Speaker 1: You are isolated on a remote plantation in the crawling
Speaker 1: Amazon jungle, and an immense army of ravenous ants is
Speaker 1: closing in on you, swarming in to each you alive,
Speaker 1: a deadly black army from which there is no escape.
Speaker 2: Escape produced and directed by William N. Robson, and carefully
Speaker 2: contrived to free you from the four walls of today
Speaker 2: for a half hour of high adventure. To night, we
Speaker 2: escape to the Amazon jungle and to a creeping, crawling terror.
Speaker 2: As Carl Stevenson told it in his gripping story Liningen
Speaker 2: Versus the Ants.
Speaker 3: I first met Lningen while performing my duty as district commissioner.
Speaker 3: As my boat neared his plantation landing, I saw him
Speaker 3: upon the river bank, regarding me with mild interest. A
Speaker 3: great hulk of a man with bristling gray hair, bulky nose,
Speaker 3: and pale eyes. His entire appearance somehow suggested an aging
Speaker 3: and shabby eagle. He escorted me to the terrace and
Speaker 3: had a drink brought. I came quickly to the point
Speaker 3: of my visit and issued my warning. Liningen puffed placidly
Speaker 3: at a huge cigar and listened as I told him.
Speaker 3: Unless they altered their course, and there's no reason why
Speaker 3: they should. They'll reach your plantation in two days at
Speaker 3: the latest.
Speaker 1: Ah, well, it was reason to you paddling all this
Speaker 1: way just to give me the tip tip, Commissioner. Even
Speaker 1: a herd of crocodiles couldn't drive me from this plantation
Speaker 1: of mine.
Speaker 3: But these aren't creatures you can fight. They're an elemental force,
Speaker 3: a gigantic catastrophe, ten miles long, two miles wide. Ants
Speaker 3: nothing but ants, and each one as big as your thumb,
Speaker 3: And each of them are fiend from hell. Unless you
Speaker 3: clear out at once, there'll be nothing left of you
Speaker 3: but a skeleton picked as clean as your own plantation
Speaker 3: will be.
Speaker 1: I'm not getting out. But you can't fight. Yes I can.
Speaker 1: I've got the best weapon there is, Commissioner intelligence.
Speaker 3: But can't I make you understand the hitting I think
Speaker 3: it is you who do not understand. In the three
Speaker 3: years I've been here, I've met and defeated more than
Speaker 3: one catastrophe, flood, drought, a plague, events which caused many
Speaker 3: of my neighbors to flee for the lives. No, Commissioner,
Speaker 3: all my life, I have lived with one creed. The
Speaker 3: human brain needs only to become fully aware of its
Speaker 3: powers to conquer even the elements. Liningen, your obstinacy is
Speaker 3: endangering not only your own life, but the lives of
Speaker 3: your workers and their families. You don't know these ants,
Speaker 3: I tell you, you don't know these ants. But Liningen
Speaker 3: merely sat there, puffing at his cigar and regarding me
Speaker 3: with a smug grin, And I knew it was hopeless.
Speaker 3: As I boarded my launch and cast off, I realized
Speaker 3: I had never met a man like that, and I
Speaker 3: could not help.
Speaker 1: Wondering about the strange look and the Commissioner's eyes as
Speaker 1: he boarded his launch and cast off. Undoubtedly he thought
Speaker 1: me insane. H Well, he would not have been the
Speaker 1: first to think so. But I, Liningen knew my own powers.
Speaker 1: I was sure of myself. I knew old intelligence directed
Speaker 1: the right always makes man the master of his fate.
Speaker 1: That night, I called my Indian workers together in front
Speaker 1: of the plantation house. I saw their faces go ashen
Speaker 1: with terror as I told them that the ants were coming.
Speaker 1: Watch them as they meld around, muttering me. I said
Speaker 1: nothing more to them. Finally, one of the men stepped forward,
Speaker 1: Blast the foreman patron.
Speaker 4: We have worked hard here for these three years, all
Speaker 4: of us. We have built the finest plantation in this district,
Speaker 4: we all sharing it. It has been a home for
Speaker 4: all of us and our families. Now the ants come.
Speaker 4: So those ditches we dug last year, the pipe we
Speaker 4: put in the ground, that was for the ants.
Speaker 1: Yes, that was for the ants.
Speaker 4: If we moved our families across the river, the ants
Speaker 4: could not reach them.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 4: And you, the ants are mighty. We know what they
Speaker 4: can do. All of us think that you are mighty. Butron,
Speaker 4: we will stay with you and fight against the ants.
Speaker 3: I knew that the men would give me that answered.
Speaker 1: I counted on it. I thought of the commissioner and
Speaker 1: wondered what he would say at such unquestioning confidence. Would
Speaker 1: he still think I was in sane all that? Or
Speaker 1: had he dismissed an out of my mind?
Speaker 3: One man who calmly evaluated his chances against a deadly
Speaker 3: menace coolly decided he could win and was willing to
Speaker 3: stake his life on it, to risk a horrible death
Speaker 3: for it. It was terrifying, and yet it was fascinating.
Speaker 3: The next morning I sent for my assistant. Together we
Speaker 3: went to the huge map of the district which hung
Speaker 3: from a wall of my office, and checked the last
Speaker 3: reported position of the.
Speaker 5: Ants last night.
Speaker 3: They had reached Tea, about seventy miles above this fork
Speaker 3: in the river, traveling southeast, Yes, directly toward lining toward
Speaker 3: the homes. That plantation at the band in the river
Speaker 3: belongs to a man named Leningen. When would you say
Speaker 3: the ants will reach there?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, I don't know. I mentioned about tomorrow noon,
Speaker 1: tomorrow noon, still time, still the time? What do you mean?
Speaker 1: Wh why? Nothing?
Speaker 3: But what did I mean? Still time for? What for
Speaker 3: Liningen to flee? Or still time for me to Even
Speaker 3: as I rejected the thought with horror, I knew that
Speaker 3: the fascination of that man was more than I could resist.
Speaker 3: That Liningen's fight was drawing me back toward that plantation
Speaker 3: and death. I knew now, past all doubt, that I
Speaker 3: was going back.
Speaker 1: I had to.
Speaker 3: It was ten o'clock in the morning when I rounded
Speaker 3: the bend and saw lan Engine's plantation before me. I
Speaker 3: put in at the dock and tied up the lunch.
Speaker 3: Then I saw him standing on the bank above me,
Speaker 3: arms folded, stubby cigar in his mouth, and that same
Speaker 3: smug grin on his face. I made my way up
Speaker 3: to him, back with another warning, Commissioner, no, back to
Speaker 3: stay a while. Yes, you don't seem surprised.
Speaker 1: I have not. You expected me. I thought you'll be
Speaker 1: back here. Come along, we'll get some horses. Don't want
Speaker 1: to ride around the plantation. Take a look at the defenses,
Speaker 1: I rigged up. Yes, I'll want to see the defense,
Speaker 1: and the ants will be getting a glimpse of them
Speaker 1: before long. I should think, yes, they are.
Speaker 3: The defences lin Engen had devised were quite impressive. Surrounding
Speaker 3: three sides of the plantation like a huge horseshoe, was
Speaker 3: a ditch twelve feet wide. The ends of this horseshoe
Speaker 3: shaped ditch ran into the river, which formed the fore
Speaker 3: side of the plantation that the up river entrance to
Speaker 3: the ditch. Line Engine had constructed the dam by which
Speaker 3: the river water could be diverted.
Speaker 1: Into the ditch.
Speaker 3: A large handwheel controlled the floodgate of the dam, and
Speaker 3: apparently land Engine had ordered it open immediately after my arrival.
Speaker 3: Whereas we now approached the ditch and rode along it,
Speaker 3: I could see that it was nearly full.
Speaker 1: Ah, how do you like my first line of defense, Commissioner.
Speaker 3: It's reassuring, like a molt around a castle.
Speaker 1: To Unless the ants know how to build rafts, they
Speaker 1: won't reached the plantation. But this is only the automotor.
Speaker 1: There's a better one than this. Now, come along, we'll
Speaker 1: go up to the high ground where the buildings are
Speaker 1: and get a view from there.
Speaker 3: Liningen, Eh, I didn't see any women or children around
Speaker 3: the plantation, or any animals.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's right. Moved them across the river.
Speaker 3: And even you think there is danger.
Speaker 1: Not because of danger, Commissioner. Matter of efficiency. Efficiency, Yes,
Speaker 1: cuts down on the efficiency of the men if they're
Speaker 1: worried about their families. Critical situations only become crises when
Speaker 1: oxen and women get excited.
Speaker 3: I see, ah, here we are.
Speaker 1: Ye see the ditch.
Speaker 3: It's much smaller than the others.
Speaker 1: As you've noticed, how all the buildings are on this
Speaker 1: piece of high ground in a ditch surrounds them, and
Speaker 1: it's lined with concrete.
Speaker 3: But even filled with water, this is no barrier. It's
Speaker 3: not big enough. Why if they get this farther there.
Speaker 1: Don't get no farther. This ditch wasn't built for water, Commissioner.
Speaker 1: You see the pipes leading into it. See those storage
Speaker 1: tanks on the hill petrol. We can throw up a
Speaker 1: wall of flame, catab it. They won't like that.
Speaker 3: I hope you're right Lymington. Look over at the edge
Speaker 3: of the jungle.
Speaker 1: All those animals running like the wind, everything from jaguars
Speaker 1: and monkeys. Good heavens. Remember they don't have any ditches.
Speaker 3: Can they escape?
Speaker 1: They'll be all right as long as they don't get
Speaker 1: caught between the river and the ants. They can outrun
Speaker 1: the crawlers. But if they get trapped, it's either the
Speaker 1: ants or the crocodiles. Huh.
Speaker 5: Look Look up.
Speaker 1: There over the horizon, there are your ants.
Speaker 5: Look at them.
Speaker 3: It was the sight I will never forget. Over the
Speaker 3: range of hills, as far as I could see, crept
Speaker 3: a darkening hem ever longer and broader, until the shadows
Speaker 3: spread across the entire slope, then downward, downward. I'm cannily swift,
Speaker 3: and all the green herbage on the entire slope was
Speaker 3: being mowed as by a giant sickle, leaving only the
Speaker 3: vast moving shadow extending deepening, and or was moving nearer.
Speaker 3: There are linings, and we can't last against that.
Speaker 1: Look at them? Why they will figure.
Speaker 3: Ditches with their corpses, who still have enough to destroy
Speaker 3: every one of us.
Speaker 1: We've got to run. Well, hey, no, they haven't gotten
Speaker 1: towards yet, and they never will.
Speaker 3: The hostile army was approaching in perfect formation. No human battalions,
Speaker 3: however well drilled, could ever hope to.
Speaker 1: Rival the precision of that advance.
Speaker 3: Along a front that moved forward as uniformly as a
Speaker 3: straight line, the ants drew nearer and nearer to the
Speaker 3: water ditch as they approached. Two outlying wings of the
Speaker 3: army detached themselves from the main body and started marching
Speaker 3: along the sides of the ditch, no doubt expecting at
Speaker 3: some point to find a crossing. And during this hour
Speaker 3: long flanking movement, the main army remained still across the
Speaker 3: scant twelve feet of ditch. I stared at them, and
Speaker 3: they stared back at me. Solid mass, everyone as big
Speaker 3: as my thumb, with reddish black body and long legs. Suddenly,
Speaker 3: a sounds so unearthlys as to freeze our blood, jerked
Speaker 3: our heads from the direction of the jungle on the
Speaker 3: far side of the ditch. Coming toward the ditch at
Speaker 3: a stumbling gallop, was a singular being a writhing animal
Speaker 3: like blackened statue with a shapeless head and four quivering feet.
Speaker 3: It was a stag covered over and over with ants.
Speaker 3: Lin engine threw up his rifle and the stag fell
Speaker 3: lifeless to the ground, its agonies.
Speaker 1: At an end.
Speaker 3: Horrified as I was, my curiosity impelled me to glance
Speaker 3: at my watch. I had to know how long the
Speaker 3: ants would tape. After six long minutes, only the white,
Speaker 3: polished bones of the stag remained. Now I could see
Speaker 3: a change in landing, and gone was the sporting zest
Speaker 3: of the novel contest. In its place was a cold,
Speaker 3: violent purpose. He had to beat the ants because he
Speaker 3: now knew how long it would take them once they
Speaker 3: got to us. Around tour in the afternoon, the ant
Speaker 3: scouts having found no crossing, there was a stirring among
Speaker 3: the main army, and then an immense flood of ants
Speaker 3: about one hundred yards in width commenced touring and a
Speaker 3: glimmering black cataract down.
Speaker 1: The flower slope for the ditch.
Speaker 3: Thousands drowned instantly, but the rest began using the bodies
Speaker 3: as bridges landing and immediately swung into action.
Speaker 1: Up in the flood gate a little more. We've got
Speaker 1: to get the water in the ditch moving pass. Look
Speaker 1: at him drowned.
Speaker 3: But they keep coming, even though the current carries many
Speaker 3: of them away.
Speaker 1: They're and fancy will pick them. How about those shovels
Speaker 1: and petrol sprinklers. You pass them out to the mead
Speaker 1: it has been done. Then get all hands here in
Speaker 1: a hurry. That's looked like spot reaction. Commissioner. Yes, we're
Speaker 1: getting to see what I was talking about. What do
Speaker 1: you mean about intelligence being more than a match for
Speaker 1: anything in tackles deke leants, they've got no intelligence. If
Speaker 1: they had, they'd have attacked along the whole length of
Speaker 1: the ditch instead of a narrow crot like this they
Speaker 1: have been across by now. No, too bad. I'm not
Speaker 1: running their campaign for them.
Speaker 3: You can joke about it like that with ants halfway across?
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 1: Then? Is it with the shovels now dump some sand
Speaker 1: and quads on them? See how they like that here
Speaker 1: with the petrol sprinklers not potting, ha ha. They don't
Speaker 1: like it, Commissioner, they don't like it a bit.
Speaker 3: Look at them, yes, but look at the ones on
Speaker 3: the fast side of the ditch whole, clumps of them
Speaker 3: rolling into the water. The rest are using them for bridges.
Speaker 1: More than that thought, now widening the front too.
Speaker 3: Some of them are getting across.
Speaker 1: Uh. Grab a shovel, and Commissioner, make them regret the matter.
Speaker 1: Lit out my eyes and handful ideas, Yasha, hands to
Speaker 1: the petrol. Don't stop now the rest of it weavem heaven.
Speaker 5: We canna hold it your n.
Speaker 1: Keep it, keep, tell it done. Stump down the waters
Speaker 1: and y'all got the flood gates openers. They can't hold
Speaker 1: around against the curl. Now look at them, Commissioner. The
Speaker 1: water is carrying them away.
Speaker 5: We've cleaned them.
Speaker 1: We've won out.
Speaker 3: It was true Leningen had won at least the opening round.
Speaker 3: The flood gets were left open the four stall any
Speaker 3: night crossing, But when dawn came, the dark blanket was
Speaker 3: still there, motionless across the ditch. Then we noticed a
Speaker 3: feverish activity on the other side of the plantation. Here
Speaker 3: a grove of Cameron trees lined the far end of
Speaker 3: the ditch, and every tree is swarmed with the crawling insects.
Speaker 3: But instead of eating the leaves, they were merely gnawing
Speaker 3: through the stems, so that a thick green shower fell
Speaker 3: steadily to the ground. Well, it looks as if it's
Speaker 3: feeding time for our friends, eh.
Speaker 1: Glass, have all the petrol prompts brought here, Get everyone
Speaker 1: over here except the lookouts on the other side, and
Speaker 1: pass out the shoulders.
Speaker 3: Going to deprive them of a meal?
Speaker 1: A meal?
Speaker 3: Aren't they cutting down.
Speaker 1: The leaves for food? No, I wish they were. Looks
Speaker 1: like I underestimated them when I said they didn't have intelligence.
Speaker 1: What do you mean? I said, if they wanted to
Speaker 1: get across, they'd have to have rats. And that's just
Speaker 1: what they've got. Those leaves their rats.
Speaker 3: Even as he spoke, the leaders went tumbling down the
Speaker 3: far bank by the thousands. The current drew them away
Speaker 3: from the bank, and each leaf carried several ends.
Speaker 1: I don't worry. As long as it keeps spraying them
Speaker 1: and shoveling dirt on the ramps, they can't land. But
Speaker 1: it will be too many, It's true.
Speaker 3: Look more leaves in the ditch all the time, where
Speaker 3: they'll have a solid carpet to walk across in a minute.
Speaker 3: Not so vast, Commissioner, I've still got a trigger, my
Speaker 3: slave for them. The water.
Speaker 1: The ditch is drying up. Of course he's drying up.
Speaker 1: That's the plan. Those are the orders I said to
Speaker 1: the dam. Are you mad? This is as empty?
Speaker 3: What's to prevent the end? Look, the water's way down,
Speaker 3: it's almost dry. They'll be able to come across the bottom.
Speaker 1: They'll not make it. The man at the dam will
Speaker 1: have opened the gates by now to flood the ends.
Speaker 3: Right, what a chance to take.
Speaker 1: If anything should happen here it comes, Here comes the
Speaker 1: water as well. Give the crawlers a ditch to rider
Speaker 1: right out to the river. A look at them.
Speaker 3: Go line engine's tactics, who were successful at first, the
Speaker 3: violent flow of water at the original depth raced through
Speaker 3: the ditch, overwhelming leaves and ants and sweeping them along.
Speaker 3: Three times the ditch was emptied, three times the ants
Speaker 3: raced across its bottom, and three times the rushing water,
Speaker 3: arriving just in time, carried them away. But the fourth
Speaker 3: time was the water lowered nearly to the bottom of
Speaker 3: the ditch. We waited in vain for the rushing waters.
Speaker 3: And then what's the matter? What's gone wrong with them?
Speaker 1: Just as the men at the them lord the water
Speaker 1: almost to the bottom, the ans attacked before he could
Speaker 1: open the flood it.
Speaker 4: He was almost surrounded here run the ants kipped coming
Speaker 4: they had across the ditch.
Speaker 3: Lin engine stood motionless, absorbing the news of his defeat
Speaker 3: without a word. Then he raised his pistol and fired
Speaker 3: three shots of the air, the pre arranged signal for
Speaker 3: all the men to retreat instantly to the second line
Speaker 3: of defense, the concrete ditches more than a mile from
Speaker 3: the point of the invasion. After we arrived there, the
Speaker 3: natives commenced, straggling in silently. Lannington waited until all of
Speaker 3: them had gathered. Then he spoke to.
Speaker 1: Them, Oh, lads, we won the first round. What's the second.
Speaker 1: But we'll smash the crawlers yet. Anyone who thinks otherwise
Speaker 1: can draw us pain and push off. There are wraps
Speaker 1: enough on the river, and plenty of time still to
Speaker 1: reach them. You'll stay that good age, lads, and you, Commissioner.
Speaker 3: I can't persuade you to give up the fight.
Speaker 1: You cannot.
Speaker 3: Then I stayed too.
Speaker 1: I knew you would if you were bet they are
Speaker 1: trying to get across. I didn't think they would. There's
Speaker 1: plenty of food out there for them. I fields and orchards,
Speaker 1: the work of three years. It'll last them until morning anyway. Yes,
Speaker 1: we were safe for that night.
Speaker 3: But the next morning the black swarm was solid around us,
Speaker 3: and their shock troops were hard at work. They were
Speaker 3: dropping shreds of bark and twigs and leaves into the
Speaker 3: petrol filled ditches, forming a floating bridge across the surface
Speaker 3: of the liquid. Lin Eene stood silently watching this operation,
Speaker 3: and I could see a grudging admiration in his face. Then,
Speaker 3: after several hours, the attack came down the ditch. They
Speaker 3: poured millions of them and across the bridge of twigs,
Speaker 3: rapidly approaching the inner side and lining, and sat motionless, watching,
Speaker 3: watching them liningen, for the love of God, don't sit
Speaker 3: there like a statue. There'll be on us in a moment.
Speaker 1: Let him pull the ditch first. Ah Now, all right,
Speaker 1: everyone back a torch. Oh, we'll see how our friends like.
Speaker 1: A little heat.
Speaker 3: Names from the ditch, hot into the air, devouring ants
Speaker 3: by the midians. It was some time before the petrel
Speaker 3: burned down to the bed of the ditch, but when
Speaker 3: it did, the devils came back for more Again. Lioneton
Speaker 3: fired the ditch to destroy them, and still again they
Speaker 3: came on, but at each success of firing, the task
Speaker 3: of the ants grew easier because of the film of
Speaker 3: ash which now covered the petrol. And as they returned
Speaker 3: to the assault time after time, a slow, sickening horror
Speaker 3: crept into my mind. And look quickly at Vantage and
Speaker 3: then at the petrol tanks. He read my gaze and
Speaker 3: nodded slowly.
Speaker 1: That's right, Commissioner. We could hold him off forever if
Speaker 1: our supply of petrel was unlimited. But it isn't. We've
Speaker 1: got enough to fill the ditch once.
Speaker 3: More, liningen, isn't there any way anyway at all? We've
Speaker 3: got to do something.
Speaker 1: We know, I know there must be away, There must
Speaker 1: be yes, yes, what is it? We'll flood the whole plantation.
Speaker 1: But the river's higher than any point except this high
Speaker 1: ground we're on now. If the river was damned all
Speaker 1: the way it did, overflow that stone breakwater and flood
Speaker 1: the whole plantation. We've got to close the flood gate
Speaker 1: of the damn. That'll do it. You're mad.
Speaker 3: Damn is more than a mile away, more than a
Speaker 3: mile of heads.
Speaker 1: Listen to me, lessen words. I'm proud of you now,
Speaker 1: there's still a chance. By shutting the floodgates from the
Speaker 1: dam and fighting the whole plantation from the river the
Speaker 1: moment I'm over the dead, set fire to it. That'll
Speaker 1: allow time for the flood to wash away the ants.
Speaker 1: Then all you'll have to do is wait for me.
Speaker 1: It's impossible.
Speaker 3: You can't get to the damn, let alone back.
Speaker 1: That's why you're wrong, Commissioner. I'll get them, I'll get back,
Speaker 1: take care of things while I'm gone. Huh.
Speaker 3: I watched him as he calmly pulled on high level boots,
Speaker 3: drew gauntlets over his hand, and stuffed the spaces between
Speaker 3: breeches and boots, gauntlets and arms with petrol soaked rags.
Speaker 3: He sealed his eyes with close fitting mosquito goggles and
Speaker 3: plugged his nostrils and ears with cotton. Then the native
Speaker 3: drenched his clothes with petrol. Blass, who acted as doctor
Speaker 3: to the men's smeared a salve over him, and finally
Speaker 3: Linington was ready. As he stood calmly saying ready for
Speaker 3: the run.
Speaker 1: I realized that this as it should be. A lininggen
Speaker 1: would meet the ants and defeat them or be defeated
Speaker 1: by them. Lining Gen versus the ans. Yes, it was
Speaker 1: right that it should be like this. But now there
Speaker 1: was no more time for thought, only action. I took
Speaker 1: a deep breath and then bounded across the ditch and
Speaker 1: among the ants. I ran. I ran in long, equal strides,
Speaker 1: with one thought, one sensation of my being. I must
Speaker 1: get through. I dodged the trees and shrubs, except for
Speaker 1: the split seconds my souls touched the ground, the ants
Speaker 1: would have no opportunity to alight on me. I ran on.
Speaker 1: I was half weight of the damn before I felt
Speaker 1: ants under my clothes and a few on my face.
Speaker 1: I strucken them mechanically, scarcely, conscious of their bites, and
Speaker 1: the dam drew taught me slowly, and the distance grew
Speaker 1: less less badly, only one hundred yards away fifty Then
Speaker 1: I was there. I gripped the uncovered wheel, but oddly,
Speaker 1: and I seized it. When a hood of ants flowed
Speaker 1: over my hands and arms. I strained, and slowly the
Speaker 1: wheel turned and turned more, and the bloodgate was swinging
Speaker 1: slowly shut. Then it was shut, and the water was
Speaker 1: rising rising behind the breakwater closer to the top, closer,
Speaker 1: and then it was filling over flooding of the plantation
Speaker 1: of the garden. I let go off the wheel and
Speaker 1: started back through the ants. I was coated from head
Speaker 1: to foot with the fiends. Tongues of fire stabbed at
Speaker 1: me as they bit into my flesh. I almost lost
Speaker 1: my head with a pain as I ran, knocking ants
Speaker 1: from my body, brushing them from my blood face, and
Speaker 1: then one bit me just below the rim of my goggles.
Speaker 1: I managed to tear him away, but the agony of
Speaker 1: the bite and its venom drilled into the I nerves.
Speaker 1: I saw now through circles of fire, into a milky mist.
Speaker 1: I was almost blinded, but I knew that if I
Speaker 1: tripped and fell, I ran on my heart pounding as
Speaker 1: if it would burst, blood roaring in my ears, A
Speaker 1: giant's fist battering my lungs, and then I could see
Speaker 1: dimly in a wall of flame at the ditch, but
Speaker 1: it was too far away. I could not last half
Speaker 1: a distance. I stumbled and well felt myself being swarmed
Speaker 1: over them. Out tried to rise a great weight, and
Speaker 1: then suddenly the vision of the half devoured stag in
Speaker 1: my brain. Six minutes then nothing bones. I couldn't let
Speaker 1: that happen to me, I couldn't die like that. To
Speaker 1: my feet time dragged myself forward to the flame.
Speaker 5: The ditch.
Speaker 1: The ring of flight cours enough.
Speaker 3: Only it seemed we had waited for hours, when all
Speaker 3: at once for the blazing ring around us, an apparition
Speaker 3: hurtled and fell full length on the ground. It was Lininghen,
Speaker 3: alive with ants, unconscious, with glazing eyes and lacerated face.
Speaker 3: We rushed to him, stripped off his clothes, and tore
Speaker 3: at the ants that covered him. His body seemed almost
Speaker 3: one open wound. In one place I could see a
Speaker 3: white bone. Later, as the curtain of flame lord, I
Speaker 3: looked out where the blanket of ants had been and
Speaker 3: saw only a vast expanse of water, covering the entire
Speaker 3: plantation and working its way to within a few feet
Speaker 3: of the concrete ditch. The ants were gone, drowned, and
Speaker 3: line engine had won. He lay on his bed, his
Speaker 3: body swathed from head to foot with bandages, but alive
Speaker 3: and still in command. Everything in order, Everything's in order,
Speaker 3: told you I'd come back.
Speaker 1: Even if I am bit Streamlined.
Speaker 2: Escape is produced and directed by William N. Robson and
Speaker 2: Tonight brought you Liningen Versus the ants by Carl Stephenson,
Speaker 2: adapted for radio by Robert Rife, with William Conrad as
Speaker 2: liningen and lou Merrill as the commissioner. Music was conceived
Speaker 2: and conducted by cy Fure.
Speaker 1: Next week, you are groping through a dark alleyway in
Speaker 1: the French Quarter of New Orleans, with terror driving you on,
Speaker 1: and always before your eyes is the malevolent stare of
Speaker 1: a voodoo man, striking you with a deadly curse from
Speaker 1: which you must escape.
Speaker 2: Next week we escape with William Irish's eerie story of
Speaker 2: a Voodoo hon the bandleader Papa Benjamin.
Speaker 1: Good Night.
Speaker 2: Then until this same time next week, when we again
Speaker 2: offer you escape. This is CBS, They Columbia Broadcasting System