Speaker 1: Tired of the every day grind, ever dream of a
Speaker 1: life of romantic adventure, want to get away from it all.
Speaker 2: We offer you.
Speaker 3: Escape, Escape, designed to free you from the four walls
Speaker 3: of to day for a half hour of high adventure.
Speaker 2: You are alone in a giant forest, seeking away of escape,
Speaker 2: while around you gaining with your every step, the relentless enemy,
Speaker 2: which is fire, is closing in from every side until
Speaker 2: there will be only one way out, and that way
Speaker 2: is death.
Speaker 3: So listen now as Escape brings you Anthony Ellis's exciting
Speaker 3: story The Red Forest.
Speaker 1: The trail that led from a lumbered town along a
Speaker 1: washboard road and into the forests. I'm no woodsman, but
Speaker 1: in the daylight I found the place, and then I
Speaker 1: started back to the car. But something was different, maybe
Speaker 1: the tall shadows, and there wasn't a trail any more,
Speaker 1: only streams where there hadn't been before, trees that were
Speaker 1: the same but weren't, and sounds sounds that when you
Speaker 1: were a kid on a hike with fun, and now
Speaker 1: they schedule. I'd thrown my last cigarette away three four
Speaker 1: hours before, and that's when the fire had started, and
Speaker 1: it was then that I started to run, running. It
Speaker 1: was nearly dark when I found the road. I'd come
Speaker 1: to it about a half a mile below where i'd
Speaker 1: park my car. A half hour later, on the outskirts
Speaker 1: of a little town, my headlights picked up a girl
Speaker 1: standing by the side of the road. She carried a
Speaker 1: cheap paper suit case, and she was summing a ride.
Speaker 4: Can I get a ride?
Speaker 5: Mister?
Speaker 6: Sure?
Speaker 7: Put your case in the back.
Speaker 4: Not many cars on the road.
Speaker 7: Didn't I no, been walking one.
Speaker 8: Uh huh on my way to Missoula. My last ride
Speaker 8: dropped me a mile or so back.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you live around here. No, I don't guess you'd
Speaker 4: be going as far as Missula.
Speaker 5: Sure, jeeve. That's so.
Speaker 8: I got a job there starting tomorrow. Kind of broke,
Speaker 8: if you know what I mean. Buses cost money.
Speaker 7: I know what you mean.
Speaker 4: Hey, your face, bun, you've been hurt. You're all scratched up.
Speaker 1: Oh right, I was hunting. I got lost just the
Speaker 1: other side of town. If you want to take a nap,
Speaker 1: it's okay.
Speaker 6: We got about a.
Speaker 7: Hundred miles to go.
Speaker 4: Thanks.
Speaker 5: M gee.
Speaker 8: It's nice out here, kind of lonely. How much of
Speaker 8: a road smells good? When what that is over there? What?
Speaker 5: Well?
Speaker 7: Right?
Speaker 4: Like see.
Speaker 8: Could almost be Seattle from a long ways off. I
Speaker 8: had a boyfriend used to take me driving at night,
Speaker 8: and when we came back, you could see a glow
Speaker 8: just like uh.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, I knew what it was, that glow in
Speaker 1: the sky. It was on our right, and there's the
Speaker 1: road twisted through the trees that fell behind us, and
Speaker 1: then to our left, and then circled until it was
Speaker 1: straight ahead again.
Speaker 2: The girl had fallen asleep.
Speaker 6: Very quickly.
Speaker 1: I saw her face in the light from the dash, thin,
Speaker 1: pretty and peaceful. It was about fifteen minutes after I'd
Speaker 1: picked her up that I saw the lights on the road,
Speaker 1: and then closer the figures.
Speaker 4: Waving are there already? I just got sleep.
Speaker 7: No, there's something wrong. There's a cop coming this way.
Speaker 7: What's the trouble?
Speaker 6: What we want you? Mister?
Speaker 2: Wait?
Speaker 1: You want me.
Speaker 6: Fire bad one. We gotta have every man we can find.
Speaker 6: We can use her too.
Speaker 2: Oh well, well, look i'd like to Oh okay.
Speaker 6: Rose the forest ranger. He'll explain.
Speaker 7: Look, I'm sorry, but I'm on my way to mansoula night.
Speaker 5: You're not.
Speaker 9: I've got authority to do this. Mister. I'm sorry, but
Speaker 9: we need you and I haven't got You couldn't get
Speaker 9: much farther anyway. The road's kind of the mountain's gone
Speaker 9: up like a torch. If it spreads there, three town's
Speaker 9: gonna go too. Come on, I got some clothes and
Speaker 9: boots for you.
Speaker 5: Hey, what about me?
Speaker 4: I gotta get to Missoula. I got a job in
Speaker 4: the morning.
Speaker 6: Sorry, sister, you got a job serving coffee here.
Speaker 9: You cop five dollars a day, a day or longer
Speaker 9: it depends. Let's go.
Speaker 1: There was nothing else to do, so I got into
Speaker 1: the clothes the ranger gave me, then stood around and waited.
Speaker 7: I wasn't tired anymore, just scared, scared.
Speaker 2: Of going into that forest again.
Speaker 1: The wind came up a bit, and with it the smell,
Speaker 1: smell of burning, smell of death. A long way off,
Speaker 1: but closer than the glow at ben we could see
Speaker 1: flickering against the sky, and it was in a lot
Speaker 1: of places. And then suddenly it was too warm and quiet.
Speaker 9: All right, you guys, the telephones burned out. I've made
Speaker 9: contact with a short wave, said you, mister, what's your name?
Speaker 2: Pindel?
Speaker 9: Pindell? Ever use one of these?
Speaker 2: Got a walkie talkie? Yeah?
Speaker 7: Sure, I was in the signal court.
Speaker 9: Okay, you'll carry it and now listen.
Speaker 5: This is bad.
Speaker 9: It's real bad. The fires got behind us. We can't
Speaker 9: get any more in through here for several hours. They've
Speaker 9: got to come around from the other side. That's thirty miles.
Speaker 9: Let's get out, Crowbar. Yeah, I'm putting you in charge.
Speaker 9: You know what to do. Get in as close as
Speaker 9: you can of the river instead of backfire. Sure, I
Speaker 9: gotta stick here with the transmitter. I'll let you know
Speaker 9: what's happening.
Speaker 5: Sure, you stay here with the pretty girl.
Speaker 10: We go and get fried.
Speaker 9: Shut up, Hanson, you'll have to go with them. Threes
Speaker 9: not enough?
Speaker 6: Sure, Well, the CoP's gonna do something.
Speaker 9: You better take along some food and canteens. Now, step
Speaker 9: on it.
Speaker 4: Hi, got a couple of sandwiches I made up here.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 4: This sure is something, isn't there?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: You scared?
Speaker 6: Scared?
Speaker 4: Why your face is why you're scared.
Speaker 7: I'm from the city.
Speaker 8: I know what you mean. Those trees give me the
Speaker 8: willies too dark?
Speaker 2: Yeah, sure, that's it.
Speaker 4: You'll be all right.
Speaker 7: Listen, kid, If.
Speaker 1: If anything happens, you take my car here, here are
Speaker 1: the keys. Well, if I don't come back, h keep
Speaker 1: the car.
Speaker 2: Here's the registration.
Speaker 4: You're kidding, you're coming back?
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, so long.
Speaker 4: Hey, my name's Jan.
Speaker 2: What's yours, Wally?
Speaker 4: You'll be careful, Wally.
Speaker 7: We went under the.
Speaker 1: Forest, men with spades, men against fire and terror. There
Speaker 1: was the man they called fat, three hundred pounds of
Speaker 1: ungainly body, topped by a tiny and almost disgustingly childlike face.
Speaker 1: There was Crowbar, a big dark man, quiet and filled
Speaker 1: with the knowledge of the woods. Handsome the state trooper,
Speaker 1: thin and wiry, his natty khaki shirt stained with sweat
Speaker 1: and dirt.
Speaker 2: And me.
Speaker 1: We'd gone about a mile when we first heard it.
Speaker 1: It came in gusts with a wind high above us.
Speaker 11: Wait a minute, Oh, shut up, about three miles. I
Speaker 11: think it's coming fast.
Speaker 6: About that far from the river, are we Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 10: Listen you guys, and it's crossed the river with some
Speaker 10: blitz dinner.
Speaker 9: Yeah, get wrong, It's coming this way pretty fast.
Speaker 5: Look far up there, Look your fast parts. Fire.
Speaker 1: Dull calling row, and dull calling row over, Row, This
Speaker 1: is roll over. We're still about three miles from the river.
Speaker 2: We can hear it over.
Speaker 9: You can't backfire now the wind's changed.
Speaker 2: You better come back over right, he says, go back.
Speaker 10: That's okay with me, boy, come on, he.
Speaker 6: Listen to that.
Speaker 1: I wanted to run again, that same feeling i'd known before,
Speaker 1: the fear all around us, closing in and down.
Speaker 2: There was no sky above.
Speaker 1: Only blackness tinged with red, pressing and behind the living
Speaker 1: forest running overtaking.
Speaker 2: And passing us.
Speaker 1: When we reached the road again, the sound was steady,
Speaker 1: but I had a strange feeling of relief when I
Speaker 1: saw the forest stranger and the girl jan It was
Speaker 1: like coming home. I think it was then that I
Speaker 1: stopped being afraid.
Speaker 5: Come on, row, we can't do no good.
Speaker 9: Now, we gotta try and join up at the others.
Speaker 9: What do you mean the fires on three sides of us.
Speaker 9: That means we head southeast.
Speaker 7: Oh, can we take the road back?
Speaker 9: No, it's cut off. There's two hundred men trying to
Speaker 9: give a path open for us. We've got to make
Speaker 9: five miles and in a hurry. Bad is that it's
Speaker 9: worse If we don't get there in time and they
Speaker 9: can't make a fire break, we're gonna be smack in
Speaker 9: the middle and there's not gonna be any way out.
Speaker 3: We will return to escape in just a moment. Lightning
Speaker 3: may strike more than once in the same place, but
Speaker 3: it can't begin to compete with men when it comes
Speaker 3: to starting forest fires. For one fire caused by lightning,
Speaker 3: supposedly rational humans caused nine by trifling carelessness with matches,
Speaker 3: cigarettes and bonfires. We need our forests for timber, to
Speaker 3: conserve our water supply, to add beauty to our lives.
Speaker 3: Let's not burn them up. And now back to escape.
Speaker 1: We didn't carry anything but canteens. It was hot, and
Speaker 1: because it was hot at major thirsty even when you
Speaker 1: didn't need water. The going was rough, and we could
Speaker 1: only head on what we thought was the general direction
Speaker 1: of safety. It was at the ridge that we lost
Speaker 1: the first man. Wind's changing again, crowbar which way? You
Speaker 1: can't tell? It's haywire with this fire?
Speaker 6: Do we go straight ahead?
Speaker 9: Might as well wait a minute.
Speaker 6: You see that ridge?
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'm going up there.
Speaker 6: Shouldn't take more than ten minutes. I'll be able to
Speaker 6: get a better look.
Speaker 5: Give me the flash.
Speaker 9: I'll signal to you.
Speaker 6: I don't know. I haven't got much of a start
Speaker 6: with fires behind us, and a lot faster.
Speaker 9: Better than walking toward it. Remember it's on three sides. Okay,
Speaker 9: make it fast, good luck than what way to just
Speaker 9: certain way? That's right.
Speaker 6: But listen, you're the range of white.
Speaker 5: You go what you send.
Speaker 9: Krowbaf he's fought fires before, he knows he's a better
Speaker 9: man to climb up there. He's faster than me.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'll bet.
Speaker 7: Oh you okay, kid.
Speaker 8: Sure will it's fine. I guess I'm not used to
Speaker 8: walking nowadays. High heels don't help.
Speaker 7: Ow you take it easy.
Speaker 4: My feet feel like they.
Speaker 8: Did once in the dancer went to some big lunk
Speaker 8: climbed all over me.
Speaker 7: I guess you want have that chop in Missoula.
Speaker 8: If I get out of this, that's all I care about.
Speaker 8: Ye Hey, Wally, I'm scared. Give me a hand, will you.
Speaker 1: She held on tight to my hand. It wasn't the
Speaker 1: darkness that frightened her.
Speaker 10: Now.
Speaker 1: That wasn't darkness anymore, but a yellowish red light that
Speaker 1: came from everywhere. It was another kind of fear, fear
Speaker 1: of something.
Speaker 7: You could see here.
Speaker 1: And with every minute feel more and more. We waited
Speaker 1: there ten minutes, eleven twelve, and then.
Speaker 6: You hear something.
Speaker 9: He yeah, it seemed to come from over there, from
Speaker 9: the ridge maybe maybe.
Speaker 6: Listen, you think something got crowpo line or something.
Speaker 2: I'll go up.
Speaker 9: No, what do you mean?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 9: No, time we waited too long. It may be hurt.
Speaker 9: I know that, but it'll make you longer than it
Speaker 9: took Crowbar to get there.
Speaker 6: Come on, No, you couldn't find him in the dark.
Speaker 6: Who says he's hurt? Anyway, We'll move on. He'll catch
Speaker 6: you up.
Speaker 7: I say, we go after him, all right, put it
Speaker 7: to a boat.
Speaker 9: Hurry up, Hanson, We go on.
Speaker 6: Let's get out of here, and.
Speaker 9: I say, go on.
Speaker 7: That leaves you, miss, I'm staying with Wally.
Speaker 1: All right, We'll go with you. We never saw crow
Speaker 1: Bar again. Maybe a lion got him, maybe it got lost.
Speaker 7: We never saw him again.
Speaker 1: The ranger went ahead, finding trails somehow keeping us moving.
Speaker 1: We began to climb, and after a while we were
Speaker 1: on another ridge and for the first time we could
Speaker 1: see the fire. It stretched out for miles like a
Speaker 1: huge red sea, and it was all around us.
Speaker 4: Oh gee, Wally, yeah.
Speaker 1: I know, kid, I know.
Speaker 4: Will it hurt much?
Speaker 7: I don't know.
Speaker 9: Take a breather. I'm gonna try the walkie talkie again.
Speaker 4: He's not scared, is he?
Speaker 7: I guess not.
Speaker 4: Is that because he's a ranger? Rue because he's very brave?
Speaker 7: Jan Roll, you're a funny girl.
Speaker 1: No, I'm not, hey, R Holly or sure?
Speaker 7: Why did you want me to do that?
Speaker 9: Rh Holly?
Speaker 4: I don't know. You're a nice fella. I'll miss you.
Speaker 7: Listen, Jane, I wanna tell you something. What if we
Speaker 7: get out?
Speaker 6: Well?
Speaker 1: Maybe yeah, look I I I'm alright.
Speaker 7: I mean.
Speaker 1: Maybe we could have fun together. I know, well, I
Speaker 1: did something wrong once sing I killed a man. Why
Speaker 1: he framed me?
Speaker 7: He got me put away for something I didn't do.
Speaker 1: We were driving in the east and ran over a woman.
Speaker 1: He was at the wheel, but he ran off and
Speaker 1: left me. Well you didn't do it, that's what I say.
Speaker 1: But i'd been drinking and went to sleep. When I
Speaker 1: woke up, I was behind the wheel. He'd put me
Speaker 1: there and that's how the cops found me. I got
Speaker 1: five years.
Speaker 5: Ah.
Speaker 1: I was married, I lost my wife, my job, my friends,
Speaker 1: and I saw i'd get my pal and I did.
Speaker 1: He knew I was after him and he ran but I.
Speaker 2: Caught up with him.
Speaker 7: I don't care, don't you. I don't know why I
Speaker 7: told you that. Maybe because if we do get out.
Speaker 4: Sure, I knew it's okay.
Speaker 6: I'm on Gondel the rangers moving off.
Speaker 7: It was the state trooper Handsome.
Speaker 1: I worried how much he'd heard, but there wasn't time
Speaker 1: to worry about it. Then Row thought he'd seen a
Speaker 1: break in the fire, and we headed for it. And
Speaker 1: when we got down in the trees again, I began
Speaker 1: to get a feeling that had been there before.
Speaker 7: It was nothing I could recognize, but just a feeling
Speaker 7: a couple of one hundred yards long.
Speaker 2: I knew, why hold.
Speaker 5: Up, there's a shack.
Speaker 6: Looks like someone is living there.
Speaker 10: Better have a look.
Speaker 9: Ye, doors open.
Speaker 5: Hey, it's a man.
Speaker 9: Give me a hand here. Sure he's been shot.
Speaker 6: Yeah, a few hours ago. From the looks of it, you.
Speaker 9: Think the man who did this might have started it?
Speaker 7: Well, what do you mean?
Speaker 9: The fire started a few miles north of here. We
Speaker 9: figured somebody got careless with a match. Maybe it was
Speaker 9: the killer running away.
Speaker 6: I'd like to get the fellow who did that. Maybe
Speaker 6: I will me too.
Speaker 9: Well, we can't do anything here. Come on.
Speaker 1: From there on, nobody talked. It was hard enough to
Speaker 1: lift your feet. Chan was nearly through. I have carried
Speaker 1: a if Roe knew where he was leading us. He
Speaker 1: didn't say we followed and knew that sooner or later
Speaker 1: we'd stop because we were too tired to go on.
Speaker 7: Fat was the first.
Speaker 5: It's you've gotta go on.
Speaker 12: There's still a channel, all right, just for non Please
Speaker 12: want get up?
Speaker 5: I can't. Okay, you stay, No and come on to
Speaker 5: you can't. I'm sorry, catch.
Speaker 1: Up to stay on the train, come on channel.
Speaker 5: We have to don't. Don't leave me. That's the word.
Speaker 5: Can we helping? We're almost ourselves.
Speaker 1: I don't know whether it was because none of us
Speaker 1: lack daim or because we knew that we couldn't do anything.
Speaker 1: Funny how you can lose a man and know he's
Speaker 1: gonna die and you buddy out of your mind.
Speaker 7: Perhaps we wanted to.
Speaker 1: Live so badly we figured the fire would take time
Speaker 1: out from us to attend a fat.
Speaker 7: Hanson was next.
Speaker 6: I've finished.
Speaker 9: Oh you're not.
Speaker 10: We can still don't get through? No, No, you go ahead.
Speaker 6: Save the girl.
Speaker 9: I'm sorry, Hanson.
Speaker 5: I go on.
Speaker 6: Maybe I can catch up, but I gotta rest you.
Speaker 12: Wally, There'll be a favor what I lost my gun somewhere,
Speaker 12: you know what I mean? It's a bit quicker that way.
Speaker 12: You you got one?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 6: Thanks one bullet fire.
Speaker 5: Eh, that's what I wanted to know.
Speaker 6: Okay, pindell, I've got enough rest. I can keep up
Speaker 6: with you. Now. I feel a little safer with this
Speaker 6: on me.
Speaker 10: All right, go ahead, I'll walk behind you.
Speaker 1: He knew, he knew what I'd done, but I didn't care.
Speaker 1: Now it wasn't important anymore. Right now, all I wanted
Speaker 1: to do was get the chain out of this. That
Speaker 1: it was behind us.
Speaker 13: It sounded like Handsome, come on, come on, but watch
Speaker 13: that remin. He must have fallen. There's no time we
Speaker 13: got to Oh he didn't help fat?
Speaker 5: Why him? I don't know?
Speaker 9: Please?
Speaker 5: All right, all right, stay here, answer.
Speaker 1: That, sir.
Speaker 5: I can't call me that, okay, I why can you
Speaker 5: get up?
Speaker 10: It's broken?
Speaker 6: I guess.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Handsome, you know about me, don't you?
Speaker 10: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I know.
Speaker 10: I heard you killing the girl.
Speaker 5: She won't say anything.
Speaker 6: No, I guess not.
Speaker 5: The fella had a comment, toy.
Speaker 10: I wouldn't know.
Speaker 5: I'm a cop.
Speaker 10: Yeah, yeah, it's getting hot.
Speaker 5: Put your arm over my shoulder.
Speaker 12: No, you you can't get me up there, but I
Speaker 12: can try then?
Speaker 10: Come on, hyeah, low good. We can't make it.
Speaker 5: I'll get wrong. I'll come back.
Speaker 10: There, there's no time.
Speaker 12: Go on, we'll get out of here. Well, like, go on,
Speaker 12: I got your gun. Nobody you ever know? Lesten, I'm sorry, Like,
Speaker 12: get out of here.
Speaker 1: Somehow I made it up the trail again. I thought
Speaker 1: I heard a shot, or maybe it was a burning
Speaker 1: tree going down. John was waiting for me. We caught
Speaker 1: up with Row and went on until the trees began
Speaker 1: to thin out, and we heard the shots of men.
Speaker 5: But I don't remember anything else.
Speaker 1: Because I passed off for a long time. When I
Speaker 1: woke up, Jan was sitting by my bed and it
Speaker 1: was cool again.
Speaker 7: Hi, Jana, Jan? Did they get handsome?
Speaker 5: Not?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 1: No, listen Joanna about what I told you back there?
Speaker 1: You know the man I killed?
Speaker 10: Yeah, well I.
Speaker 1: I I'm not sorry. I mean it was alright about him,
Speaker 1: but not handsome, crowbar and fat. That was my fault,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, Well, I want you to call the
Speaker 1: cops now.
Speaker 2: Listen.
Speaker 7: I've I've been dreaming about it. It's no good, and
Speaker 7: I'd be a good kid.
Speaker 8: And call the cops. I don't have to outside in
Speaker 8: the cordon. What do you mean, Roset for him.
Speaker 4: You told what you did while you were unconscious.
Speaker 7: I told, Oh, that's good. That's good. I'm glad.
Speaker 4: You want me to hang around.
Speaker 7: Well, that's up to you.
Speaker 4: I guess, I guess it is. I'll hang around.
Speaker 3: Escape has brought you the Red Forest, written and directed
Speaker 3: by Anthony Ellis, starring William Conrad as Wally and Georgia
Speaker 3: Ellis as Jam. Featured in the cast were Parley Bear,
Speaker 3: John Dayner, Jay Novello, and Tom Tully. The special music
Speaker 3: for Escape was composed and conducted by Leith Stevens.
Speaker 1: Next week, you are in a lighthouse off the steaming
Speaker 1: coast of French Guinea, while around you, frightful in its fury,
Speaker 1: a nightmare of terror and violence is closing in on you,
Speaker 1: a nightmare from which there is no.
Speaker 5: Escape.
Speaker 3: So listen next week, when by popular request, Escape repeats
Speaker 3: one of its most unusual stories, Three Skeleton Key by
Speaker 3: George two Doos. Those favorites of millions yours truly, Johnny
Speaker 3: Dollar and Mister and Missus North make for highly exciting
Speaker 3: listening as Johnny prowls the world for adventure, and the
Speaker 3: Norths meet murder merrily. Now most of these same stations
Speaker 3: also bring you twenty first Precinct, great stories based on
Speaker 3: the world's largest police department. Consider this an invitation to
Speaker 3: excitement and adventure. Tuesdays on CBS Radio. This is George
Speaker 3: Walsh speaking. And remember Jean Herschel stars as kindly doctor
Speaker 3: Christian every Wednesday evening on the CBS Radio network