You, finding life rather dull, dreaming again of exotic places, wishing you were somewhere else, we offer you escape. Escape this now to an island off the northwest coast of Africa and the story of a man whose quest for happiness was blocked by a giant, a madman and a beautiful girl, as Willard Kaufman tells it in his exciting story, The Gladiator. The Meknab has been pushed ropes and now Scarletty fouls his advantage with a right cross on the Meknab's heart, then a left to the chin and a right and on the right, oh a wizard of a smashed Meknab's jaw and the pride of Scotland is down, he's down. The referee motions Scarletty to a neutral corner and begins counting. One, two, three, four. I sat there in a neutral corner not realizing it was over. This was it, John. I had to tell myself this was it. After twelve years in the scrambled brains business, twelve years of living like a monk and dying before each fight, this was it. And then I saw her, dark she was and pliantly slender, the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. She sat there among the ringside bloodsuckers with the arc lights on her white face, as calm and curious as a queen. Ladies and gentlemen, the Meknab has been brought to you by the Meknab. The winner and still world's heavyweight champion, Joe Scarletty. Even a cold shower couldn't get her out of my mind. I don't know why. Her hair was the color of night and she wore a diamond in it like a star when only one is shining in the sky. And now I'd never see her again. Joe! If I had any guts, any guts at all, I'd have gone to her as I left the ring. I'd have said, you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. I'd have said, what's your name? What are you doing here? Joe! What? Oh, yeah, yeah, Pony. You can climb out of the shower now. Newspaper guys have gone. You got rid of them real fast, huh? It was a snap. Nobody's interested in a retired heavyweight champion. Not even on his first night of retirement. Well, that's the way I want it for the rest of my life. Hey, here's your rug, Joe. Oh, thanks. Yeah, a little peeve, the sports writers. They thought you'd stick around London for a while instead of tearing off to Rome. Yeah, we got the plane tickets. Yeah, and an hour to make the plane, so please don't. Good evening, gentlemen. May a stranger congratulate you on your splendid victory. Uh, thanks, bud, but now if you're just... My name is Verenius. Julius Verenius. Oh, it's nice knowing you. But we're sort of in a hurry. May I introduce my niece? Come in, my dear. Lucrezia. Hello. Hello. I, uh, thought I'd never see you again. Where did you see me before? In the ring. I mean, when I was in the ring. I thought you were the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. Hey, Joey, better get going. We'll miss connections. Mr. Scalletti, I wondered if you and your manager would consent to be my guest on your trip to Rome. I assure you, no public conveyance could be as pleasant as the one I offer. Eh, Lucrezia? Well, there are certain compensations about Estimia. Uh, thanks a lot, but we couldn't impose on you. But I insist, my dear sir. Mr. Scalletti, you see, I am a student of the boxing. I should enjoy talking with you. I should be honored playing host to the greatest of all champions. I'm sorry, Mr. Verenius, but... Please. Mr. Verenius, we'd be delighted to go. But, Joe... If niece want mind... I would love having you. Splendid. I'll have your baggage picked up at the airport. I can't tell you what a pleasure it will be for my niece and me. The pleasure is all mine. But I... I just do not understand. You had success. You were famous and... and you gave it up. I would never have given it up. You know, I like the way you dress. You fit into it nice. You sound like a kid on his first date. Well, in the way I am. See, I've never been this close to a nice girl before. I'm not so nice, Joe. And you're not so close. Well, I can get closer. No, Joe. Yeah, three days on the water, three nights under the stars. You sound absolutely lyrical. Like number one on the hit parade. And it's still no Joe. Don't rush me. You have plenty of time. I have plenty of time to make up for all. You're like a spring, all wound up. I've been wound up for 12 years. Well, wind down. Talk a little. Talk it out. Talk? That's kid stuff. Oh, you don't know anything about kids. I don't believe you ever were a kid. No, I guess I wasn't. The night of my 17th birthday, I had my 17th fight. It's some coincidence. Why cry about it? You're still young. Yeah, I'm 29. Days are going fast. And what have I got to show for them? Oh, nothing. Nothing except the satisfaction and the wealth and the fame of being the greatest fighter in the world. And that world was pretty narrow. A ring 20 feet square surrounded by a rope. You're the first man since Fitzsimmons to hold a light heavyweight and the heavyweight championship at the same time. Hey, how do you know so much about fighting? Oh, I don't. I'm just quoting. Speak for yourself. Tell me about yourself. Or is that kid stuff too? No, but there's nothing to tell. Oh, there must be. I mean, who are you? Do you live in Rome or Paris or neither or both? How does it feel to be rich when you don't have to fight for it? You say I. I would rather talk about you. Look, I should. Why are you so upset? I'm not upset. I. Hey, Joe. Joe, I got to see. Hey, where are your manners, Pony? You're interrupting. Oh, that's all right. Joe, I'll see you later. Look, I should. Joe, something fishy about this whole rash up. Listen to me, Joe. It's about this Joker, Varinus. Oh, what about him? He's a stranger. He talks all the time about fighters like most guys talk about things. You can't stop him from talking. And he looks at you like a crazy, like a butcher fixing to carve up a prize book. Can't stop him from looking either. All right. But remember in the dressing room three nights back when you said we'd go with him and he said, he said he'd pick up our gear at the airport? So? So how did he know our gear was at the airport? How did he know we was going to Rome? You told the sports writers, maybe he read it somewhere. I told him a couple of minutes before Varinus popped up. That's not all. Joe, get your mind off that damning list. All right, I'm listening. Well, I've been trying to brush him all day. And on a little boat like this, it ain't easy, even in his fog. But 10 minutes ago, he almost cornered me, so I took off up that stairway. A ladder, a board ship, you call it a ladder. All right, so I go up like the second floor. Now the bridge. Will you stop interrupting? I mosey around and I happen to notice a big map. That's a chart. They mark our course on it day by day. That's it. I almost fall down. Joey, we ain't going to Rome. What? To go to Rome, we should have turned left at the Rock of Gibraltar. That's how you get to what you call the Mediterranean Sea. And we didn't? We kept going south. Right now, we're somewhere off Africa. What do we do, Joey? We better talk to Varunius. You might as well start talking. Here he comes. There you are. I've been looking for you. Yeah, yeah, I know. I mean, I... Varunius, I... Please, please. Call me Julius. You are enjoying the trip. You are comfortable. Well, a matter of fact... Splendid. You look marvelous, Joe. You've never looked better. Huh? That makes you so sure. You never saw much of me. I'm not a fool. I'm a fool. I'm a fool. I'm a fool. I'm a fool. I'm a fool. You never saw me until three days ago. Ah, that's where you are wrong. I've known you a long time, Joe, since the night you defeated Jackie Slade at the polo grounds in your native New York. What? That was nine, ten years ago. Ten. Ten years, five and a half months. When you walked in the ring that night, you were just another preliminary boy. When you walked out, I knew you would be champion. Of all the boats I have ever seen, that is the one I most enjoy remembering. That's the fight I'd like most to forget. When you hit Slade in the second round, a magnificent punch. He was in the hospital three weeks. He almost died. I wanted to give up fighting for good. But why? Because I don't like hurting people. I don't like to kill. You don't like hurting? That is very funny. Here's something funnier than that. Why aren't we going to Rome? I hate noise. I suppose the klaxon is necessary in the farm. Come on, quit stalling, Verrinius. My dear Joe, I never stall. I certainly wouldn't try to now when you're obviously so sure of what you're talking about. Where are we going? Home. Home. With me. Accused me of selfishness, if you like. But I so much enjoy playing host to you that I thought I'd prolong the pleasure. Perhaps I should have consulted you about it, but you would not have accepted. Would you? I would not. But of course, we cannot turn back now. Why not? Because I have this gun, and it is loaded. And as I know very little about firearms, it might go off and hurt you. I would not want that to happen, Joe. It would interfere with my plan. Oh, what plans are those? Something I've thought about for ten years, since the night at the Polo Ground. I'll tell you all about it sometime soon, but now, if you'll head down that passageway, you'll find a small but comfortable brig ready to receive you. Let's go. Escape under the direction of Norman MacDonald returns in just a moment. Looking for a bookie? Investigators are. Police are, too. But some police are not looking for the bookies that are a major part of organized crime in America. CBS Radio, as the third in its important documentary series, The Nation's Nightmare, uncovers fascinating facts about the bookie business. Hear from police, criminals, victims, in their own voices, under authentic conditions. Hear CBS Radio's The Nation's Nightmare on most of these same stations tomorrow night. And now, back to Escape. Some pleasure cruise this turns out to be. And all because you fall for a dame with slow gin eyes and a diamond in her hair. Some fair shuffle you got from her, Uncle Julius. So, what are you going to do about it? You're my manager, you tell me. I'll tell you this much, we got to do something even if it's wrong. What can we do? Uncle Julius has got four aces and a gun. I got four walls and I got bars on the door. I'll tell you what I got. I got a man on that dame worse than I got on our Uncle Julius. If I ever lay hands on either of them, I'll... Let me go. What's that? Let me go. Let me go. Let me go. Well, if it ain't the dame with the slow gin eyes. Well, the dame must have flipped to lock up his ever loving niece. Now listen, baby, you better give it to us straight. What's this all about? I don't know. I saw him pull that gun on you, so I go to him, I say, what kind of business is this? I say this is not an ideal. What deal? Likely story. I swear. Practical jokes are okay, I told you, but not with a gun. So he tossed me in here with you. That's what you get for talking back to your Uncle Julius. He's not my Uncle Julius. He must have disowned her. I never saw him till a week ago. He comes in this club in Paris where I'm singing. He offered me 20,000 francs to go to London with him. Just for the weekend, he said. To play a practical joke on two friends. Well, if we're the friends, I wonder how he treats his enemies. I'm afraid we're going to find out. Well, let's find out now. But how? Bonnie, get that tin basin over there. Basin? Yeah, get it. All right, Lucretia, take off his shoe. Shoe? Yeah, do what I say. Now, when I start rattling the door, you start banging away at the bulkhead. Oh, I get you. All right, are you ready? Okay, let's go. All right. All right. All right. Now, what do you want? We want you should tell us a story. Where are we going? And why? You are asking for the story of my life. Then tell it. Come on in and tell it. No, thank you. I'll tell it on this side of the bar. Does the name of Verinius mean anything to you? Nothing. Once I know a lightweight called Speedy Verinius, he was a bum too. Yes. We Verinius were constant losers. But the greatest loser of all, Ruputius Verinius. He was commander in chief of the Roman Imperial Army. Two thousand years ago, he was sent to put down the revolt of Spartacus the gladiator. He was badly wounded. Oh, stop. That horn. Roblius returned to Rome in disgrace. He was ostracized, consigned to a tiny island in the farthest rim of the Roman Empire. That's where he went with his wife and his slaves and his gold. That's where he lived. And so did his sons and their sons. That's where I live today. That is where we are going. You expect us to believe that? If you will. Tomorrow, you will see for yourself. All right, then for tonight, we'll let it pass. Now for the second question. Why are you going there? My dear fellow, you're going there to fight. You're going for the hardest fight of your life. Now that's it. Well let me tell you, buster. Joe will belt the years off any bum you put in a ring with him. There won't be any ring, pony. He'll call cock your bum and then he'll run your name. There won't be any rounds. Joe will kill him. Pass it. Or Joe himself might be killed. You see, pony, this fight will be to the death. We got there the next night. A little island and a mantle of fog that hung solid as grease over land and sea. The dark gave way to a worn stone path and suddenly out of the fog an enormous structure appeared with towers and battlements plunging so high they were lost in the gloom. Look at this. Like a castle or something. Not as big as Radio City, but almost. You like it, Joe? I'd like it better if you'd keep that cannon out of my spine. I apologize, Joe, but I cannot chant your escaping the fog. The fog is most forgettable. Usually the view from here is magnificent. Yeah. On a clear day you can see Catalina. Or at least the African mainland. I admire your talent for jokes in so strange a situation. The situation's impossible. You kidnapped me to kill or be killed for your amusement and now you regret that the view is not up to par. You're shocked, Joe, simply because my values differ from yours. Well, that's a mild way of putting it. You're shocked because you might die for my amusement. Death is not amusing. Where I come from. Where you come from. I assure you I am equally shocked by the values of your world. At least we've gone a couple of thousand years from barbarism. You've gone from barbarism to decades without touching civilization. We don't kill men for amusement. I often wonder what you kill them for. The killing goes on year after year. What's war but mass murder? All right, but basically our way of life is... Basically you have no way of life. You have a culture of gadgets to which no one has contributed anything of value since the Romans invaded the bathtub. Oh, don't argue with him, Joe. It is getting us nowhere. Right, right, my dear. Anyway, this is as far as I go. What's on the other side of the wall? You'll find out as soon as I find the key. Hmm, nearly there. Inside, if you please. And make yourself at home. I am your slave. Yeah, or vice versa. The iron door swung shut and we were in an ancient Roman village. The stone wall surrounding us must have been eight feet thick and about four times as high and notched along the top with saw teeth. Mud huts crouching in the soupy night formed an irregular circle around the deserted market place. Just like those pictures in the first year Latin book. Only Uncle Julius had tricked up the joint with a few of the modern gadgets he so much despised. Look Joe, on top of the wall between the notches. Yeah, machine gun searchlight. About every 50 yards, like a concentration camp. Joy, what are we going to do? You keep asking me that. What, you keep talking the answer. I don't know. Maybe we ought to dig up some local talent. Maybe we could talk to them. What, you suppose they speak? Maybe Latin. You know any Latin? A big Latin I know. I could talk it like a native when it was the thing around Jacob's Beach. What's that? Joy, look at him. I looked at the man who came out of the fog. His face was scarred and his shoulders were like a pair of shovels and great welts of muscle shifted when the shovels moved under the thin toga. One of his hands was curved like half a watermelon around what seemed to be a lash, a double strip of rawhide studded with iron spikes. He was the biggest man I ever saw. You are Scarlatti? I am Crixus. Pleased to meet you. I come from Caesar. Caesar? Caesar Varinius. He talked to me a long time. Explain to Scarlatti, he say. Answer questions. Tell him what to expect. I tell you what to expect in one word. And what is the word, Crixus? Death. Any way he speaks English. Death is the same in any tongue. What makes you so sure I'll die? Both tomorrow in the combat. I kill you. Well, you look like the kid who could do it. Caesar say to show you this. Now, what is it? A lash? It is Sestas, the gauntlet. You wear it. So, one in each hand with the leather thongs tied to the arm and the iron studs over the knuckles. What a weapon. You fight with these? Of course. But what if, if Jor don't want to fight? Those who will not fight are killed by the guns. And there is no way out? No way to escape? Three men tried in last few month and two last year. They were killed by the guns? They were killed by the gladiators. But why? You see, it would be difficult for Caesar if the slave escaped and talk. So, Caesar has made it difficult for all of us. He wired the island with enough explosive to blow it off the earth. The slave escapes, Caesar touches a button and it is the end of us all. He is very clever, Caesar. Gregsos, how many gladiators are there here? Once 120, now me and you. How many men on the guns? Twelve guns on the wall, 24 men. Each gun is placed to cover all the others. Clever. But they are about 50 yards apart, a man might slip between them in the fog. There are searchlights. What do you think, Jor? A fog pony, the lights are useless in the fog. But how can we climb the wall? Gregsos, each gladiator had a pair of these gauntlets, right? Of course. Where are they now? In that chest over there. It's locked. Of course, I have the key. Come on, open it, Gregsos. Why? Look, we'll tie them together and make a rope with a loop on one end. We'll swing the loop over a notch on top of the wall. No, Scarlatti. No. Not while I am here. You would rather fight than be free? I kill Scarlatti tomorrow, I am free. Caesar has said it. And if you don't kill me, you'll be dead. I kill you like a fly. It's no use, Jor. This jake's lined up with Varanious. I hate to think of tomorrow. Yeah. I guess I'll have to tangle with him tonight. What you say, Scarlatti? Nothing, Gregsos. Just this? Just this? Boy, you sure clobbered. All right, let's find that key. Now, here it is. Come on. All right, Pony, now take these gauntlets and tie him up. Tie him up good. He'll never get out. Use one for a gag. Right. Dive in tight, Jor. You think they will hold? I don't know, baby. But in about 10 minutes, we're going to find out. I missed the first try. But the second, caught and held. And I went up, hand over hand. Then the rope tightened below me as Lucretia and Pony began to climb. The machine gun was about 60 feet away, somewhere beyond the fog. But the whistling of the gunner was a guide, a foghorn. All right. Now down the other side. Who do we meet? What's that? Greixos. He must have bit through the leather cake. The alarm. Come on, run for the boat. There's the boat, Lucretia. Come on. Just a little further. All right. Can't stop, Pony. Not just yet. Put up your hand. Not this time, Peroneus. Stay back. I kill all of you. Maybe one of us, but one of us will get you. Stay back. Stay back, guys. Joe, are you hurt? No, not much. Get aboard. Has it hurt you much, Joe? Your wound? No. Look, Joe. The sun. The fog is gone. There's the African ghost. Yeah. Look over there, you see? The island of Peroneus. Joe, there is smoke coming from it. Look at it. Oh, Joe, he did it. He blew it up. The whole island. And yourself, too. Yeah. In a few hours, the water won't even be muddy out there. Joe? Yeah. There's only one thing wrong with this whole last ship. What is that for? Nobody's going to believe any part of this now. Under the direction of Norman MacDonald, Escape has brought you The Gladiator by Millard Kaufman, starring Bill Conrad. Featured in the cast were Lou Krugman, Ted Osborne, and Lillian Byeth, with Paul Fries and Byron Cain. The special music for Escape is composed and conducted by Leith Stevens. Last week, Escape with us to the Yellow Sea and the story of a man who fought the entire Japanese Navy with an ancient submarine and an untrained crew, as Alec Hudson tells it in his exciting story, Up Periscope. When an actor takes his work so seriously that he begins living the role in real life, a situation supercharged with tension develops. Tomorrow night on most of these same stations, CBS Radio brings you Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in the Broadway Playhouses, A Double Life. Hear what happens when a star portrays the tragic role of Othello offstage as well as on. It's a Broadway Playhouse thriller on CBS Radio tomorrow night. Roy Rowan speaking. This is the CBS Radio Network.
