Tired of the everyday routine? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape! Escape, designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half hour of high adventure. Escape, brought to you by your Richfield Gasoline Dealer and the Richfield Oil Corporation of New York. Marketers of Richfield Gasolines with Xylene, Rich Lube, All Weather Motor Oil and other famous petroleum products. Look for the Richfield Eagle on the Cream and Blue Pumps. Tonight, we escape to India and the story of a man trapped in his bed by a crate. The most deadly poisonous snake in the world. As Raoul Dahl tells it in his terrifying story, Poison. Listen, it's an awful good story, but to get the point you got to understand about two things. What kind of a guy Harry Pope was and what kind of a snake a crate is. First, the crate. You spell it K-R-A-I-T. There in India the crates are little snakes, sometimes not more than three or four inches long. You have to look real careful if you're going to see one at all. Really almost like a worm. Except that it's the most poisonous snake in the world. It can bite faster than a bumblebee and when it does you go off like a firecracker, swell up like a hot water bottle and in fly the angels. Crate, tiny little snake. Now about Harry, Harry Pope. Funny guy. He had it in for anybody who wasn't American, who didn't speak his language. He called them foreigners and he called them that army word, gook. Didn't matter if they were French, Italian or Japanese, gook, foreigner he'd say. It's kind of buggy on the subject. Funny guy. Well Harry and me, we got sent out to Bombay on this construction job and that's where the trouble started. You see, except for the two of us, the crew was made up of local boys, Hindus and Muslims, 40 of them. Harry was like a cat in a room full of dogs, had his back up every minute. After a month or so it began to wear him out. Got to his appetite wasn't right, he was smoking three and four packs a day and he wasn't getting his sleep. I used to try to straighten him out, used to tell him he was wrong. No Woody, there's no use talking to you. Listen Harry, they're all good boys, why don't you take it easy. Woody, you and I are good friends but there are a lot of things you just don't understand. You ought to take it easy Harry, they're all human beings just like you and me. They're gooks Woody, foreigners. Look, think about it this way, how'd you like your sister to marry one of them? I haven't got a sister in any way you've asked me that before. Yeah, you see, you want to make the effort to understand. Well that's how it was with Harry and you know about the crate. Now about what happened, it was June of last year, it was hot and sticky even though the sun was down. I was putting on a clean shirt to go out. Oh man, I'm really beat tonight. What's with you Woody? What's the clean shirt for? Going out. What do you got, a date? No, I thought I'd stop off at Dr. Ganderby's, he promised he'd show me the photos he made down in the leper colony. Ganderby? Yeah, these photos are supposed to be pretty interesting stuff. How about Harry, would you like to come along? Ganderby? He's a Hindu, a gook, foreigner. I don't want to spend no evening with a gook. Shoot, not old Harry. So I went off to the doctor's and Harry went to bed with the detective story. I had a very interesting evening. Later, old Harry was plenty sorry that he stayed home. I didn't leave the doctors until around midnight and when I drove back through the sleeping city it was very quiet and dark. I thought about the pictures of the lepers I'd seen. I remember thinking, I hope Harry's awake because I'd like to tell him about those pictures. And when I got home I was glad to see the light in his room was still burning. Harry, you up? I didn't get an answer, probably fell asleep reading. Harry, you awake Harry? Shh, Woody, stop yelling. Harry boy, what's the matter kid? Shh, stop Woody, take off your shoes. I couldn't tell what was the matter but I knew he was serious, whatever it was about, so I did what he wanted. He was in bed under his netting with a reading light on, his book on the floor. He lay quite still and the sheet came halfway up his chest. He was wearing those corny pajamas of his with the big checks all over him. And the pajamas were soaked in the sweat that was rolling off his face. He lay like a corpse flat on his back with his hands lying dead on the bed. His hands, even the backs of him were sweating. His eyes looked like he was watching somebody saw his leg off. Woody, what's the matter boy? Shh, it's a crepe. Crepe, where? Shh, for Mary's sake. Where? Where's the crepe? In here. Under the netting? No, under the sheet. Under the sheet? Where did it bite you? It hasn't, yet. Where under the sheet? Right on my belly. Holy sump- Shh, you're gonna wake it up if you don't cut out that yellow. How did it get in there? I don't know. It came up under the netting I guess. Or it's been in a bed all day. Is it a big one? No. The crepe don't have to be big. Looked about three or four inches. Come along my side. I didn't move. It went under the sheet. One of them folds. One of them wrinkles there over my belly. How long ago did it come? Hours. Hours and hours and days and weeks. Woody, I've been waiting a year for you to get home. It must be sleeping in there, huh? Yeah. I think it is. Now listen Harry. Maybe it'll wake up and go away. Go home or something, huh? I can't wait, Woody. I've been lying here scared I'd move something and wake it up. Yeah, you're scared and it'll bite. I've been lying here scared to death I could cough. All right, don't you worry about a thing, Harry. I know just what to do. Where you going, Woody? Don't leave me. The thing was to be ready to cauterize the bite right away. I'd heard about one method. I went out to the kitchen and I got a whole fistful of those big kitchen matches and I took them back to the bedroom. Arranged them all with their heads together. Held them like you'd hold a torch. What are you going to do? What are the matches for? Now listen Harry, here's how it goes. These will cauterize, see? You count three, flip back the sheet and you jump out of bed. Now you follow me? You're out of your mind. No, no, listen Harry, if the crate bites you, I strike the bundle and press it against the spot and it burns out the poison, see? Well, the match here... Get away from me. You're a bubbled head of many ideas. No, Harry, I'm only trying to... Shh. Listen, Woody, take your matches and your bright ideas and get the heck out of here. Call the doctor. The doctor? I never thought of that. Shh. I get to it. Okay, Harry, who do you want? Gander Bayer or Forsythe? Forsythe. Things are bad enough without you. You've got to bring that gook in here. I dug through the telephone book and I found Dr. Mattson B. Forsythe's number and I dialed it. This is the residence of the doctor Mattson B. Forsythe. Please? Yeah, let me speak to the doctor. It's very urgent. Who is calling? Please? It's Arthur Woods. Who? Woods. Arthur Woods. Spell, please. Woods. W. W. O. O. O. You have already said O. I have already written O. Have the kindness to give me the next letter please. O. It's O after O. Please? Look, my name is Woods. Spell, please. W. O. D. W. O. O. D. S. Woods. Woods. W. O. O. D. S. Mr. Woods. That's right. That's just right. Now let me speak to the doctor please. Sorry, Dr. Norton. Call tomorrow. Across the room, Harry lay very still, sweating, trying to keep every muscle relaxed. His face was beginning to twitch a little. I was scared. If that twitch should spread, I called the doctor's house again. Please, I do not understand. Look, I said if you don't tell me where the doctor is, I'm going to come over there and pull your arms off and then I'm going to take you by the neck and- The doctor is at the club, please. What club? The country club. Ring six, seven, three. Harry lay very still, fighting the twitches, trying to keep from jumping out of his skin. While I waited for the bartender at the club to locate Dr. Forsythe. After about five minutes and nothing, I got this. Hello there. Listen, doctor, you got to get over here right away. This is Arthur Woods and my partner. He's got a snake in the bed with him. Doctor? Would you mind repeating that, old boy? I said snake. He's got a snake in the bed with him. Snake? Oh, darling, darling. I say who is this? Is this Captain Smiley speaking? Please, doctor, you got to get over here right away. It's urgent. Spice you can't. You don't fool me. Not for an inch since you've done it. Please, doctor. Snake in bed. Listen, is this Dr. Forsythe speaking? I say of course not. It's Colonel Harcourt. Well, let me speak to the doctor, please. But you can't, old fellow. Why not? Why, he's jolly well passed out, don't you know? Passed out? Like a mackerel. Snake in the... Listen, Harry, you got to forget all this prejudice stuff. Gander buys your only chance. No, no, he's a gook. He went to Oxford, Harry. He's a gook. It's him or the undertaker. He's a gook. I'm going to call him, Harry. All right, go ahead, call him. But he's a gook. I called him, and when I mentioned Crate, he was quiet for a good 10 seconds, and then he said he'd be right over. And he was within five minutes. He was wearing felt slippers, and he moved silently into the bedroom. He was carrying his black satchel, and when I saw the lamplight glinting softly in his steel rim spectacles, saw his wise, gentle eyes, his bald, brown head, I thought to myself, why, he looks just like Mahatma Gandhi. He looked silently at Harry and smiled encouragingly. Harry looked at him, looked at me, and looked away. Now, first we must very carefully remove the netting from about the bed. Mr. Pope, I want you to pay no attention to us. You ought to concentrate on being very quiet, on letting the little snake sleep. It is a very little snake, and it is very tired. You must tell yourself this, and you must believe it is necessary for it to sleep. Yeah, yeah. Mr. Wood, help me lift the netting very slowly. Up, up, up. Good, good. What are you going to do for me? Shh, shh. Think about the little snake. What do you think I'm thinking about? What are you going to do for me? The snake. It is here. It's in one of those folds over his abdomen, Doctor. Now we all know where it is. Shh, shh. Pretend you are the mother of the little snake. You are keeping it warm. It is sleeping. That is good. Just so it doesn't wake up and want breakfast. You joke? That is good. I wish I was back home in the good old USA. Now then. What are you going to do, Doctor? I have a serum here. We will inject it into the blood of Mr. Pope. Then, as he puts it, the little snake may breakfast to his heart's content without harm to... without harm to Mama. His hands were brown and slender and astonishingly deft. He poked the hypodermic into a capsule of thick yellowish stuff, the serum, and then with infinite care he drew the plunger slowly and steadily upward. The glistening chamber filled. He withdrew the needle, laid the hypodermic down, and then with all the gentleness in the world, he began to fold back Harry's sleeve. It was as though he were folding rare old lace. He inched the sleeve carefully under and up Harry's arm until the vein came into view. I am going to fasten a tourniquet on your arm now. It will be just above the elbow. Do not move your arm. Do not twitch your muscle. Gently, gently he tightened the rubber tourniquet and Harry's arm began to flush dark. The vein began to swell, blue and tight. Harry kept his eyes on the ceiling. Now I'm going to insert the needle in the vein. You must not react. By that I mean you must not tend your abdominal muscles. Believe me, Mr. Pope, this will not hurt. Very carefully he placed the syringe almost flat against the arm, slid the needle in sideways through the skin and into the blue vein, slid it slowly but so firmly that it went in smooth, smooth as a knife going into a cheese. Dark. Shh, shh. You're good, aren't you, Dark? You must believe that. You are going to let me die, are you, Dark? I am your friend. You must believe that. Are you, Dark? You won't let me die? No, no, I will not let you die. Now be still and think about that. With all the care in the world as he had pushed the needle into the vein, now he pressed the plunger down, pressed the serum through the needle and into Harry Pope's body. I watched Harry. His eyes were on the wise, gentle face of Dr. Ganterby. His eyes wanted desperately to believe what Ganterby had told him. Now the hypodermic was empty and slowly it was withdrawn. Then slowly the deaf, graceful little hands loosened the rubber tourniquet. And then Ganterby looked up, met Harry's eyes and smiled. Harry tried to smile back, but the smile jumped and twitched and died. You're taking care of me, aren't you, Dark? Yes, my son. Now you must be still while the serum is pumped through your body. Be very still and be very assured. I am your friend. Hmm. The serum will save you. The serums gave harm. He beckoned to me and I followed him out of the room and out onto the dark porch. The air was heavy and hot. Ganterby stared out at the blackness, drummed his fingers softly on the railing. Your... your friend is in grave danger. Yeah, but the serum... you gave him the serum. I gave him the serum. It... it isn't any good. It is the finest known to medical science. And it is worth this. Music To most of us, science is something strange and mysterious. We think of magic medicines and supersonic planes. But here's a scientific achievement that's as real as your car and as near as your rich field dealer. Xylene, one of the highest anionic gasoline components ever discovered by scientific research. And xylene can benefit you today because every gallon of rich field gasoline now contains xylene. Xylene to give your car that smooth, knockless power that eats up the miles. Xylene for that swift, eager response you need in traffic. Furthermore, there's a rich field gasoline to fit your motor. Your rich field dealer offers two great rich field gasolines, both with xylene. Get rich field high octane at regular price for the average motor. Or rich field ethyl. Ethyl at its best for top results in highest compression motors. Get rich field gasoline tomorrow. Stop where you see the rich field eagle on the cream and blue pumps. And now we return you to... escape. Music There it was. Harry Pope, the man who had been an enemy of anyone and everyone who didn't come from his country or speak his language, was now halfway through death's door and his only hope lay in a Dr. Gantervai of another race, another creed, another country, and another color. Now, for the first time in his life, Harry had made a gesture of friendship toward a person of another race. First time. And it seemed to me the last. No, my friend. The serum is worthless. What can we do then? The snake is bound to wake sooner or later. Harry will move. He won't be able to help himself and the snake will strike. We must think. Look, I'll shoot it. I can hold the gun low and flat so that even if I hit Harry it won't be a penetrating wound and I'll blow the snake sheet and I'll clear the bed, huh? But you don't even know which of the many folds increases in that sheet is the harbor of the snake. You might shoot the air. You would most certainly wake the snake then. No, we can't do that. I think... I think I have a solution, Mr. Woods. Yeah? We will... we will anesthetize the snake. Yes. We will use nitrous oxide or ether or chloroform. I think the last. Chloroform. Yes. We put the snake out right while he's lying on Harry. Is that the idea? That is it, Mr. Woods. Now, if you will please drive quickly down to my house, my boy will show you where I keep my supplies. The chloroform is in a bottle with an orange label. Orange label? Yes. Bring it back as quickly as you can. I will save with Mr. Pope and try to keep him assured. He seems to like you. We all like the doctor when we are sick. I drove it as fast as I could. The house boy at the doctor's thought I was a madman at first, but then he decided in my favor, showed me where the stuff was. I found the bottle with the orange label, smelled it to make sure, and then took off back to the house. I eased the car up the driveway and tiptoed into the bedroom. You're my friend, Doctor? My pal? Yes, I am your friend and I am not going to let any harm come to you. Uh-uh. It's Woody. He's my friend too, Doc. Here's the stuff, Doctor. Woody, I've been an awful dope all my life. You know that, Woody? It's okay, Harry. You're going to be okay from now on. The Doc here, my friend here. I didn't like him when he first come into the room. Why? Because he wasn't an American or even an Englishman. What do you know about that, huh? He's my friend. It's okay, Harry. You're going to be okay now, boy. I've been a prize dope. Mr. Woods would have to help me. Right. He pulled a prescription pad out of his case, tore the cardboard backing off, and twisted it into a neat little funnel. He laid this on the edge of the bed. Then he took the piece of hollow rubber tubing, which had been used as a tourniquet, and he began to slide it into the sheet. It went in where the sheet ended, across Harry's chest, and he slid it down. He slid it slowly, so slowly that although I was watching it, I didn't see it move. Hours seemed to crawl by, the tube inched invisibly on and down, down and down, past the unseen buttons of his jacket, past the unseen cord to his trousers, and then it stopped. Gander by had sent it by a route which did not cross any of the creases in the sheet. He was being very careful not to prod the snake with it. He was sweating too now, sweating and biting his lip with his teeth. Funny, I remember now one was gold. I remember staring at it while he inched that tube. Now the funnel. I fit it into the end of the tube and we are ready. Mr. Pope, this is going to be very cold. The evaporation of the chloroform will cause a sharp lowering of the temperature. You must be prepared for this. It will take rather a long time, another factor for which you must prepare yourself. The snake is a reptile, and reptiles do not react quickly to the anesthetics, which are intended for the use of warm-blooded animals. Bear these things in mind. Are you ready? Sure, friend. He opened the bottle and began to drip the stuff into the funnel. Slowly, very slowly, drop by drop, the clear liquid entered the tube and traveled a long, dark route to Harry Pope's stomach. Where the crate lay sleeping, drop by drop, a pale swirling vapor hung over the funnel. Down there on the sheet where the tube ended, a wet gray patch began to spread. The chloroform spreading and evaporating, spreading and evaporating. The room began to reek of it, and I remembered other places and other times. Hospitals, operations, the death of loved ones, smell of chloroform. Harry began to twitch now, his nose, he seemed to be in agony. Woody? Harry, what is it? I think I'm gonna sneeze. Don't do it, boy. Hang on, Harry. You gotta hang on. Don't. Danderby looked at Harry's face. He reached up, pressed his knuckle against some nerve on Harry's upper lip, and the agonized look vanished. The relentless dripping of the chloroform continued. Harry was getting cold. I could see goose flesh along his arms, across the top of his chest where the jacket was open. Danderby looked at this and stopped pouring. That is enough. I think our little friend should be thoroughly unconscious now. Mr. Pope, you must remain very still. We are going to remove the sheet now. Anything you say, Doctor. Mr. Woods, you take the other side. We will have to do this ever so carefully. We each took a side of the hymn. I watched Danderby and did everything that he did. Harry's arms were still flat on the bed, pointing toward his feet. We inched the sheet under and free of these. It was rough because we had to do it without disturbing the main area of the sheet. When it was free of his arms, we began to raise it slowly, gathering the material in our hands as we progressed ever so slowly down Harry's chest. We reached the end of his jacket. No sign of the snake. My hands were beginning to shake. Danderby paused while I turned my head away for air. The odor of chloroform was stifling. And then we went on, slowly, thread by thread, raising the sheet and easing it away, down past the cord of his pajamas, and down and down, and still no sign of the snake. I had stopped looking for it by now. I was concentrating on keeping my arms from shaking. And then, quite suddenly, we were done. Danderby dropped the sheet on the floor. Harry lay on his back, not moving, but watching us with wide, terrorized eyes. Danderby squinted at both sides of Harry, at his legs. Where is it? It is not as you suppose on the outside of your pajama pants. It must be up one of the legs. Harry, no, you fool! Stop it! Stop it! I don't see it. Kick those tatters of cloth, the remains of his pants. No, nothing. The bed. Under the bed. Look at me, Harry. Harry, move your feet. Harry, I can't see. No, there is nothing. Mr. Pope, are you quite certain you saw a snake? Sometimes when we are very tired, we find our auto-suggestive faculties run a bit out of hand. Are you calling me a liar? No, no, I merely say that the auto-suggestive faculties... Are you? Are you telling me I am a liar? Harry. Why, you lousy little quack! Call me a liar! You stinker little hindo witch doctor with your fancy pants torn! Harry! Come in here sticking me for your cheap no-good medicine! Harry, don't! Boy, that freezing cold up all over me! Harry, take it easy! Harry is your friend! My friend? That little hunk of foreign trash, my friend? Where I come from, where you guys live, can't you like him for busboys? You make a mistake. You are wrong. Yeah, for busboys, for waiters, for nothing! You're a foreigner! You're a gulk! You're a nothing! Boy, I ought to beat you to a bloody pulp, you and your chloroform! You and your stab-up-a-friendship and mama snake! And I must make out like I like you! I ought to split your head wide open, you gulk! You gulk! You gulk! You gulk! Please, doctor, forgive him. He's been under a great strain. He doesn't mean it. A great strain, yes. He needs a good holiday. Good night, Mr. Woods. That's all. I couldn't tell this if old Harry was still alive. Poor old Harry. He didn't die in India. He died in Chicago, in the Loop. Got run over by a taxi cab. The driver was third-generation Irish, a real hundred percent white American. Maybe that means something, I don't know. Poor old Harry. Poor old Harry. Believe it or not, but the very life of your car depends on oil. Without oil, your motor would grind itself to pieces in a matter of minutes. That's why you need an oil that stands up under every driving condition. That's why you need Rich Lube all-weather motor oil. Rich Lube is refined one hundred percent in the same way. That's why you need Rich Lube all-weather motor oil. Rich Lube is refined one hundred percent from the finest Pennsylvania crude oil ever discovered. That's your guarantee that Rich Lube won't burn up even under the terrific heat of hard summer driving. Its tough, long-lasting oil film is your faithful watchdog. It protects your motor every mile you drive. You can depend on it. Moreover, Rich Lube motor oil combats carbon and other harmful deposits by its special cleansing action. It cleans as it lubricates your motor. Keep your motor young. Keep your motor clean. See your Richfield gasoline dealer tomorrow. Ask him to change your oil to Rich Lube all-weather motor oil. Escape is produced and directed by William and Robson. And tonight is presented Poison by Roald Dahl and adapted for radio by James Poe. Featured in tonight's cast were Jack Webb as Woody, Bill Conrad as Harry, Jane Novello as Gan Debye, and Charlie Long as the houseboy. Special music arranged and played by Ivan Dettmeyers. Next week. You are lost in the headhunter territory of New Guinea, fighting your way through the swamps in search of gold. With you is a giant brute of a man and his beautiful wife who doesn't care which of you is killed or who kills him. And from whose evil treachery there is no escape. Next week at this time, the Richfield Oil Corporation of New York invites you to escape with an exciting story of evil and violence in the deadly swamps of New Guinea. As Jules Archer tells it in Two Came Back. Goodbye then until the same time next week when once again we offer you Escape. Tom Hanlon speaking over CBS the Columbia Broadcasting System.
