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 Design to free you from the four walls
Speaker 3: of to day for a half hour of high adventure.
Speaker 1: You are high on the frozen slopes of the Great Mountain,
Speaker 1: terrified and caught in a blizzard, while the thing for
Speaker 1: which you've been hunting has suddenly become the hunter. And
Speaker 1: if it finds you, then for you and your companions
Speaker 1: there can be no escape.
Speaker 3: So listen now as Escape brings you Anthony Ellis's exciting
Speaker 3: story The Abominable Snowman.
Speaker 1: Our first bit of luck was when we hired our
Speaker 1: shepherd guide, Nassang, that was in Darjeeling.
Speaker 2: When I told Nasang.
Speaker 1: What we were after, he hesitated for a moment, and
Speaker 1: then he said.
Speaker 4: These shybes have not come to climb shomolongma.
Speaker 1: Oh no, we're a little late for that. It's already
Speaker 1: been done. The other two sibs and myself are here
Speaker 1: for the reason I told.
Speaker 4: You met too, kungmy that's right. These ships always hired
Speaker 4: me to climb the mountain with them. By never this,
Speaker 4: are you afraid of them? I have seen one.
Speaker 2: You've seen one?
Speaker 4: Yes, many of us have seen them.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, Alan, Yeah, what's up?
Speaker 2: I meant of viewing as sherpa. And he says he's
Speaker 2: seen one of the things. He was rank. We'll have
Speaker 2: to give some tobacco, all right, Come on in. I
Speaker 2: think this is a.
Speaker 1: Man, all right, Nasang. This is mister Ferris sab Helon Nasan.
Speaker 1: Nasan was telling me about what he'd seen. Go ahead, Nasan.
Speaker 4: It has a face that is evil. And when it
Speaker 4: saw me, it uttered a strange cry and bounded away,
Speaker 4: sometimes leaping, sometimes running with great strides. It was dusk,
Speaker 4: and after a moment I lost sight of it in
Speaker 4: this snow. Where were you with the French expedition? It
Speaker 4: was at nineteen thousand feet And show my luma halfar
Speaker 4: away from it, thirty feet perhaps thirty five.
Speaker 2: You're sure it wasn't an eight?
Speaker 4: I am sure. There is no ape in Imarria to
Speaker 4: make such a track for about bears. These two I
Speaker 4: have been asked. But does a bear walk always upon
Speaker 4: its hind legs?
Speaker 1: Well that's enough for me, Alan, Yeah, he'll do. But
Speaker 1: if you want the job in the song, you're hired.
Speaker 4: You are going to try to capture a YETI. Yes,
Speaker 4: it will be a difficult thing, but I will serve
Speaker 4: with you.
Speaker 1: Yetty wild man net or Kung me abominable snowman. That's
Speaker 1: the name the natives had for the things, and all
Speaker 1: on Ferris, Frank Davis and I were going to try
Speaker 1: to get one. We'd all done some climbing, but climbing
Speaker 1: was secondary here. Expeditions since the beginning of the twentieth
Speaker 1: century had heard of the abominable snowmen, observed their tracks,
Speaker 1: and one or two white men claim to have seen them.
Speaker 1: Great ape, bear, monkey wild men. We didn't know, but
Speaker 1: we were going to find out. Four weeks later, we
Speaker 1: were in the Wrong Book Valley for our interview at
Speaker 1: the monastery with a lama. The journey from our base
Speaker 1: had been uneventful. The weather was good and our spirits
Speaker 1: were high. From the lama's window, we could see the
Speaker 1: great peak of Everest in the distance.
Speaker 5: Why gentlemen, do you desire to capture Meto Kung.
Speaker 1: Because we believe it will be an invaluable aid in
Speaker 1: our prehistoric research. That is, if these things are in
Speaker 1: any way human, and.
Speaker 5: For this reason, then you have formed the expedition yes,
Speaker 5: you are all familiar with climbing.
Speaker 2: Yes, we are.
Speaker 6: You would need to be the.
Speaker 5: Yetty move at high places, dangerous places, so my people
Speaker 5: tell me. Also, the monsoons are arriving in a short time.
Speaker 2: I understand that.
Speaker 1: Then, do we have your permission to investigate in the
Speaker 1: valley and beyond?
Speaker 6: You have my permission. I appreciate it.
Speaker 5: There is one point, however, I must request that no
Speaker 5: wild animal or being in this very be shocked.
Speaker 2: Our religion does not allow it.
Speaker 1: Well respect your wishes, sir. Now may I ask you
Speaker 1: one more thing? Of course, my son, do you believe
Speaker 1: in the existence of metal Kangni?
Speaker 5: I myself have never seen them, but I know that
Speaker 5: they live here above the valley on the Goddess Mother
Speaker 5: of the world. It is all so true that at
Speaker 5: least five and possibly more inhabit the upper Wrong Book
Speaker 5: and its glacials.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Do you have portons?
Speaker 2: Our guide? Nassang is hiring them now.
Speaker 5: I trust that he meets with good fortune.
Speaker 1: The old man with great dignity about slightly to us,
Speaker 1: and we were dismissed.
Speaker 2: But I thought I saw the shadow.
Speaker 1: Of a smile on his lips as he turned away,
Speaker 1: and It wasn't long before I found out why. Nasang
Speaker 1: returned to us in our quarters, and his face warned
Speaker 1: of bad news.
Speaker 4: Sir, I am unable to hire any porters.
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 4: They know the purpose of the expedition. They will not go.
Speaker 2: Why they are afraid the snowmen.
Speaker 4: Yes, they live in peace with them. They wish no trouble.
Speaker 4: They are afraid.
Speaker 1: Well, all right, it'll be rough, but we can't waste
Speaker 1: time talking them into it. The monsoons will be coming
Speaker 1: in a couple of weeks. It's not the same as
Speaker 1: climbing Everest. We will travel light. Just the four of us,
Speaker 1: set up a base and start hunting, all right with you, fellows? Yeah, sure, Nasan,
Speaker 1: I will.
Speaker 4: Go with you. I am not afraid.
Speaker 2: God. Well, let's take a look at the man.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 1: Will each carry a capacity load. We should be able
Speaker 1: to make this point below the glacier in two days.
Speaker 1: That's sixteen thousand feet And if ore abominable snowmen are
Speaker 1: in the vicinity, we've got two weeks to find them
Speaker 1: when we start tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Good. Well, that's it, Paul, Yes.
Speaker 7: Rak one thing? Or what do the natives mean when
Speaker 7: they say they don't want any trouble with the.
Speaker 4: Things superstition probably, Oh no, sad, it is not superstition.
Speaker 4: It is because the YETI are cannibals. That is why
Speaker 4: reporters are a.
Speaker 2: The weather turned ugly that day we left the village.
Speaker 1: A cold Tibetan wind blew down from the west, and
Speaker 1: with our heavy packs it took us much longer than
Speaker 1: we'd thought to arrive at the point just below the
Speaker 1: Wrong Boo Glacier. We set up a camp and made
Speaker 1: ourselves as comfortable as we could.
Speaker 2: The next morning wasn't so bad.
Speaker 1: There was a heavy overcast, a promise of snow, and
Speaker 1: the peak of Everest looming over us was shrouded in clouds.
Speaker 1: The four of us sat in the tent, looking at
Speaker 1: our charts and drinking hot tea.
Speaker 7: I figured it'd be easiest if we started at the
Speaker 7: east glacier. It's only about three miles from here, and
Speaker 7: where the weather is sinking as it is, we won't
Speaker 7: run too much of a risk.
Speaker 6: What do you think, bo Well, that sounds all right.
Speaker 2: What do you say we split up, you and the
Speaker 2: song Alan and me.
Speaker 1: We'll work up on either side of the ridge here
Speaker 1: and if we spot any tracks, fire two shots. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now the big thing though, No matter what, don't shoot
Speaker 1: at the thing if you do see it. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: all right. If we lose touch with each other, we'll
Speaker 1: meet back here at five.
Speaker 6: All right, let's get going.
Speaker 1: We'd left the base at six that morning, and the
Speaker 1: going was rough. Alan was pretty well shot by the
Speaker 1: time we got to the seventeen thousand foot mark. He
Speaker 1: was having a tough time breathing, and the wind had
Speaker 1: come up again, and with it a fine, powdery snow
Speaker 1: that blinded choked us.
Speaker 2: Hey, I gotta take fine all right, Yeah, I'm over
Speaker 2: over here. It might cut some of the wind.
Speaker 1: Oh oh, oh, that's better. We might as well start
Speaker 1: back for the base. We couldn't see anything in this anyhow.
Speaker 1: You know, right now, I don't care whether we're doing.
Speaker 2: This is good weather, waiting until the monsoon start?
Speaker 4: No, no, not me.
Speaker 1: Oh cool, I never been so cool in all my life.
Speaker 1: We stayed in the half shelter of an overhang for
Speaker 1: ten minutes, and the wind was quieter and the snow
Speaker 1: at letter. I noticed that the tracks we'd made coming
Speaker 1: into the shelter were gone now, but we didn't have
Speaker 1: any worry finding our way back. I figured that Frank
Speaker 1: and Nassang had met pretty much the same thing on
Speaker 1: their side.
Speaker 2: Of the ridge, and we'd meet them at the base.
Speaker 2: So Alan and I picked ourselves up and started off. Boy,
Speaker 2: I thought I was in pretty good shape. But up here, boy,
Speaker 2: I'm not, Paul, I'm tired again.
Speaker 1: We'll just take it easy going down. You haven't got frostfined,
Speaker 1: have you?
Speaker 4: No? No, not yet? But what the left there?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: They're not our tracks, not unless you took your boots
Speaker 1: off on the way up. Must have just passed by,
Speaker 1: must have seen us. Yeah, come on, we were looking
Speaker 1: at a set of tracks newly made in the fresh snow, and.
Speaker 2: They'd passed so close to us shutter that.
Speaker 1: The thing must have known we were there. They weren't
Speaker 1: the tracts of a bear or an ape, but more
Speaker 1: like a splay footed, naked foot, the tracks of the
Speaker 1: abominable snowmen.
Speaker 3: We will return to escape in just a moment, But
Speaker 3: first thirty million school children make their way back to
Speaker 3: class this year. There are just ten million too many
Speaker 3: for existing school facilities. Contact Better Schools to West forty
Speaker 3: fifth Street, New York, nineteen for information on ending this menace.
Speaker 3: To America's educational standards, and now back to escape.
Speaker 1: We began to follow the tracks, and for a while,
Speaker 1: perhaps one hundred and fifty yards, it was easy. And
Speaker 1: then the thing made a leftwood traverse down a deep slope.
Speaker 1: We could see the Prince clearly angling with a side step,
Speaker 1: as share footed as a mountain goat, except that it
Speaker 1: was walking on two lakes.
Speaker 2: His way. Take it easy, any staper, Why I think
Speaker 2: you can't climb?
Speaker 4: Hold up all I think?
Speaker 1: And he dropped out of sight over the lip of
Speaker 1: the crevasse. We went roped together. I got as close
Speaker 1: as I dared to the edge. The loose snow crumbled
Speaker 1: away from my outstretched body, and I looked down into
Speaker 1: the blue black darkness below, falling away into nothingness.
Speaker 2: He was gone, finished.
Speaker 1: All I could think of was the noise he'd made
Speaker 1: when he went over. Surprise, angry, then silence. The crevass
Speaker 1: might have been five hundred feet or five thousand. Snow
Speaker 1: started to fall again, big flakes this time, and wet.
Speaker 1: I stood up and across the gap twenty feet away,
Speaker 1: I saw the tracks of the thing continuing on and
Speaker 1: away until they became lost in the blank whiteness of
Speaker 1: the glacier. It had jumped and landed still upright on
Speaker 1: the opposite side. I went back to the base, and
Speaker 1: an hour later Frank and the song returned. I told them,
Speaker 1: and we were quiet for a long time.
Speaker 6: Then all are we going on again tomorrow?
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 6: I just wanted to.
Speaker 4: We should go back. It is an omen.
Speaker 1: I tell you, he was going too fast. He didn't
Speaker 1: have a chance to see the cravass. That's not an
Speaker 1: an When it's bad sense.
Speaker 4: Made to Kung. We cannot be gone.
Speaker 2: We'll catch him.
Speaker 6: But there are only three of us. If we had
Speaker 6: a few more men.
Speaker 1: I tell you, the thing was so close that if
Speaker 1: we'd looked up at the right time, we'd have seen it.
Speaker 2: You think I'm going to give up now? Next time
Speaker 2: we'll get it.
Speaker 7: There was no chance to get allan out. No, you
Speaker 7: think if we went back.
Speaker 2: Listen, you think I don't want to. He's gone. I tried,
Speaker 2: but he's gone.
Speaker 6: Okay, Okay, I wish that winded letter.
Speaker 1: Maybe by morning we'll try again tomorrow. It was cold
Speaker 1: that night, and somehow colder because Alan was gone. I
Speaker 1: heard Frank tossing around, and I knew he was thinking
Speaker 1: about a body broken and lonely, lost somewhere in a
Speaker 1: deep and dark place.
Speaker 2: Owning.
Speaker 1: The three of us packed our gear, camera, food, and
Speaker 1: there was a light pack and we started up again,
Speaker 1: this time to a crest above the ridge. It was
Speaker 1: tougher than it looked, and we weren't even halfway up
Speaker 1: before we.
Speaker 2: Had to rest.
Speaker 1: But as a look to the west, I saw clouds
Speaker 1: boiling up, not white but somber threatening, and below the
Speaker 1: valley looked grim, ugly gray, And then the sun was gone.
Speaker 2: And we kept on going up. And then I had
Speaker 2: a strange feeling.
Speaker 1: It was nothing I could see, nothing I could hear,
Speaker 1: only a sensation of being watched. Followed, Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: see something?
Speaker 2: No, I have filled it too, sade, something following us.
Speaker 4: Yes, it is me to cung me. How do you
Speaker 4: know it can be nothing else?
Speaker 1: At the site? There nothing here, said, Maybe it's curious. Now,
Speaker 1: don't turn around, Frank, listen. When we got up to
Speaker 1: the crest, you two flop down, Stay in sight of.
Speaker 6: The slope here, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 1: Move around the hump and watch. If it thinks we're
Speaker 1: all together, it may come close enough to give us.
Speaker 2: A chance to get it. You better watch a step.
Speaker 2: It looks nasty. I will now come on.
Speaker 1: It took us another fifteen minutes to get up to
Speaker 1: the crest, and then Frank and Nassang hunched down to rest.
Speaker 2: They were in clear view of the slope we just descended.
Speaker 1: I moved back out of sight and made my way
Speaker 1: toward the hump, which backed a long shelf on the north.
Speaker 2: Side of the crest.
Speaker 1: In a couple of minutes, I lost sight of them
Speaker 1: and of the slope. The wind had increased and the
Speaker 1: clouds had spread. Now who become an iron gray canopy
Speaker 1: over the mountain. It was getting colder again. I don't
Speaker 1: think it took over five minutes to reach my lookout point,
Speaker 1: and I did.
Speaker 2: I had a perfect view of the ground we'd covered.
Speaker 2: There was nothing there. The men were out of sight,
Speaker 2: and I.
Speaker 1: Waited a minute. Two there was nothing, and two it
Speaker 1: came carried on the wind to cry, and then shots,
Speaker 1: and I scrambled back to where I'd left them, and.
Speaker 2: When I got there.
Speaker 1: When I got there, Frank was lying on his back
Speaker 1: and I couldn't look at what was left of his face.
Speaker 1: There were terrible, deep rents in his clothing, and he
Speaker 1: was dead. The song lay huddled a few feet beyond
Speaker 1: a gun in his hand.
Speaker 4: So what is it?
Speaker 8: But metter cun me kip from behind us. Be thought
Speaker 8: I could it gone it.
Speaker 2: Killed it?
Speaker 4: Sprang it to me it is strong, shy, heugh the strain.
Speaker 2: Of ten men. All right, I reckon you sit up
Speaker 2: my leg.
Speaker 4: It is strock to me. My leg broken.
Speaker 9: I shut at it, but I missed it jumped away
Speaker 9: and who's gone.
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll have to figure out a way to get
Speaker 1: you down. We were four hours from camp, and with
Speaker 1: the song practically helpless, it could.
Speaker 2: Well be four days or never.
Speaker 1: I buried Frank where he was lying, then began to
Speaker 1: work down the slope. The song was in great pain.
Speaker 1: He half slid and crawled as best he could. That
Speaker 1: part of it wasn't too bad. Then we were at
Speaker 1: the bottom and there was a ledge to climb. It
Speaker 1: took well over two hours to do that, and we
Speaker 1: still had three miles of difficult to rain to cover.
Speaker 1: The stops became more freezer.
Speaker 4: Leave me here, go back.
Speaker 9: No, my leg is frozen. There is no feeling anymore.
Speaker 9: I shall not leave much longer.
Speaker 4: Don't be afore after arrest.
Speaker 2: You'll be able to go.
Speaker 4: On Sonday night comes.
Speaker 9: If we are both caught here, we both die. There
Speaker 9: will be snow, much snow. Leave me, so we're going
Speaker 9: back together.
Speaker 4: Please let me sleep, Let me sleep here. I cannot go.
Speaker 2: You've got tonsan no more. The ridge is only about
Speaker 2: a half mile from there. It won't be too.
Speaker 9: Bad, no non.
Speaker 1: Come on, son, come on, you're not going to sleep,
Speaker 1: You'll be all right.
Speaker 2: You shirt.
Speaker 1: Turned, and for an instant I saw it outlined against
Speaker 1: the snow, crouching of medium height. It was covered with
Speaker 1: thick hair. The face was reddish and bare, a semi
Speaker 1: human face. And it was not an ape. The thing
Speaker 1: made it from endous sleep and was gone.
Speaker 2: But I hid it. I knew I hit it.
Speaker 4: Was he did you kill it?
Speaker 9: No?
Speaker 2: I don't think so.
Speaker 4: Then it will be back. It has tisted blood. You
Speaker 4: must leave me.
Speaker 1: No, get up, Get up, come up, let's go.
Speaker 9: That sound him very sorry, sad? Will you ask the
Speaker 9: hell over to make a prayer for me?
Speaker 2: Sure? Sure? I well?
Speaker 9: My song, but my pay to my wife in dirty healing.
Speaker 4: He' sorry sad.
Speaker 2: The song, the song.
Speaker 1: And the darkness came and with its shadows in the snow,
Speaker 1: every hillock mound became the thing, motionless, waiting in my mind.
Speaker 1: I kept seeing it, its long arms, powerful, and the
Speaker 1: dreadful clause it must have possessed. I carried my gun
Speaker 1: and my gloved hand, but I knew that I couldn't
Speaker 1: fire it unless I was bare handed, and that met
Speaker 1: my hand would freeze to the gun. And then suddenly
Speaker 1: I felt myself slipping. It was a short incline, but
Speaker 1: when I reached the bottom, the gun was gone.
Speaker 2: I'd lost it. I got to find it.
Speaker 1: I got to find and I saw a glitter of
Speaker 1: metal in the snow ten feet away, and at the
Speaker 1: same time, above me, at the top of the bank,
Speaker 1: the thing. It stood swaying a little, looking down at me.
Speaker 1: I moved slowly, slowly, inch my way toward the gun,
Speaker 1: and as I drew closer, I kept my eyes looking up,
Speaker 1: but it didn't move, only stared down at me.
Speaker 2: And I thought I saw its.
Speaker 1: Little eyes glittering, and I thought, if the gun's frozen. Now,
Speaker 1: if it's frozen, it doesn't fire. And I was nearer
Speaker 1: to it, near enough to tick off my glove. But
Speaker 1: that moment in which I'd have to bend to pick
Speaker 1: it up. That's when it would leap down at me,
Speaker 1: tear my rod out terror. I had the gun, and
Speaker 1: I pulled the checker, and it lay there, strange, terrifying.
Speaker 1: It's blood staining the snow, and it looked at.
Speaker 2: Me, looked at me until the sound died away. It
Speaker 2: was dead, but the eyes kept on staring.
Speaker 1: It must have been the shots that loosened the snow
Speaker 1: and ice on the ridge above.
Speaker 2: I heard the sound and I ran ran.
Speaker 1: It passed me and swept on down toward the valley,
Speaker 1: the thunder of it dying in the distance, and when
Speaker 1: I went back, there was nothing there. It was buried
Speaker 1: somewhere on the tons of snow. I made my way
Speaker 1: back to the Wrong Book village.
Speaker 2: I don't remember how. I didn't remember anything for two
Speaker 2: weeks after.
Speaker 6: But I'm alive.
Speaker 2: And I'm not going back there again. That's all I know.
Speaker 2: Oh want to know.
Speaker 1: About the Abominable snow Men.
Speaker 3: Escape has brought you The Abominable Snowman, Written and directed
Speaker 3: by Anthony Ellis, starring William Conrad Is Lane. Featured in
Speaker 3: the cast were Anthony Barrett high Averbach, Jack Krushian, and
Speaker 3: Edgar barrier. The special music for Escape was composed and
Speaker 3: conducted by Leith Stephens.
Speaker 2: Next week, you are.
Speaker 1: A passenger of board a submarine making its last peaceful
Speaker 1: voyage across the sea. While unknown to you, the captain
Speaker 1: has a plan which, if it succeeds, will mean for
Speaker 1: you and the entire crew.
Speaker 2: From which there can be no escape.
Speaker 3: So listen next week when Escape will bring you Marion
Speaker 3: Mosner and Francis Rosenwall's exciting story the log. You're headed
Speaker 3: in the right direction. The station is right, the network
Speaker 3: is right too. Check all time pieces and then check
Speaker 3: your local radio schedule.
Speaker 2: Let's have no slip ups.
Speaker 3: Everybody wants to hear the Jack Benny Show right from
Speaker 3: the beginning when it returns to CBS Radio tonight. This
Speaker 3: is Roy Rowan speaking. This is the CBS Radio Network.