Presenting the transcription feature, Superman! Up in the sky! Look! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman! Mysterious visitor from another world who has appeared on Earth as the champion of the weak and the oppressed. When we last saw Superman in his character of Clark Kent, news reporter for the Daily Planet, he had just learned that the two swindlers, Bartley Pemberton and Joseph Deneen, were heading south in a high-speed cruiser in order to catch up with the freight steamer Madison on her way to Charleston. As our story continues today, Superman is winging his way down the coast, straining his eyes for the first glimpse of the powerboat or the freighter. But Pemberton and Deneen have caught up with the Madison. Four sharp blasts of their whistle, red rockets, distress signals, and the freighter is motionless in the black water, waiting for the smaller boat to come alongside. On the deck of the cruiser, Bartley Pemberton gives a last quick order to the man at the wheel. Well, listen. Pay attention, sailor. Okay, Captain. Make it fast, Bart. You're dropping a ladder over the side. Head her in there, sailor. And get this. I'm listening. We're going on board that freighter to get something, you understand? If we don't get it, there may be trouble. Big trouble. So what? So stick around to pick us up. We'll want to make a fast getaway, so stay close. Ready to beat it. Get set, Bart. What do we do now? Stand by to grab that ladder, Joe. All right, sailor. Ahoy on that cruiser. We're waiting for you. Don't worry. You won't wait long. Go ahead, sailor. Edge in toward that ladder. All right, Mr. Burns. Hold her under a dead slow bell. We'll see what's wrong with those fellows. Aye, aye, Captain Anderson. Ahoy down there. What about the cruiser? What's wrong with her? Captain, sir. Two men are coming up the ladder. They want to see you. They want to see me? Ask them what they mean by sounding distress signals. Well, there they are, Captain. Coming over the rail now. What do you want done with them? They better have a mighty good reason for stopping us, Mr. Burns. If they haven't, I'll put them in irons. Ahoy there. Bring those two men up to my cabin. Anybody else coming aboard? No, sir. They say that's all. Mr. Burns, hold us steady. Steady, sure, sir. Keep an eye on the weather, Mr. Burns. It's thickening up. Very good, sir. Sound your foghorn while we're hove to. Have Mr. Rolson bring those men to my cabin. And a few moments later, Pemberton and Deneen are ushered to Captain Anderson's cabin. Come in. Here they are, sir, the two men off the cruiser. Come in, gentlemen. Oh, Captain. Am I addressing Captain Vincent Anderson? Yes, sir, you are. Captain, my friend and I have followed your ship, the Madison, all the way down the coast, hoping to catch up with you. Do you know you've stopped a vessel on government service? Government service? I thought this was a freighter, a trap. Thank you for your description of it, sir. As it happens, we're carrying munitions. Munitions? Well, isn't that a bit dangerous, Captain? Don't worry. Transporting gun cotton and TNT isn't half as dangerous as giving false signals of distress, as you'll find out. Just let us explain, Captain. Captain Anderson, we've been sent by your sister, June. Before you sailed, she gave you a certain package of papers, didn't she? Sealed in oil skin? What of it? Are they in that safe there in the wall? What business is it of yours? Your sister told us to get them. So if it isn't too much trouble, Captain... One moment, mister. I suppose my sister gave you written instructions. A letter? Well? No, as a matter of fact, she didn't. She didn't have time. Oh, she didn't have time. Well, I'm sorry, gentlemen, but I don't believe you. No, look here, Captain. Say, listen. I say I don't believe you. If this thing was so all-fired important, you'd follow me down the coast, make use of fake distress signals to get me to pick you up. You ought to be able to prove what you say. Listen, Captain. We've got to have those papers. You'll get them when we land at Charleston. And I've talked with my sister by phone, but not until then. Is that so, Captain Anderson? Stand where you are, please. Why, you... What do you mean pulling a gun on me? What do you mean business, Captain? Keep your hands up. All right, Joe? Get after that safe. You'll land in prison for this. Quiet, please. Well, what about it, Joe? Nothing doing, Bart. Have to blow it. Didn't he say there was soup in the hold? That's right. Carrying munitions, aren't you, Captain? Show us how to get to the hold. Find out for yourself. I said take us to the hold, Captain. I'm not fooling. Open the door, Joe. Now, listen to me, Captain Anderson. You're going to take us down along the deck and into the hold. No, I'll be shot if I will. You'll be shot if you don't. We've come a long way, Captain, and done a good deal to make sure of those papers, and we won't stop now, not even at murder. Get going. Go on. Keep moving. I'm right behind you, Captain, with this pistol in my pocket. If we meet any of your crew, keep quiet. All right, now move. Out of the captain's cabin, along the deck, and into the echoing stillness of the hold. All right, this will do nicely. Just sit down now and take it easy, Captain, while Mr. Deneen makes you comfortable. Tie him up, Joe. What are you going to do, Bart? Carry some stuff back up to the cabin and blow the safe? No, no, it'll take too much time. As long as those papers are destroyed, as long as they're lost, we're all right. But if you don't get them out of the safe... They'll remain in the safe, and the safe will remain on the ship, and the ship will be blown to pieces. Well, now, what do you mean to do, you murdering pirate? What I mean to do, Captain Anderson, is to remove every trace of you and your ship. Why, you'd never dare. You're out of your mind. You're a plain man, then. Help! Help! Go on and shoot him! Help! Get him over the head! Help! I'm not going to shoot him, Bart. Ah, it's too noisy. They might hear us. Listen, I'm really going to blow up the whole boat. Why not? Quick, we'll set a fire right down here. Far enough off to give us time to get away ourselves. And then we'll beat it. Nobody will ever know. Here, help me break into this case. It's more dangerous. Keep away from fire. This is it, all right? All right. Now rip open these sacks. Spread it all around the floor. That's the way. All right, now. Now make a little trail over to the door where we came in. I'll help him. Where are you going to build the fire? You started here, we'd be caught ourselves. Don't be a fool. How's our friend? Out like a light. But he won't stay that way. He won't have to. Five minutes is all we need. All right, now give me a hand. We're going to build a fire. Work fast. A flickering glow in the darkness of the hold. A thin spiral of smoke creeping up the companion way and curling out above the hatch covers on deck. Then sudden alarm, shouting and confusion. Wild ringing of alarm bells and frantic orders. Hey, where's the captain? Where's the mate? Jump! Jump! She's full of gunpowder. We haven't got a chance. Fire! There's fire coming up under the hatch. Mr. Burns, what do we do? All the way to starboard boats. Where's Captain Anderson? All the way and stand by to abandon ship. Yeah, all right. All right, Joe. That does it. Listen, Bart. We'd better be getting out of here. That's your life preserver? Yeah. Look. Look, there's the cruiser cutting through the fog. Come on, Joe. Over the rail. Jump for it and swim. Come on. Fire aboard the steamer Madison. Loaded with high explosive shells and TNT. Boats go over the side. Pull frantically for safety. And meanwhile, high up in the night sky, Superman sees a glow on the sea and heads swiftly downward. What's that? Looks like a fire on the water. And it looks like the Madison, too. Down we go. Down. Down. It is the Madison. She's a fire. And her men have taken to the boats. I'll swing down and make sure they're all right. They won't see me in the fog. Come on. Pull. Pull high. Mr. Burns. The captain. Where's Captain Anderson? Oh, hi there. Mr. Olsen. Is the captain in your boat? No. I thought he was with you. With me? He's still on board. We've got to go back. Back. You can't do that, sir. Look at it. She'll go up any second. We can't go back now. Captain's still on board. Have to get him. Quick. Down along the hull. If he'd been on deck, they'd have seen him. Must be down below. I'll hang on to this porthole and listen. Clinging to the steep, slippery side of the Madison, Superman's keen hearing picks up sounds inside the hull. Pounding. Someone's pounding inside the hull. No time to go up on deck and down the hatchway. I'll drive my way in from here, through the side. I wonder why they left the ship. Why they didn't fight the fire. There. Almost in. Once more. Hey there. Who was pounding? Here in the after hold. Get me out quick. Break down the door. There he is. Looks like the captain. Oh, yeah. Nitro board. Get out. Get out. Here, hold up. You'll be all right. Oh, he's fainted. TNT, huh? No wonder they abandoned ship. Hey, that fire's getting mighty close. Come along, Captain. Good thing you can't see me. You'll be found floating in the water with a life preserver, and nobody'll ever know who saved you. Out we go. Quick. Superman carries the unconscious form of Captain Anderson, wraps him in a life preserver, drops him in the sea near the lifeboats, and streaks again for the doomed ship. Touch and go now. That stuff will explode any second. But I've got to find the safe and get those papers. There's the bridge. Down. Down. Here we are. This is the captain's cabin, all right. And there's the safe. Well, one smash will open that up. And there's the package. Must be. Wrapped in oil skin, marked June Anderson. Pemberton, this is the time you lose. Now out. Fast. No time for the stairs. Out through the wall. And away. Hey, Mr. Burns. Stop. There's a man floating in the life preserver. It's the captain. It's Captain Anderson. Get him aboard. Quick. Hold him over the side. It is the captain. How'd he get out here? Never mind that. Pull. Pull. There goes the ship. We'll never get clear. Outlined against a sheet of sudden orange flame, the steamer Madison explodes with a crashing roar. Fills the sky with screaming shells. Scatters flaring embers on the face of the sea. Do the boats get clear? What of Pemberton and Deneen? And meanwhile, what will Superman do with the precious oil skin package of papers? And what do the papers reveal? Tune in with us next time and follow the exciting transcription, Superman. Up in the sky! Look! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman! Superman is a copyrighted feature appearing in Action Comics Magazine. Welcome to Paris Tate. Welcome tozz! Get a good boy! Jesus K streams on the icepatient. You can soon deайн on canal. Of course. It doesn't matter how much it tends to be.
