Speaker 1: Suspense, which is usually heard at this hour on Thursday nights,
Speaker 1: is taking its customary summer holiday. Suspense returns to the
Speaker 1: air four weeks from tonight on Thursday, September one.
Speaker 2: You are isolated on a remote plantation in the crawling
Speaker 2: Amazon jungle, and an immense army of ravenous ance is
Speaker 2: closing in on you, swarming in to eat you alive,
Speaker 2: a deadly black army from which there is no escape.
Speaker 1: We offer you escape designed to free you from the
Speaker 1: four walls of today, for a half hour of high adventure.
Speaker 1: To night, we escaped to the Amazon jungle and to
Speaker 1: a creeping, crawling terror. As Carl Stevenson told it in
Speaker 1: his famous story Liningen versus the Ants, I.
Speaker 3: First met Liningen while performing my duties 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. Broad I came quickly to the point
Speaker 3: of my visit and issued my warning. Liningen puffed placidly
Speaker 3: at a huge cigar as he listened, and then said.
Speaker 4: Exactly what are you trying to tell me.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to tell you that unless they order their course,
Speaker 3: and there's no reason why they shure they'll reach your
Speaker 3: plantation in two days at the latest, Well.
Speaker 4: Commissioner, it was decent of you peddling all this way
Speaker 4: just to give me the tip tip. You're pulling my leg.
Speaker 4: Of course, when you say I've got to get out now, look,
Speaker 4: I assure you I'm not, Commissioner. Even the herd of
Speaker 4: crocodiles couldn't drive me from this plantation of mine.
Speaker 3: God, you don't understand. These aren't creatures you can fight.
Speaker 3: They are an elemental force, a gigantic catastrophe, ten miles long,
Speaker 3: two miles wide. Ants nothing but ants, and each one
Speaker 3: as big as your thumb, and each of them are
Speaker 3: fiend from hell. Unless you clear out it once, there'll
Speaker 3: be nothing left of you but a skeleton picked as
Speaker 3: clean as your own plantation will be.
Speaker 4: I am not going to run for it, Commissioner, just
Speaker 4: because trouble's on the way. But it isn't trouble it's
Speaker 4: And don't think I'm the kind of fat head who
Speaker 4: tries to beat off lightning with my fists. Either, I've
Speaker 4: got a better weapon, Commissioner intelligence with me. The brain
Speaker 4: isn't just a second appendix. I know what it's.
Speaker 3: Therefore, Cat, I make you understand the hideousness.
Speaker 4: I think it is you who do not understand. In
Speaker 4: the three years I've been here, I've met and defeated
Speaker 4: more more than one catastrophe, flood and drought, a plague,
Speaker 4: events which caused many of my neighbors to flee for
Speaker 4: their lives. No, Commissioner, all my life, I've lived by
Speaker 4: one motto. The human brain needs only to become fully
Speaker 4: aware of its power to conquer even the elements.
Speaker 3: Linens in. Your obstinacy is endangering not only your own life,
Speaker 3: but the lives of your four hundred workers and their families.
Speaker 3: You don't know these ants, I tell you, you don't know
Speaker 3: these ants. But Lin Engine merely sat there, puffing at
Speaker 3: his cigar and regarding me with a sardonic grin, and
Speaker 3: I knew it was hopeless. As I boarded my launch
Speaker 3: and cast off, I turned to look once more at
Speaker 3: this man who calmly intended to defy one of the
Speaker 3: world's greatest scourges. I felt a sudden resentment taught him,
Speaker 3: and yet with it was something else. I had never
Speaker 3: met a man like that, and I couldn't help wondering
Speaker 3: what combination of elements made up such a creature.
Speaker 4: I stood on the bank of the river, watching the
Speaker 4: Commissioner's launch until it rounded a bend and was lost
Speaker 4: to sight. There was a strange look in the Commissioner's
Speaker 4: eyes as he stood on decks, staring back at me.
Speaker 4: Clearly he thought me er hmhm, the very least unreasonable. Well,
Speaker 4: he wouldn't have been the first to think so. But I,
Speaker 4: line engine, knew my own powers. I was sure of myself.
Speaker 4: I knew that intelligence directed right always makes man the
Speaker 4: master of his faith. That night, I called my Indian
Speaker 4: workers together in front of the plantation house. I saw
Speaker 4: their faces go ashen with terror as I told them
Speaker 4: the ants were coming. Watched them as they melt around, muttering.
Speaker 4: I said nothing more to them. Finally one of the
Speaker 4: men stepped forward blasted the foreman. We're worth hard here.
Speaker 5: For these three years, all of us, we have built
Speaker 5: the finest plantation in this district.
Speaker 4: We all share. Really, it has been a home for
Speaker 4: all of us and our families.
Speaker 5: Now the ants come, So those ditches we do last year,
Speaker 5: the pipe we put.
Speaker 4: In the ground, that was for the answer, That was
Speaker 4: for the antswer if we.
Speaker 5: Moved our families across the river, the ants could not
Speaker 5: reach them.
Speaker 4: That's right. And you, the ants.
Speaker 5: Are a mighty We know what they can do.
Speaker 6: All of us think that you are mighty.
Speaker 4: Yes, we will stay and fight against the ants with you.
Speaker 4: I knew the men would give me that answer. I'd
Speaker 4: counted on it. Suddenly I thought of the commissioner, wondered
Speaker 4: what he'd say at such unquestioning confidence. What do you
Speaker 4: still think? I was unreasonable?
Speaker 3: All that night I could not get Liningen out of
Speaker 3: my mind. One man, who calmly evaluated his chances against
Speaker 3: a deadly menace coolly decided but he could win, and
Speaker 3: was willing to stake his life on it, to risk
Speaker 3: a horrible death for it. It was terrifying, and yet
Speaker 3: it was fascinating. When down came, I sent for my assistant.
Speaker 3: Together we went to the huge map of the district
Speaker 3: which hung from a wall of my office.
Speaker 4: The last report of position of the ants came in
Speaker 4: last night.
Speaker 3: They were here about seventy miles above this fork in
Speaker 3: the river, traveling southeast. Yes, sir, directly, Todd Laningen Todd Hulm, Sir, Oh,
Speaker 3: that plantation at the bend in the river belongs to
Speaker 3: a man named Liningen. Oh, when would you say the
Speaker 3: antsle reached there? I don't know, sir.
Speaker 4: I imagine about tomorrow noon.
Speaker 3: Tomorrow noon, still time? Still time?
Speaker 4: Now, what do you mean, sir?
Speaker 3: Oh? Nothing? Never mind? What did I mean? Still time
Speaker 3: for what a Liningen to flee? Or still time for
Speaker 3: me to Even as I rejected the thought with horror,
Speaker 3: I knew that the fascination of that man was more
Speaker 3: than I could resist. That Liningen's fight was drawing my mind,
Speaker 3: drawing me back toward that plantation and death. I knew,
Speaker 3: past all doubt that I was going back to Liningen's plantation.
Speaker 3: I had to. It was ten o'clock in the morning
Speaker 3: when I rounded the bend and saw Liningen's plantation before me.
Speaker 3: I put in at the dark and tied up the launch,
Speaker 3: and then I saw him standing on the bank above me,
Speaker 3: arms folded, stubby cigar in his mouth, and that same
Speaker 3: sardonic grin on his face. I made my way up
Speaker 3: to him.
Speaker 4: Back for another warning. No, I'll back to say a while.
Speaker 3: Yes, you don't seem very surprised.
Speaker 6: I'm not.
Speaker 3: You expected me.
Speaker 4: I knew you'd be back. Come along, we'll get some horses.
Speaker 4: You'll want to ride around the plantation and take a
Speaker 4: look at the defenses I've rigged up.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I want to see the defenses.
Speaker 4: And the ants. We'll be getting a glimpse of them
Speaker 4: before long. I should think yes and they come along then.
Speaker 3: The defence's Linagen had devised were quite impressive. Surrounding three
Speaker 3: sides of the plantation like a huge horseshoe, was a
Speaker 3: ditch twelve feet wide. The ends of this horseshoe shaped
Speaker 3: ditch ran into the river, which formed the fourth side
Speaker 3: of the plantation, and at the upriver entrance to the ditch,
Speaker 3: Linogen had constructed a dam by which river water could
Speaker 3: be diverted into the ditch. A large handwheel controlled the
Speaker 3: floodgate of the dam, and apparently Lininggen had already it
Speaker 3: opened immediately after my arrival. For as we now approached
Speaker 3: ditch and road along it, I could see that it
Speaker 3: was nearly full.
Speaker 4: Oh, how do you like my first line of defense, Commissioner.
Speaker 3: Now it's reassuring, like a motor around a castle.
Speaker 4: Unless the ants know how to build rafts, they won't
Speaker 4: reach the plantation. But this is only the outer motive.
Speaker 4: There's a better one than this. Come along. They'll go
Speaker 4: up to the high ground where the buildings are. We
Speaker 4: can get a view from there.
Speaker 3: An engen, Eh, I didn't see any women or children
Speaker 3: around the plantation, or any animals.
Speaker 4: That's right. Moved them across the river.
Speaker 3: Ah, and you think there is danger or not?
Speaker 4: Because of danger, Commissioner, a matter of efficiency. Efficiency cuts
Speaker 4: down the efficiency of the men if they're worried about
Speaker 4: their families. Critical situations only become crisis when ox and
Speaker 4: now women get excited.
Speaker 3: I might have known, eh, nothing here we are see
Speaker 3: the ditch much smaller than the other.
Speaker 4: You've noticed how all the buildings are on this piece
Speaker 4: of high ground. It's in the ditch surrounds them. It's
Speaker 4: lined with concrete.
Speaker 3: But even filled with water, this is no barrier. It's
Speaker 3: not big enough. Why if the ants get this far,
Speaker 3: they'll get no farther.
Speaker 4: This ditch wasn't built for water. Commissioner see the pipes
Speaker 4: leading into it. See those storage tanks on the hill petrol.
Speaker 4: We can throw up a wall of flame. You care
Speaker 4: a bit. They won't like that, fine, and.
Speaker 3: Should look over the edge of the jungle.
Speaker 4: All those animals ha running like the wind, everything from
Speaker 4: jaguars to monkeys. Heavens, I remember, they don't have any.
Speaker 3: Ditches, and there's no escape.
Speaker 4: They'll be all right as long as they don't get
Speaker 4: caught between the river and the ants. They can outrun
Speaker 4: the crawlers. But if they get trapped, it's either the
Speaker 4: ants or the crocodile roof. Look look over there on
Speaker 4: the horizon, there are your ants. Look at them.
Speaker 3: It was a side I'll never forget. Over the range
Speaker 3: of hills, as far as I could see, crept faring
Speaker 3: him ever longer and broader, until the shadows spread across
Speaker 3: the entire slope, and then downward, downward, uncannily swift, and
Speaker 3: all the green herbage on the entire slope was being
Speaker 3: mon as by a giant sickle, leaving only the vast
Speaker 3: moving shadow, extending, deepening, and always moving nearer.
Speaker 4: A very hideous laugh.
Speaker 3: Lin eine, we can't last against that. Look at them?
Speaker 3: Why they got filire ditches with their corpses and still
Speaker 3: have enough to destroy every one of us.
Speaker 4: We've got to run. I No, they haven't reached U ship,
Speaker 4: and they never will.
Speaker 3: The hostile army was approaching in perfect formation. No human battalions,
Speaker 3: however well drew, could ever hope to rival the precision
Speaker 3: of that advance. Along a front that moved forward as
Speaker 3: uniformly as a straight line, the ants drew nearer and
Speaker 3: nearer to the water ditch as they approached. Two outlying
Speaker 3: wings of the army detached themselves from the main body
Speaker 3: and started marching along the side sides of the ditch,
Speaker 3: no doubt expecting at some point to find a crossing.
Speaker 3: And during this hour long flanking movement, the main army
Speaker 3: remained still across the scant twelve feet of ditch. I
Speaker 3: stared at them, and they stared back at me. A
Speaker 3: solid mass, every one as big as my thumb, with
Speaker 3: a reddish black body and long legs. Suddenly, a sound
Speaker 3: so unearthly as to freeze our blood jerked my heads
Speaker 3: in the direction of the jungle on the far side
Speaker 3: of the ditch. Coming toward the ditch at a stumbling gallop,
Speaker 3: was a singular being a writhing animal like black and
Speaker 3: statue with a shapeless head and fae quivering feet. It
Speaker 3: was a stag covered over and over with ants. Linon
Speaker 3: should throw up his rifle, and the stag fell lifeless
Speaker 3: to the ground. Its agonies at mend. Horrified as I was.
Speaker 3: My curiosity impelled me to glance at my watch. I
Speaker 3: had to know how long the ants would take. After
Speaker 3: six minutes, only the white, polished bones of the stag remained.
Speaker 3: Now I could see a change in len Engen Gon
Speaker 3: was the sporting zest of the novel contest. In its
Speaker 3: place was a cold, violent purpose to send these vermin
Speaker 3: back to the hell where they belonged. If he did not,
Speaker 3: we were both only too sure of the alternative, and
Speaker 3: now we even knew how long it would take the
Speaker 3: ants once they got to us around four in the afternoon,
Speaker 3: the ant scouts having found no crossing, there was a
Speaker 3: stirring among the main army, and then an immense flood
Speaker 3: of ants about one hundred yards in width commenced, pouring
Speaker 3: in a glimmering black cataract down the far slope into
Speaker 3: the water filled ditch. Thousands drowned instant but the rest
Speaker 3: began using the bodies as bridges. Line should immediately swung
Speaker 3: into action.
Speaker 4: ANEO, run, get to the dam, open the flood gate
Speaker 4: more to get the water in the ditch moving past.
Speaker 4: Pass Knock at them drowned by the fowls.
Speaker 3: Yes, for they keep coming, even though the current carries
Speaker 3: many of them away. They're advancing.
Speaker 4: We'll fix them. Plus, have about those shovels and petrol sprinklers.
Speaker 4: Have you passed them out to the men, and get
Speaker 4: all hands here in a hurry. This looks like the
Speaker 4: spot for actions, Commissioner. Yes, beginning to see what I
Speaker 4: was talking about. What you mean about intelligence being more
Speaker 4: than a match for anything at tackles? Kick the ants.
Speaker 4: They've got no intelligence. If they had, they'd have attacked
Speaker 4: along the whole length of the ditch instead of a
Speaker 4: narrow front like this, they'd have been across by now.
Speaker 4: H Too bad for them. I'm not running their campaign.
Speaker 3: You can choke about it like that with the ants
Speaker 3: halfway across the ditch.
Speaker 4: All right, man, busy for the shovels now dump some
Speaker 4: sand and clods on them. See how they like that? You,
Speaker 4: with the petrol sprinklers, start pumping ha. They don't like it, Commissioner,
Speaker 4: they don't like it a bit ha ha.
Speaker 3: Look at them, yes, but look at the ones on
Speaker 3: the far side of the ditch. Whole clumps of them
Speaker 3: rolling into the water. The rest are using them for bridges.
Speaker 3: What's keeping to nail? You should be at the damp.
Speaker 3: Now they're getting across, more of them.
Speaker 4: I'll grab a shovel and commission and make them regret it.
Speaker 4: What's the matter, shovel, They're into the petrol. If you
Speaker 4: do supposing the petrol, keep hattered, keep hattered. You're lost
Speaker 4: if you stop now ha ha. The water's moving past.
Speaker 3: Her, and I've got the floodgates open.
Speaker 4: Yes, look at the ants. They can't hold her on
Speaker 4: against the current. Now they're being washed away. Look at them, Commissioner.
Speaker 4: The water's carrying them away. We beat them, We've won out.
Speaker 3: It was true, lin Engene had won the opening round.
Speaker 3: The flood gates were left open to forst Tall and
Speaker 3: the night crossing. When dawn came, the dark blanket was
Speaker 3: still there, motionless across the ditch. Then we noticed the
Speaker 3: feverish activity on the other side of the plantation. Here
Speaker 3: a grove of tamer and trees lined the far end
Speaker 3: of the ditch, and everyray trees 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.
Speaker 4: Glass. Have all the petrol pumps brought. Get everyone over
Speaker 4: here except the lookouts on the other side, and pass
Speaker 4: out the shovels. Looks like I underestimated them when I
Speaker 4: said they didn't have intelligence.
Speaker 3: What do you mean?
Speaker 4: I said, if they wanted to get across, they'd have
Speaker 4: to have rafts, And that's just what they've got. Those
Speaker 4: leaves are their rafts.
Speaker 3: Even as he spoke, the leaves went umbling down the
Speaker 3: far bank by the thousands. The current drew them away
Speaker 3: from the bank, and each leaf was crawling with ants.
Speaker 4: Don't worry, Commissioner, I've still got a trick off my sleep.
Speaker 3: The water the ditch is drying up.
Speaker 4: Of course it's drying up. That's the plan. Those are
Speaker 4: the orders I sent to the dam. Are you mad?
Speaker 3: As soon as it's empty? He what's to prevent the
Speaker 3: answ from Look, Look, the water's way down, it's almost dry.
Speaker 3: They'll be able to come across the bottom.
Speaker 4: They'll not make it. If the man at the dam
Speaker 4: carries out his orders, he should have opened the gates
Speaker 4: again by now to flood.
Speaker 3: The answer, what a chance to take if anything should happen,
Speaker 3: don't you.
Speaker 4: Here it comes, Here comes the water. Now we'll give
Speaker 4: the crawlers in the ditch of wood ride out into
Speaker 4: the river. There, look at them go.
Speaker 3: Liningen's tactics were successful. At first. The violent flow of
Speaker 3: water at the original depth raced through the ditch, overwhelming
Speaker 3: leaves and ants and sweeping them along. Three times the
Speaker 3: ditch was emptied, three times the ants raced across its bottom,
Speaker 3: and three times the rushing water, arriving just in time,
Speaker 3: carried them away. But the fourth times the level dropped
Speaker 3: nearly to the bottom of the ditch. We waited in
Speaker 3: vain for the rushing waters and men. What's the matter,
Speaker 3: What's gone.
Speaker 4: Wrong with the dam?
Speaker 7: The answer the anseenor just as demanded the damn lord.
Speaker 7: The water almost to the bottom. The ens attacked before
Speaker 7: he could open the flood gate. He was almost surrounded.
Speaker 7: He ran the ends kept coming. They are across the ditch.
Speaker 3: Senor Lin engine stood motions absorbing the news of his
Speaker 3: defeat without a word, Then simply he raised his pistis
Speaker 3: and fired three shots into the air, the prearranged signal
Speaker 3: for all men to retreat instantly to the second line defense.
Speaker 3: A concrete ditch is more than a mile from the
Speaker 3: point of invasion. Soon after we arrived there, the natives commenced,
Speaker 3: straggling in silently Liningjin waited until all of them had gathered.
Speaker 3: Then he spoke to.
Speaker 4: Them, Well, lads, we won the first round and lost
Speaker 4: the second, but we'll smash the crawlers. Yet. Anyone who
Speaker 4: thinks otherwise controls pay and push off. There are rafts
Speaker 4: enough on the river and plenty of time still to
Speaker 4: reach them. I say you stay then, Thank you, lads,
Speaker 4: and you commission him.
Speaker 3: I can't persuade you to go up the fight.
Speaker 4: Huh you cannot.
Speaker 3: Then I stayed too.
Speaker 4: I knew you would.
Speaker 3: A few of the ants have reached the.
Speaker 4: Ditch trying to get across. No, I didn't think they would.
Speaker 4: There's plenty of food over there for them, my fields,
Speaker 4: my orchards, my work of three years, or the last
Speaker 4: them until morning.
Speaker 3: Anyway, Yes, we were saved for the moment, but the
Speaker 3: next morning, the black swarm was solid around us. Their
Speaker 3: shock troops were hard at work. They were dropping shreds
Speaker 3: of bark and twigs and leaves into the petrol filled ditches,
Speaker 3: forming a floating bridge across the surface of the liquid.
Speaker 3: Lin Engine stood silently watching this operation, and I could
Speaker 3: see a grudging admiration in his face. Then, after several hours,
Speaker 3: the attack came down the ditch. They poured millions of them,
Speaker 3: and across the bridge of twigs rapidly approached the inner side.
Speaker 3: Lin Engene sat motionless watching them, watching them liningen, For
Speaker 3: the love of God, don't sit there like a statue.
Speaker 3: They'll be honest in a moment.
Speaker 4: Let them fill the ditch first, Now, all right, everyone
Speaker 4: back from the ditch. Blast, hand me the torch. The
Speaker 4: puffriends like.
Speaker 6: A little heat around them.
Speaker 3: The flames from the ditch shut into the air, devouring
Speaker 3: ants by the millions. It was some time before the
Speaker 3: petrol burned down to the bed of the ditch, and
Speaker 3: when it did, the devils came back for more, again
Speaker 3: and again, lining and fired the ditch to destroy them.
Speaker 3: But as they returned to the assault time after time,
Speaker 3: a slow, sickening horror crept into my mind. I looked
Speaker 3: quickly at Liningen, and then the petrol tanks. You read
Speaker 3: my gaze, nodded slowly.
Speaker 4: That's right, Commissioner. We could hold them up forever if
Speaker 4: our supply of petrol was unlimited.
Speaker 3: But it isn't.
Speaker 4: We've only got enough to fill the ditch once more, Liningen.
Speaker 4: Isn't there a way anyway at all? Ah? They must
Speaker 4: be yes, there must be away, yes, yes, yes, what
Speaker 4: is it? We'll flood the whole plantation. Flood But how
Speaker 4: the river's higher than any point except this high ground
Speaker 4: we're on now. If the river was damned all the way,
Speaker 4: it'll overflow that stone breakwater and flood the whole plantation.
Speaker 4: We've got to close the flood gate of the damn.
Speaker 4: That'll do it. You're mad.
Speaker 3: The dam is more than a mile away, a mile
Speaker 3: of ants. It's impossible you'll ever get there, let alone
Speaker 3: get back.
Speaker 4: That's why you're wrong, Commissioner. I'll get there and i'll
Speaker 4: get back. Ha ha, take care of things while I'm gone, eh.
Speaker 3: I watched him as he calmly pulled on high let
Speaker 3: the boots, drew gauntlets over his hands, and stuffed the
Speaker 3: spaces between bridges and boots, gauntlets and arms with petrol
Speaker 3: soaked rags. He shielded his eyes with close fitting mosquito
Speaker 3: goggles and plugged his nostrils and ears with cotton. Then
Speaker 3: the natives drenched his clothes with petrol. Blass, who acted
Speaker 3: as doctor that the men smeared a save over him.
Speaker 3: And finally Liningen was ready and he stood surveying the
Speaker 3: costs he must take to them. I sensed a sudden car.
Speaker 4: As I stood near the ditch ready for the run.
Speaker 4: I realized this was as it should be. I line
Speaker 4: engine would meet the ants and defeat them, or be
Speaker 4: defeated by them. Ha line engine versus the ants. Yes,
Speaker 4: it was right that it should be like this, and
Speaker 4: now there was no more time for thought on the action.
Speaker 4: I took a deep breath and then bounded across the
Speaker 4: ditch and among the ants. I ran. I ran in long,
Speaker 4: equal strides, with one thought, one sensation in my being.
Speaker 4: I must get through. I dodged all trees and shrubs
Speaker 4: except for the split seconds my souls touched the ground.
Speaker 4: The ants would have no opportunity to light on me.
Speaker 4: I ran on. I was halfway to the dam before
Speaker 4: I felt ants under my clothes and a few on
Speaker 4: my face. I struck at them mechanically, scarcely, conscious of
Speaker 4: their bites. The d andrew taught me slowly, the distance
Speaker 4: less less, finally only one hundred yards away fifty Then
Speaker 4: I was there. I gripped the ant covered wheel, hardly
Speaker 4: had I seized it when horde of ants flowed over
Speaker 4: my hands and arms.
Speaker 8: I strained, but slowly the wheel turned that turn more
Speaker 8: bloodgate was swinging slowly shut and then was shut, and
Speaker 8: the water was rising, rising behind the breakwater closer to
Speaker 8: the top, closer then it.
Speaker 4: Was spelling over. The flooding of the plantation had begun.
Speaker 4: I let go over. The wheel started back through the ants.
Speaker 4: The first time I realized I was coated from head
Speaker 4: to foot with the fimes. Tons of fire stamped me
Speaker 4: as I bit into my flesh. I almost lost my
Speaker 4: head with the pain. As I ran, knocking ants from
Speaker 4: my body, brushing them from my bloody place, and then
Speaker 4: one bit me bellow the rim of my goggles managed
Speaker 4: to tear it away in the agony of the bite,
Speaker 4: and its venom drilled into the iron nerves. I saw
Speaker 4: now who circles of fire into a milky mist. I
Speaker 4: was almost blinded, but I knew that if I tripped
Speaker 4: and fell, I ran on my heart pounding as if
Speaker 4: it would burst, blood roaring in my ears, a giant's
Speaker 4: fist battering my lungs. Then I could see dimly that
Speaker 4: wall of flame at the ditch, but it was too
Speaker 4: far away. I couldn't last half that distance. I stumbled,
Speaker 4: I fell, I felt myself being swarmed over, devoured, tried
Speaker 4: to rise a great weight, and suddenly the vision of
Speaker 4: the half devoured stag in my brain. Six minutes then
Speaker 4: nothing but bones. I couldn't let that happen to me.
Speaker 4: I couldn't die like that.
Speaker 3: I feet.
Speaker 4: Hacked myself forward, trot the flame, the ditch fring, a
Speaker 4: flame closer. Now only a little father ten steps, eight wive.
Speaker 3: It seemed we had waited for ours, when all at
Speaker 3: once threw the blazing ring around us. An apparition hurtled
Speaker 3: and fell full length on the ground. It was lina
Speaker 3: and alive with ants, unconscious, with glazing eyes and lacerated face.
Speaker 3: We rushed to and 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 lowered, looked
Speaker 3: out where that blanket of ants had been, and saw
Speaker 3: only a vast expanse of water, covering the entire plantation
Speaker 3: and working its way to within a few feet of
Speaker 3: the concrete ditch. The ants were gone, drawn and Liningen
Speaker 3: had won. He lay on his bed, his body swathed
Speaker 3: from head to foot with bandages, but alive and still
Speaker 3: in command. Everything in order, Everything's in order. I told
Speaker 3: you I'd come back, even if I am a bit streamlined.
Speaker 3: He grinned, shut his eyes, he slept.
Speaker 1: Escape was directed this week by Richard Sandville, and tonight
Speaker 1: brought you lin Engen Versus the Ants by Carl Stephenson,
Speaker 1: adapted for radio by Robert Rife, with Tudor Owen as
Speaker 1: Liningen and Gerald Moore as the commissioner. Music conducted by
Speaker 1: Wilbur Hatch.
Speaker 2: Next week, you are standing at the doorway of the
Speaker 2: cabin and Cashier creek up on the ridge. The bloodhounds
Speaker 2: have caught your scent, and between you and a fortune,
Speaker 2: between you and Escape Yon the white jaws of a
Speaker 2: deadly snake, a cottonmouth moccason.
Speaker 1: Next week we Escape with Urban s Cobbs ironic story.
Speaker 1: Snake Doctor be with us next week at the same
Speaker 1: time when once again we offer you escape Ethelbert and
Speaker 1: in case will be along in a few moments with
Speaker 1: tonight's Crime Photographer drama entitled Sellout. All year long, KC
Speaker 1: Crime Photographer has been one of radio's top rating shows.
Speaker 1: You are sure to enjoy the proceedings coming up over
Speaker 1: most of these same CBS stations. Tipcorning speaking, This is CBS,
Speaker 1: the Columbia Broadcasting System