The DeFont Company of Wilmington, Delaware, makers of Better Things for Better Living through chemistry, presents the Cavalcade of America. Tonight, our star is the well-known Hollywood actor Robert Taylor, who has currently starred with Deborah Carr with a cast of thousands in the MGM Technicolor production of The Cavalcade. Now, Robert Taylor is the prisoner of Castle Foster. This is prison music, made deep in the light, for solace against walls and the ticking clock. The musician is our subject and the time is September 1863, late in the war between the states. Place, well furnished room in a Confederate military prison, Castle Thunder, near Richmond. Prisoner? Well, this is his story. Who's there? The chaplain, Spencer. John Carpenter. Come in, sir. I heard you playing, Spencer. I'll not trouble you now, if you'll be... I don't know, please come in and talk. I'd like to talk. You can't sleep? Hardly. It seems such a waste of minutes. Seconds stumble by so fast. I've got so little time. Could you please stay with me a while? Of course, as long as you wish. There was a thing I wanted to ask you. Anything, sir? Your true name. What? I know it's not Spencer Kellogg. How did you know? There have been inquiries from outside, requests for information. Another name was meant for you. My name is Spencer Kellogg. It's un-what an impoverish you to concede your name from the world now. What does my name matter? It's what I've done that counts. You don't understand. It's very difficult for me to explain. You see, well, afterwards it would be part of my duties to take care of you still. There are things I'd like to know so that I may be able to, uh... I see. All right. I'll tell you my name and all the story. It will pass the time. The time. The time now. How now, Spencer? I'm all right. My name is Spencer Kellogg Brown, and my father is Orville Brown, late of Kansas, now of Utica in New York State. It began in Kansas at Osawatomie. It began when they burned my piano. My precious piano. Your piano? The two thieves, murderers, border-ruffians bandits from Missouri. My father was a free soil man, a leader in the free soil party, like that other Brown who was hanged here in Virginia before the war. John Brown of Osawatomie? You mean Kansas John Brown? Yes, John Brown. The soil goes marching on. Old John Brown was my father's dearest friend, and my father, too, was given his life to make Kansas a free state. But the name Brown is honored in Kansas. I understand. What's a piano? My life was music once before this killing game began. My father brought the piano for me all the way from the East. I had it only a week before the mob came from Missouri. The free soil men fought, but they were driven off, my father with them. The border mob began to set fire to all our houses. I was young then, and my brother Fred was younger still. The two of us hid in a thicket close to our house. Hello! Fancy, what are they doing? It's real quick. But I'm scared, Fancy. I'm terribly scared. Fancy, the Fancy man's window. He's an awful man. Who are they, Fancy? They're bad, Miss Lee. Look, they're picking up the piano out of the door. No. Come on, please, Fancy. I don't like them to the best. Fancy, what are they doing? They're gonna tip out of my piano. Why won't they? You stay here, Fancy. Fancy, come back! Fancy! Fancy! Fancy! That was my introduction to violence, General. Oh, too bad. My wild charge did no good, of course. A giant of a man seized me in his arms and carried me off to the bandit's wagon train. They took me with them back into Missouri, leaving our town a smoking ruin. I don't wonder you learned what hate can be. I hated no one then. Or do I now? I hate evil only. I was well treated in Missouri. Dr. Keenan in Lafayette County took me into his home. He had a daughter, Molly Keenan. One day I called her because we both loved that song. I guess I fell in love with Molly. So, just before the war, I went back to Missouri to teach school. One day after school was out in my one-room schoolhouse, I was practicing on the harmonium we used for singing class. Wait a minute! It's locked! I'm coming! Well, Jim Peters, come in, come in! Quick, shut the door! Lock it again! What's the trouble? Hey, Brown, give me the key. They may be here any minute. Any minute. What is this, Jim? Vigilantes, John Bailey and his wife, Croud. You've got to clear out of here, Spencer, before they get you. But why? I've had some trouble with Bailey, sure, but nothing I can't handle. Oh, different now, Spencer. They think you're John Brown's son. You know how they hate old man Brown and all the Kansas abolitionists? I've explained long ago. There were two Browns in Arthur Waterman. One was John Brown, but my father's name is Oliver. I know, but one of Bailey's men just got back from Kansas and he swears you're the son of John Brown. Look here, Spencer, I'm your friend. I tell you, they'll string you up. I'm risking my own life coming here. Now, I left my horse at the back entrance, take it, and get out of Missouri fair. I can't run away, Jim. And there's Molly. It was Molly who sent me. I didn't want to come. I'll have a two-pound, you know that. Yes, I know. She wants you to escape. She'll join you later. It wasn't easy for me to do what she had. I don't like it, Jim. I don't want to run. Man, do you want to hang? Get me tart and feathered? Did your mommy beg me to get you to go? No, but I don't. There they are. Come on, here's the back door. Here's my horse. Get on. Get on. Now, off with you. You can't be seen from the front. Jim, tell Molly, tell her for me to off with you. Spencer? What's happening? Where's Spencer? He ran away, Molly. He ran away? But didn't you tell him that... That you'd stand by him? Yes. That I'd stay by his side? Did your father and the federal marshal and all respectable folks here protect him against Barry's ruffing? I told him all that yet. He was afraid to stay. He just didn't like him. I can't believe... Molly, the man's a coward. Coward? Worse than that, the confounded blagget stole my horse. Come along, Molly. Yes, I have met violence. Now, this was my introduction to pervade and deceit. I was very much shocked and ashamed, Chaffer. You had no cause to be ashamed, Spencer. I know that now. Well, Molly married Jim Peters and I never saw her again. Their story of my cowardice spread. I lost my home to bloody violence and my good name to braze and deceit. I never used the name Brown again. But I determined to win that name back by violence and deceit if necessary. In fact, I'm afraid I longed for violence and the uses of deception. You are wrong. Very wrong. That's why I'm here. That's why time is short. Well, when the war began, I joined the Union Navy in the gunboat fleet, building at St. Louis and along the Northern Rivers. Thanks to my good education, I soon made myself valuable to my officers. One day in our captain's cabin, I was taking a letter from Captain Porter. The installation of our heavy equipment means that we shall be ready to attack earlier than we have hoped. Signed, William D. Porter, commanding the Essex. Make a fair copy for me, Kellogg, and when you've done so, carry the seal dispatched to General Grant's active at the shore. Yes, sir. Kellogg. Yes, sir. Now I need to tell you that the contents of this message are highly secret. Of course not. Sir, I have a request to make. Yes, what is it? You trusted me, Captain, with this information. We shall steam down River soon. Do you know what awaits us below St. Louis? Do you know the enemy's preparation? Not as thoroughly as I could wish. No. We had some word from spies. Not enough. I know that country well, sir. Very well. I have good reason to know it well. If you would send me there, sir, as a spy? Yes. Oh, now, Kellogg, I'm surprised. I've always thought of you as a... well, as a good man, no doubt, but no daredevil, not much of a sailor. Well, that's what I mean, I'm afraid. Sir, a daring man with an error of not being a daring man, that could be a good spy if he knew the country. Hmm. But why do you want to volunteer? You have a good berth here, easy duty, plenty of time with shore in St. Louis? I have personal reasons, Captain. Very important reasons. Don't make me tell you why. Well, let me take it over, Kellogg. I'll send for you again this evening. Very well, then, Kellogg. You'll leave tonight. A row boat will be left for you aft. At eight bells, you will cut a drift and head downstream. But Jake Trussell is on. I'm glad old Jake's going along. Good. Trussell will take Cullen and Coren to the house you know. You will move about and get what information you can find to him for transmission. He'll be able to reach us. We had arranged for that before you spoke up. Very good. You know, we'll have to report Spencer Kellogg as a deserter. The news will be published here in St. Louis. Other newspapers will pick it up north and south. Your parents may read them. Not my parents. No? I hope you understand what you're doing, Kellogg. I do, sir. I think you do. I'm betting on it. So am I. I'm betting my name on it. The title of the Capulet of America, Robert Taylor is starring as the prisoner of Capitol Hill. The two men will downstream into Confederate territory. That's pretty tune, Spence. Yes, I used to like it, Jake, once upon a time. Better roll a bit. I'll do that. Keep rolling. Ahoy! Who goes there? Who's there? Two good friends of Jefferson Davis. Who are you? Confederate armored force, John F. Kennedy. Come aboard, friends. Now then, your name, Spencer Kellogg. Your name, sailor? Jacob Trussell, sir. I'm mighty hungry. Where's your home, Kellogg? Missouri, Lafayette County. Look here, Captain. Surely you don't think we're spies? I'm not sure yet. Jake, open up your shirt. What for? I want to show the captain your decoration. Oh, that's sure thing. There you are. Take a look at Jake's chest, Captain. A Confederate flag in full color, tattooed. Isn't she a beauty? Of course I was drunk at the time. Well, sir, I can't duplicate Jake's pretty picture, but I can give you the names of ten people in Lafayette County who were vouched for my loyalty. What are you doing in Yankee uniforms? Deserting, sir. We were shanghaied. Join up, they said, or go to prison, sir. We joined up. First chance we had to break loose came last night. Well, sir, you stay right here, under guard. There'll be a further examination. Captain, you used these spies under every hatch. Those bad truffles obviously too stupid to be a spy. And the other one's too innocent looking. Just the same, I'm worried. Man, that story's chipped whole separately. Yet the Saint Louis paper describes and kill log as a designer from the Yankee breed. Yeah, they do that, you know. Put it in the papers. This man's on the level. No one could look at innocent in a lab, let alone spy for General Grant. I look to you, Captain. I've got a job to do building forts on this roof in a damn little greater hurry. I need surveyors. Kill out those enough about it. He's proved it to me. I need him. All right, take him. And remember, it's your responsibility. Jake? Jake Triffle? Come in. Here, take these papers and do what you've been told to do. It's a complete plan of the Columbus sports on the scales. You're a wonder. It's easy. You know what? Good kind Colonel Grant's Confederate Army engineer has sent me to General Pillow himself with copies of his self-same plan. Careful, you'll be playing a sadder tune on that mouth, Johnny. What next? Well, the General has a house here all to himself, and the General's orderly, Sergeant Shank, is now a very good friend of mine. Shank likes music and corn whiskey. I see. Do you think maybe I might perhaps have a look at the commanding General's personal papers? There's a dispatch box I'm sure to hold. You'll see. Take it easy, man. You'll have both of us hanging from the trees. Now take it easy. I'll take it, Jake. I'll take it easy. Sergeant Shank, I believe. Of the Georgia Shank? Well, if it ain't the little old bull weevil with a mouth. How's my tune, engineer? Well, how's for a drink, Sergeant? On me. Out here? In there. Well, now, come on now, Sergeant. Your pet general is ten miles down the river. Why should we suffer out here in the cold and rain? You got a bottle, show-na? Look here. Well, come on in here, my friend. Say, now, this ought to be mighty fine. You bring that damn lip piano with you. No, Sarge, but I brought this. Hey, how come you draw a gun on me? The trunk over there, Shank. The general's trunk. Open it up. I ain't gonna do it. Now you get out of here. You got a rifle, Shank? I don't need no rifle. Yeah, yeah, I'll reach for you and get you. I'm sorry, Shank. It was so easy, Captain. So easy to lie, to kill. I hadn't known that before. I brought back to Grant and Porter the dispatch file of Confederate General Pillow with all the most carefully guarded secrets of the Mississippi armies. I walked into Grant's headquarters after swimming the river, stark naked, save for a rebel forage camp, and I was a hero. To yourself, Spencer? No, not to myself. It no longer surprises me that you should know that. You didn't take back your name then? No. I remember the eyes of Sergeant Shank just before I shot him. I was Kellogg still, not Brown. Your prison commandant, Captain Armstrong, gave me that clock. He took me out of the prisoners bunkhouse and gave me this room. I wish he hadn't. The clock, I mean. May I go on, parking captain? Go on, Spencer. They made me fourth officer of the Union gunboat Essex under Porter. We fought all around the river, Pittsburgh landing, Fort Donaldson, Fort Henry, Memphis, then around Vicksburg. Your Confederate gunboat, Arkansas, was the strongest ship afloat. Captain Porter's nemesis. One night I knocked at the door of the captain's cabin. Come in. Ah, it's you, Kellogg. What can I do for you? I've been thinking, sir, about the Arkansas. I have a plan. I wish I had. I'd like to sink her. Come on. Let me swim towards her with a torpedo at night. What? I can do it, sir. I swear I can do it. I knew that wouldn't be easy, captain. You see, I had added the eyes of Sergeant Shank to Molly's lips and the smell of burning ivory and the sound of a name I couldn't use. That was when they caught you? Yes. I went ashore with three other volunteers to spot the Arkansas's anchorage. We ran our skiff straight into the arms of a Confederate shore patrol. It was most unfortunate for me that the troops in that position were commanded by a group. All right, Sergeant, take the prisoners in in the base and bed them down for the night. Yes, sir. Come on, you. Wait a minute. You there. You. Don't I know you? Me, sir. I don't believe so. By all the angels in heaven and fiends in hell, I do know you. You're my innocent little chain bearer, my refugee engineer. Sergeant. Sergeant, this man's a spy. Get on him. Don't let him out of your sight. And don't let him play you any music. And that was how many months ago I've lost track. They took me first to Jackson, then here after Vicksburg. You've been very kind to me, chaplain, here in the Castle Thunder over all these weeks. I've done only what I must always do. My task here is to... Yes. Perhaps I tried to do too much. I was unwise, and in the end there was no simplicity. I tried to pay back, to find revenge. I know better now. I think you can take your name again. It's a crowd, then. Or probably. Tomorrow I can. It is tomorrow. Look out the window. Is that a mark? Yes, that's right. It is tomorrow. My dear Mrs. Brown, it's my sorrowful duty to inform you that your son Spencer was executed here this morning. I have just now come from the place of execution. And the sounds that place are still in my ear. I cannot at this moment write to you as fully as I would. Later, I shall write to you again. No one of us shall ever forget your son. And how, when the muffled drums had stopped... How, when the drums had stopped their beating, and the noose had been fixed with the aid of his own steady hand, how your son said, This is my doing, chaplain. This is my making. Each one finds in the end the fate he has made for himself through all his days. I've served my country well. I've served myself badly. I was proud. I'm no longer proud. In humility, in pride, chaplain, I ask you to give my true name to the world. I am Spencer Kellogg Brown. All right. I'm ready now. Let's go. Robert Taylor McCappal-Cape players for the live story, The Prisoner of Capital Thunder. Next week, the DuPont Cabell-Cape will present Green Wall, an exciting true story of an American GI whose ingenuity was vital to the long of the invasion. Our star, John Hodiak. Be sure to listen. The live DuPont Cabell-Cape was written by George H. Faulkner. Original music was composed by Arm Cornwell, conducted by Donald Rory. The program was directed by John Seller. The DuPont Cabell-Cape cast included Gene Leonard, Dick Wiggins, and Bob Sandin, Herman Reddick, Sandra Spizer, Sidney Smith, Bill Zuckers, Scott's Cops, Gavin Gordon, and Scott Gettison. Mrs. I. Harris speaking. Don't forget next week, our star, John Hodiak. The DuPont Cabell-Cape of America comes to you from the Velasco Theater in New York and is sponsored by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. It's a better thing for a better living through chemistry. Next it's Barry Craig, confidential investigator on NBC.
