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About this Episode
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Transcript
Warning, the following Zippercruder radio spot you are about to hear is going to be filled with F words.
When you're hiring, we at Zippercruder know you can feel frustrated.
For Lauren even, like your efforts are futile, and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people,
only to get flooded with candidates who are just... fine.
F***!
Fortunately, Zippercruder figured out how to fix all that.
And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free at zippercruder.com slash zip.
With Zippercruder, you can forget your frustrations.
Because we find the right people for your roles fast.
Which is our absolute favorite effort.
In fact, four out of five employers who post on Zippercruder,
get a quality candidate within the first day.
F***! Fantastic!
So, whether you need to hire four, 40, or 400 people, get ready to meet first rate talent.
Just go to zippercruder.com slash zip to try Zippercruder for free.
Don't forget that zippercruder.com slash zip.
Finally, that zippercruder.com slash zip.
Warning, the following Zippercruder radio spot you are about to hear
is going to be filled with F words.
When you're hiring, we at Zippercruder know you can feel frustrated.
For Lauren, even, like your efforts are futile,
and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people,
only to get flooded with candidates who are just... fine.
F***!
Fortunately, Zippercruder figured out how to fix all that.
And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free.
At zippercruder.com slash zip.
With Zippercruder, you can forget your frustrations,
because we find the right people for your roles fast,
which is our absolute favorite effort.
In fact, four out of five employers who post on Zippercruder
get a quality candidate within the first day.
F***! Fantastic!
So, whether you need to hire four,
40, or 400 people, get ready to meet first rate talent.
Just go to zippercruder.com slash zip to try Zippercruder for free.
Don't forget that zippercruder.com slash zip.
Finally, that zippercruder.com slash zip.
Warning, the following Zippercruder radio spot you are about to hear
is going to be filled with F words.
When you're hiring, we at Zippercruder know you can feel frustrated.
For Lauren, even, like your efforts are futile,
and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people,
only to get flooded with candidates who are just... fine.
F***!
Fortunately, Zippercruder figured out how to fix all that.
And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free at zippercruder.com slash zip.
With Zippercruder, you can forget your frustrations,
because we find the right people for your roles fast,
which is our absolute favorite effort.
In fact, four out of five employers who post on Zippercruder
get a quality candidate within the first day.
F***! Fantastic!
So, whether you need to hire four,
40, or 400 people, get ready to meet first rate talent.
Just go to zippercruder.com slash zip to try Zippercruder for free.
Don't forget that's zippercruder.com slash zip.
Finally, that's zippercruder.com slash zip.
Escape.
Escape tonight.
To arrive in this health Pacific.
The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations presents
Escape, produced and directed by William N. Robson.
This, the last of the summer series, is The Fourth Man by John Russell.
Numea and the South Pacific.
To a generation of French criminals, a word to be uttered in the same
terrified breath with Devils Island.
The penal colony at Numea were the cutthroat's,
garotters and sadists from the drags of French society were sent to a living death.
Tonight, we invite you to escape from Numea.
In John Russell's The Fourth Man.
The raft stood to open sea.
A matter of pandanus leaves served for its sale and a paddle of wood for its helm.
It was woven of reeds and bamboo sticks lashed upon triple rows of bladders,
and it carried four men.
Three of them had huddled together at the far end.
Their bodies were blackened with dried blood and the hair upon them was long and matted.
They wore only the rags of blue convicts uniforms.
On wrist and ankle, they carried their mark,
the dark and wrinkled stain of the manacles.
There was Du Boes, doctor, man of the world, murderer, friends, the thing is done.
And funeral, forger, ladies man, weakling, coward.
Yes, we've escaped.
And the one known as the parrot, thief and cutthroat.
So far, so good.
And by the way of celebration, gentlemen, may I offer you cigarettes cigarettes.
Doctor, you're a marvel, a magician. Look at them.
White and fresh, though, they just came from the package.
How did you do it?
Every six months there are about 75 escapes from Numea, and not more than one succeeds.
Ours would be that one I knew.
So, three weeks ago, I bribed the knight guard for these very cigarettes,
so that we might sit here, my friends, as we are doing and celebrate.
I want a light, a light, for the pet.
A doctor's a wonder.
He thinks of everything.
He gives us cigarettes, matches and our freedom.
Wait till you've got your two feet on a pavement again.
That'll be the time to sound off about freedom.
To wear starched collars again.
To stow the girl, clean and fresh from her bath.
Down the plastic concord, the rudder we believe.
Suppose we get a storm.
It's not the season of storms.
Just the same.
Suppose we get a storm.
Perky, my friend.
You must not be so impatient.
Remember, we were convicts back there, festering in oblivion.
Now we are men raised from the dead.
Suppose we get a storm.
You've got a gift of speech, doctor.
But where's the ship that was going to meet us here?
This is the day, as agreed.
It will meet us.
The wind will blow us to China if we keep on.
We can't lie any closer to shore.
There's a government launch at Toyan.
And I doubt if the native trackers have given us up.
Careful, parrot, the natives will eat you yet.
I've heard about that.
Is it true, doctor, that they'll keep all the runaways that can capture
to fatten on?
Oh, they prefer the reward still.
I doubt if they've entirely lost the habit of cannibalism.
Peace by peace, parrot.
First they'll sample you.
Then they'll make a stew out of your brains.
Oh, they won't miss a thing.
Shut up, finneroo.
The filthy broods.
Oh, I almost forgot.
We have one of them with us.
The fourth man was steering the raft.
He sat crouched in the stern.
His body glistening with spray.
His huge dark hands held the steering paddle.
He was motionless.
Like an idol, his eyes fixed on the course ahead.
The fourth man on the raft.
You are looking at a canark, my friends.
You will see nothing superior.
No line of beauty to redeem the low angle of the forehead.
The nabby joints of the body.
Nature has stamped him with the mark of inferiority.
And he is at the final seal himself,
with that twist of bark about his middle,
that prong of pig ivory through his nose.
Yes, but nonetheless, he's a man, and there is a price on our heads.
He could be taken as worry-like.
Calm yourself, finneroo.
This is a very simple animal, and infinitely...
Does that mean he couldn't double-cross us?
It does.
He is bound by his duty.
I made my bargain with his chief of the river,
and this one is sent to deliver us onboard our ship.
That's the only interest he has in us.
And he'll do it?
He will.
That is the nature of the native.
I don't trust him not for a minute.
The brute, the animal.
You, it's you I'm talking about.
You dirty brute.
Save your breath, parrot.
He speaks no language,
only a few noises, few signs.
I don't feel right on the same raft with that.
Well, burn yourselves up in the sun if you like, but me.
I'm going to call under a mat to get some sleep.
Yes, we should all sleep a little,
conserve ourselves.
And when we awake, our ship will be here.
Our saucy little topsil schooner,
a mess standing out against the sky,
and we'll be on our way to France.
Yes, sleep, my friends.
The two younger convicts dozed under the heat of the day,
but not the doctor.
He stood once again to sweep the skyline under his shaded hand.
His plan had been so careful, so precise.
He had counted absolutely on meeting the ship,
a small schooner,
one of those flitting half-piratical traders of the Copa Islands
that can be hired like cabs in a dark street
for any sinister enterprise.
And there was no ship,
and there was no crossroads where one might sit and wait.
Ah.
Hey, good morning, doctor.
It's afternoon, Fennero.
Oh, yes, so it is.
I slept like a corpse.
Hey, where's the ship, doctor?
It was going to be here when we woke up.
It will be.
Oh, I'm thirsty, I'm dying with thirst.
So we all Fennero.
Where's the flask?
I'm roasted in the sun.
You'll just have to roast some more.
This crew is put on rations.
What are you talking about?
Where's that water?
I have it here.
Show your hair.
Do you think it's yours?
No.
It's our spirit.
I want a drink, doctor.
Think a little parrot.
We have to guard our supplies like reasonable men.
We don't know how long we may be floating here.
Oh, so that's how you talk now.
You don't know how long.
But you were sure enough when we started.
I'm still sure.
The ship will come.
She cannot stay for us in one spot.
She'll be cruising too and fro until she intercepts us.
And we must wait.
Oh, that's good.
Wait.
And in the meantime, what?
Fry here in this heat.
How tongues hanging out?
Why you deal us out water, drop by drop?
Perhaps.
No.
The man doesn't live who can feed me with a spoon.
Unless you would die very speedily.
We must guard our water.
We can only do our best with what we have.
All right, doctor.
Do your best.
Give me a drink.
You may have your share, of course.
But be warned.
When it's gone, don't come to us to Fenero and me.
Yes, what's fair is fair.
My drink.
Very well.
Oh, a symbol for one symbol.
This way we should have enough for three days, maybe more.
We'll equal shares among the three of us.
That's right.
There are only three of us.
You were thinking of him, Fenero.
About pilot?
He looks somewhat like us, doesn't he?
But his body has never known clothes.
His feet shoes.
His heart is never known the swelling that comes with feelings of love or beauty.
His mind is never known a single thought.
Look at us three, gentlemen.
You Fenero, a forger.
You parrot, a thief.
And I, Dr. Dubose, a Paris in Marseille.
A murderer.
And yet, we are civilized men.
And this is a savage animal.
And our provisions are for civilized men only.
Warning.
The following Zippercruder radio spot you are about to hear
is going to be filled with F words.
When you're hiring, we at Zippercruder know you can feel frustrated.
For Lauren, even.
Like your efforts are futile.
And you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people.
Only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine.
Fortunately, Zippercruder figured out how to fix all that.
And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free at zippercruder.com slash zip.
With Zippercruder, you can forget your frustrations.
Because we find the right people for your roles fast.
Which is our absolute favorite effort.
In fact, four out of five employers who post on Zippercruder
get a quality candidate within the first day.
Fantastic.
So whether you need to hire four, 40, or 400 people,
get ready to meet first rate talent.
Just go to zippercruder.com slash zip to try Zippercruder for free.
Don't forget that zippercruder.com slash zip.
Finally, that zippercruder.com slash zip.
Finding great candidates the hire can be like, well,
trying to find a needle in a haystack.
Sure, you can post your job to some job board.
But then all you can do is hope the right person comes along.
Which is why you should try Zippercruder for free at zippercruder.com slash zip.
Zippercruder doesn't depend on candidates finding you.
It finds them for you.
It's powerful technology identifies people with the right experience
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So while other companies might deliver a lot of, hey, Zippercruder,
finds you what you're looking for.
The needle in the haystack.
See why four out of five employers who post a job on Zippercruder
get a quality candidate within the first day.
Zippercruder, the smartest way to hire.
And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free.
That's right.
Free at zippercruder.com slash zip.
That zippercruder.com slash zip.
Zippercruder.com slash zip.
Warning, the following Zippercruder radio spot you are about to hear
is going to be filled with F words.
When you're hiring, we at Zippercruder know you can feel frustrated.
For Lauren, even, like your efforts are futile.
And you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people
only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine.
Fortunately, Zippercruder figured out how to fix all that.
And right now, you can try Zippercruder for free at zippercruder.com slash zip.
With Zippercruder, you can forget your frustrations
because we find the right people for your roles fast,
which is our absolute favorite effort.
In fact, four out of five employers who post on Zippercruder
get a quality candidate within the first day.
Fantastic.
So whether you need to hire four, 40, or 400 people,
get ready to meet first rate talent.
Just go to zippercruder.com slash zip to try Zippercruder for free.
Don't forget that zippercruder.com slash zip.
Finally, at zippercruder.com slash zip.
The three men awoke to the second day of the raft.
They looked and saw the far-around horizon and the empty desert of the sea
and their own long shadows that slip slowly before them
over its smooth, slow heaving.
The land had sunk away from them in the night.
The trap had been sprung.
As the savage sun kindled upon them with the power of a burning glass,
a calm fell, an absolute calm.
The air hung weighted.
The sea heaved and fell in polished undulations
and the sun shone, driving in under their eyelids like white hot splinters.
They crawled to the shelter of their mats, gasping,
shriveling, and the water.
The world of water was slack and thick as oil.
Oh, how long it is.
Dr. DuBose, yes, Parrot?
Look around you.
What do you mean?
Go on.
Look around.
What do you see?
I see.
Water, Parrot.
And the horizon.
Nothing else.
Oh, don't you see a ship?
A saucy little schooner?
Those were your words.
Well, where is it?
Why don't you see it?
It will come.
We'll it comfort us to be dead when it comes.
You say that you count on your friends,
but suppose they leave you to rot here.
Leave Parrot and me to rot here.
That would be a joke, hey, doctor.
To wait for a ship that will never come.
It will come.
My friends will not fail me.
Why, how do you know?
How can you be so sure?
There's a safety vault in Paris full of papers
to be opened at my death.
Those papers contain confession.
No, gentlemen.
My friends will not fail me.
Hey, Parrot.
A moment ago, you asked me what I saw.
Well, there was something I neglected.
What's that?
I see a canuck and this raft with us.
It does not join us.
It does not look at us.
He sits on his heels and the way of the native
with his arms hugging his knees.
He sits at the stern motionless under this shattering sun,
gazing out into vacancy.
Whenever I raise my eyes, I see nothing else.
Only this canuck.
He seems to be enjoying himself quite well.
I was thinking so myself.
The cannibal, the savage.
He does not seem to suffer.
What's going on in his brain?
What does he dream of there?
He looks as though he hates us.
A dirty rat.
Maybe he's waiting for us to die.
Maybe he's waiting for the reward.
At least he wouldn't starve on the way home.
He could deliver us.
Peace, by peace.
Oh, does he do a doctor?
Doesn't he any feeling I've been wondering?
It may be that his fibers are tougher.
His nose.
But we've had water, and he hasn't.
And yet he sees his skin.
It's moist and fresh.
And his belly, that is a football.
Don't tell me this savage is thirsty.
Is there any way he could steal our supplies?
Certainly not.
Suppose he has his own supplies, hidden.
Why?
We'll see.
Search the rat.
Come on, we'll hang his sick hair and look under the mat.
Tell him to park.
I'll push him aside.
Anything else?
Gentleman.
Gentleman.
He was mistaken.
He has nothing hidden.
You're wrong about him, doctor.
He can, you say, has no understanding.
There's one thing he can understand.
Pay.
Paraparent, not so much.
Let's eat now.
Oh, come on.
Her that'll teach you.
Not so trippin' now, are you?
Not so happy with your luck.
That'll make you feel...
Well, parrot, you feel better now, don't you?
Superior.
Come back, my friends.
Come back under the mat.
The glare of the sun is not so bad there.
Idiots.
What's the matter with our parrot now?
Idiots.
Why do we look and look?
The schooner can't help us now.
If we're become, then they are too.
Doctor, is that true?
Yes.
We must talk for a breeze first.
Then why didn't you tell us we trust you?
Why do you keep on playing out the fast?
You are wise, doctor.
You are very wise.
Put down the knife, parrot.
You know things we don't, and you keep them to yourself.
All right, but be careful.
If you think you'll use your wisdom to get the best of us, be careful, doctor, because
I still have the knife.
And so the days drag by, the second, the third, and now it was the fourth day, and still
there was no breeze, and still there was no shith.
Oh, doctor, what do you, what do you stare at?
At him.
At him, the native, the khanak, why?
Look at him, and look at us.
We are dying, our powers are heavy, and him, naked, wild, brutish, he has yet to give
the slightest sign of complaint or weakness.
Doctor, is this a man or a fiend?
A man.
It is a man, a miracle.
It is a man, and a very poor and wretched example of a man.
Wait, you'll find no lower type anywhere.
Look at his cranial angle, the high ears, the heavy bones of his skull, he's scarcely
above an ape.
And what?
He has a secret.
A secret?
But we see him.
Every movie makes every minute what chance has he for a secret.
I absurd.
Here are we three children of the century, products of civilization, and here is this
savage who belongs before the Stone Age.
Is he to win this struggle?
I absurd.
What kind of secret?
I can't say, perhaps some method of breathing, some strange posture he uses to cheat the sensations
of the body, such things are known among primitive peoples, known and jellously guarded, like
the properties of certain drugs, the uses of hypnotism.
Who knows?
We can know, we can find out, would you ask him?
It's useless, he would not tell, why should he?
We, you scorn him, we give him no share with us, we abuse him, and so he falls back upon
his own expedience, they ever means by which he has survived from the depth of time, by
which he may yet survive when all our wisdom is dust.
There are a number of ways of learning secrets, I know them all.
It would be useless.
How could he stand and he torture you, might invent, you saw how he behaved before?
No, no, that's not the way.
Oh, listen to my way, I'm tired of all this talk, you say he's a man, all right, then
he has blood in his veins, at least we could drink, no, it would be too hot, it would
be salt.
Well, kill him then and throw him over the side, let's be rid of the thing.
We gain nothing, then what do you want?
I want to beat him, that's what I want, to beat him at the game, for our own sakes,
for our racial pride we must, to have blessed him, to prove ourselves his masters.
Watch him, watch him closely my friends.
Watch, I'll watch, all right, my good doctor, I'm not sleeping anymore and leave you alone
with that bottle.
The bottle, the bottle?
I've been meaning to discuss our rations with you.
Have you?
We're running very short, I'm afraid we must cut down again.
And what are we cut to?
Have a thing more for.
No, we must keep our widths, I say no.
All right, then we'll put it to a vote.
You say no, I say yes.
Fenaro.
Yes, yes anything, but give me mine now.
Then it's half a thimble full, for me's your Fenaro.
Your share of Fenaro.
More, more I'll die, give me more.
No more today.
Look, a ship, a ship.
Oh, at last.
Where, where is it?
I don't see any ship.
It's such a trick.
Look Fenaro, he has the bottle, you dirty sea.
Look at him, you killed him with that ore.
What about the bottle?
Yes or some left, you caught him just in time.
And you caught the bottle, just in time.
Yes or some left, you caught him just in time.
And you caught the bottle just in time.
It seems I did.
And there is no ship.
There will be no ship.
We are done.
Because of you and your dirty promises that brought us here.
Dr. Liar.
Fool!
Don't come any closer.
Must you want this flask broken over your head?
No.
I wouldn't want that.
Wait.
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
What?
Wait.
Just think, parrot.
Why should you and I fight?
We can see this trouble through and win yet.
This calm can last forever.
Besides, there will be only two of us to divide the water now.
Yes, that's true, isn't it?
And who can he leave us his share and inheritance?
All right.
I'll take my now.
My share.
Right now, if you please.
Later, we'll see.
So be it.
Your share.
Ah, many things.
And now, Venerable share.
To me, please.
You see.
And now, another.
Another good doctor.
Three.
That's enough, parrot.
No, doctor.
It's not enough.
Now I'll take the rest.
Get it.
Stop.
I'll kill you if you don't let go.
Thank you.
You see, I have manners.
Haven't I?
And I have wisdom, too.
Because I've pulled a very wise man.
I toast you, doctor.
The best man wins.
That was a bright idea of yours.
And the best is yours.
So the best man wins, isn't it?
You forgot I'm a doctor, didn't you?
You forgot that a man cannot go without whatever for days.
Then drink his fill and live through it, huh?
Go on, parrot.
Guess about your worthless life.
While I laugh.
The best man always wins, parrot.
The best man.
So, the best man wins, yes, doctor.
You forgot my knife, didn't you?
Forgot me, lying at your feet.
It gave me a forget, didn't you?
But now, it is I, Penelope, who will outlast the two of you.
Here's my good doctor.
The best man always wins.
Penelope, you fool.
The water.
It's running out.
Come in, come in.
Captain.
Longboat's back, sir.
All right, send Marto in.
He's right here, sir.
Bad luck, sir.
The rap was here all the time, not ten miles away from us.
Ah, that comes.
Well, where are they, the passengers?
Ah, we're too late. They're all dead.
All dead, eh?
Yes, one stabbed a death, another skull crushed.
The other fried by the sun.
Oh, dead.
Well, eh.
All the better.
Of course, there's nothing to feed.
Yeah, but how are you going?
Ah, hogs, it's my friend.
The hogs, it's an afterhold.
Fill them nicely with brine, and there we are.
Ah, I don't understand.
Oh, you dull, Marto.
Very dull.
The gentleman's passage is all paid.
Before we left Sydney, I contracted to bring back three escaped convicts.
I'll bring them back.
Pickle.
So if you'll go back, Marto, and bring them aboard with a trip, I'll be much of blind.
Very well, sir.
Oh, there's a fourth man on the rap catten.
A canach.
He's still alive.
What do we do with him?
A canach.
No word in my contract about any canach.
Leave him there is only a savage.
And so, Dr. Du Bois and Fenneru and the parrot
went aboard for the long time.
Went aboard for the long trip to their beloved Paris.
Their bodies pitching and rolling gently in the huge vats of brine.
On the raft, the fourth man raised his head slightly as a wind freshened from the west.
He watched until the schooner turned, shaping away for Australia,
and disappeared over the rim of the horizon.
Then he spread his sailor pandanus leaves and headed his raft eastward,
back toward New Caledonia, back toward Hold.
Feeling somewhat dry after his exertion,
the native plucked a hollow reed at random from the rushes on his raft.
Slowly, lazily, he stretched himself at full length in his accustomed place at the stern.
He thrust the lead down deep into one of the bladders underneath the raft,
and slowly drank his fill of sweet water.
He had a dozen such storage bladders remaining,
built into the floats at intervals above the waterline,
quite enough to last him safely home again.
Escape is produced and directed by William N. Robson.
The fourth man by John Russell was adapted for radio by Irving Ravech,
with Paul Fries as Dr. Dubose, Joe Kerns as Feneru, and Nestor Piver as Peret.
Bill Johnstone narrated,
the special musical score was conceived and conducted by Sy Puer.
Escape has been presented by the Columbia Broadcasting System
and its affiliated station.
Be sure to meet with us next Monday night,
when the radio theater returns to the air with Betty Davis and Glenn Ford,
starring in A Stolen Life.
Remember, next Monday evening from 9 to 10 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time,
the Lux Radio Theater starts its 14th year over CBS.
The play A Stolen Life.
The stars Betty Davis and Glenn Ford.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.
The sun shining birds are singing and all feels right in the world.
Until the season changes and suddenly you lose your motivation to get out of bed.
In fact, one in five people experience some form of depression no matter the season or time of year.
At the American Psychiatric Association Foundation,
our vision is to build a mentally healthy nation for all,
because we want you to live your best life and be your best you all year round.
Please visit mentallyhealthination.org to learn more.
