slow, and in that
split second, sharp claws raked a car evil hadn't ripped
out both of the lidless eyes. That cat had deliberately
blinded the snake. Well, he didn't bother to coil now,
(21:08):
but slid after in a fury, striking wildly and rapidly,
always missing, and every strike was a little slower than
the last one, until finally, as the snake's neck stretched
out at the end of a strike, the cat made
one leap and sank her razor sharp teeth just back
of the ugly head, sank them in until they crunched
bone with tooth and claws. She clung as the monsters
snake foiled and lashed on the floor, striving to get
those hideous coils at her, trying to break their holes,
to shake off the slow and certain paralyovan death that
(21:29):
gradually crept over him, and at last still his struggles forever.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Well.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I took a deep breath. First in minutes, the cat
lay on her side on the floor, panting, resting from
the fight just over. And she had her right to rest.
That mangy, brave, beautiful alley cat had just saved my
life and maybe others as well. But as I turned
(22:02):
toward the stove, I suddenly became very humble, and I
knew all at once what a small thing a human
being really is. I and others aboard were still alive,
only by the merest accident. There were three reasons why
that cat had fought and killed the world's deadliest snake,
And those three reasons came tottering out from under the
(22:25):
stove on shaky little legs, three kittens, with their eyes
bright with wonder and their tails stiff as pokers. Up
on the decks, hundreds of passengers were waiting for the
news that the days and nights of terror were ended,
and I could waited a little longer. I pulled open
(22:45):
the doors of the cabinet, found a can of milk
and then I dropped down on my knees on the
floor of the galley.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Escape is produced and directed by William N. Robson and
Tonight Brought You a Shipment of Mute Fate by Martin Storm,
adapted for radio by Les Crutchfield, with Jack Webb as
Chris Warner, Raymond Lawrence as Captain Wood, and DJ Thompson
as Mother Willis. The special musical score was conceived and
conducted by cy Fure.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Next week.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
At this same time, when you're tired from a hard
day at the office or leaning over a hot stove
all day, when you want to get away from it all,
CBS again offers you escape.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Good night.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Then until the same time next week when CBS again
brings you Escape. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.
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