Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of romantic adventure? Wanna 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. You are on a remote island in the war-torn Pacific. A paradise of tropic splendor, where sounds of battle are far behind. While walking slowly towards you, our arms stretched out to you, is the most beautiful girl in the world, whose embrace could mean your death. Listen now, as Escape brings you Millard Kaufman's exciting story, The Island. The Island The problem was, what could I do with Robert Lacey? Do you happen to have a dream book handy, with all the charts and categories precisely arranged in alphabetical order? Well, in it you'll find a dream for loneliness about girls in soft summery dresses. You'll find a dream for hunger, two pound steak perhaps smothered all over with lamb chops. There are dreams for the traveler of a hometown far away and long ago. But find me a dream of a place you've never seen, a place that doesn't exist. A wake or a sleep that was Lacey's dream. Corporal Robert Lacey, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines. A harmless enough dream, I guess, and not to be taken seriously or... So it seemed until that night when Lacey's dream became my problem. May it was, 1945, in a little wood on Okinawa. Okay, Taburi, I guess I got it. Where are we anyhow? A couple of three mines behind Jap lines. Oh, fine. You worry too much, pal. Even for a guy on his first patrol. Well, I've been thinking of it as my last. Relax like me and you'll live forever. What was that? Nothing, just a screamin' Mimi. Got a kind of a tail adjustment that cuts the wind sort of screams. Jap use it to scare us. Well, they sure succeeded. You scare easy, pal. Sure. Sure, I'm a pushover for that Shreklikite stuff. Shreklikite? What kind of jive is that? Well, it means terror, frightfulness. It's German. German's got a whole arsenal of terror weapons. Jap's got a few of themselves. What do you say we sack in? Sack in here? That's as good as the next place. That lash up, it's three miles behind Jap line. Got no chance of getting back tonight. Get knocked off if we try. You take the first watch. I'm going to sack in. You're going to sleep? I don't know. Maybe I'll just sit here and dream awhile. You're sure picking a fine time for it. Hey, did I ever tell you about my island? Yeah, yeah, you told me. You must have told me 50 or 60 times in the past month. So I'll tell you again. Now this island, it's a sort of a special place, you see. There's no rain, no jungle rot, no war. Just a quiet, cozy spot where a man can lay down under a banyan tree and live off the fat of the land. Oh, there is no such place. And on this island, a man would never go hungry. All you got to do is fish a little with the natives. They're all big men and they're friendly, not like the Nips. And all the dames are beautiful. You know something, Lacey, you read too many comics. I'll fix them to go as soon as I can find it. I'm never going back stateside. I'm going to lay down under that little old banyan tree and I'm going to rest for a while. I let him rave on. What else could I do? Argue with him? There I was, three miles deep in enemy lines with a stranger, his eyes narrowed in a thousand-yard stare. A rush of words like a nervous twitch. He raved on about a place that doesn't exist with big men and beautiful women. Like nothing you ever saw, all surrounded by the mist. And then I found myself listening, sort of hypnotized. And I learned something about corporal Lacey and what combat wariness means. He had foraged too long among the rotten bomb-scarred pebbles of the Pacific. He'd seen too much death, too many crack-ups. He was himself half-cracked and slightly dead, barely held together by the taut and twisted wires of his dream. So what could I do? Argue with him? There'll be cattle on the island, too. I'm going to find me a beautiful girl. Tabori. Yeah, yeah, I'm listening. Look, Tabori out there coming toward us. Where? Over there, about two o'clock. There's a whole bunch of them. No, no, it's not a bunch, it's four. Three men and a woman. They're heading right for us. Put that rifle down. What's the matter, you flip or something? They're not chaps. The men are too big. It's funny, the woman with them, though. Maybe his eyes were better than mine, but how could I trust that brain of his all-festered dreaming? Look, I tell you, they're not chaps. And the dame is beautiful. Only I'd listen to Lacey then. If only I'd know him. But chaps are no chaps. I was taking no chances. I raised my rifle and... Knock that off, you jerk! You hit the woman. I'm going to see if she's hurt back. Come on. Lacey, don't go. You know the chaps. It might be a trick. Don't worry about me. Let go of my arm. Listen, you get yourself killed. Not me, Tabori. I lived a spit in your grave. Now let go of me. All right. All right. I just hope you know what you're doing. I don't want to get involved in any of your cockamamie dreams, you know. Dreams? It's no dream, Tabori. You'll find out. Okay, Lacey, so where is she? That's funny. She must be around here somewhere. Wait a minute. What's that? It came from over there. Come on. Ah, there she is. She's scared of us. Lady, it's all right, lady. Why? Why? We won't hurt you, lady. I hurt you. I hurt you. Watch her, Lacey. Ah, she's bluffing. Break out your first aid kit. Here you are. Look, lady, let me fix your arm. You see, we got bandages, adhesive tape, penicillin. She don't get what you're talking about. She gets the idea, all right. That's right, lady. This won't hurt a bit. You just got nicked a little, that's all. Just a flesh wound. Ah, she trusts you. Yeah, she trusts me more than you do. Didn't I tell you she was beautiful? You told me a lot of things. How about the men she was with? The big men. Well, she was with them and they weren't jacks. Not jacks? In a pig's eye, not jacks? No, no, they're not jacks. There, you see? Well, then what were they? They were, how you say, my people. Well, who are you? What are you? What's your name? Name? Taki. I'm, no currency in English, but please go away. Please, you go away fast. Now you've scared her again. Look, Taki, it's all right. Everything's going to be all right. You just come with us, huh? No, I go home. Must go home. So go home. Scram, lady. Lose yourself. Oh, no, you don't. What are you doing? You keep on. Well, let her go. Let her go back to her rice paddy, will you? You still don't catch Topori. She ain't from Okinawa. She's from that island I was telling you about. I'm from Yogashi. Yogashi Shima. Shima, see? Shima means island. Yes, island. All right, all right. Then what are you doing here? I do not know the Japanese. She's crazier than you are. Whoever. Oh, shut up. Taki, where is your island, huh? Where is Yogashi? In the East. In China Sea. Yeah. A half day from Okinawa. My canoe. Canoe. Well, what's it like, Taki? What's your island like? Lacy, Lacy, never mind the island. Let's find that canoe. Come on, don't you see? With a canoe, we can get back to our lines by water. Yeah, I think you got something there. You, uh, Taki, can you find a canoe? I think I can. Come on, let's go. She led us on through the wood. A lopsided moon came up and its rays filtered through the clouds and down through the jagged trees. In the moonlight she was like one of those porcelain figurines, delicate with a peculiar tint to her skin, unlike anything I'd ever seen before. It was like the shade of waxed ivory, ancient ivory. Her hair was long and black, drawn tight overhead. She was straight and slim. She walked with dignity. She was beautiful. As beautiful as a dream, Lacy's dream. But dreams don't come true, not like this, yet here she was, just the way he described. And the three men, and the island that I couldn't figure it out because just then I didn't have time. Lacy, listen to that. Yeah, come on. Taki led us down a slope to the water. There were canoes. And leaning against a prowl were two sentries. For they were safe, they thought, three miles behind their lines, snug as two bugs in a mosquito net. They were so safe they didn't know what hit them. I'll show you. Taki, in a canoe, huh? All right, push off to Boring. Yo. You take a bow. Sit down, Taki. Where to? Straight up in the channel. You know what I think? Huh? I think we're gonna make it. Okay, Taburi. We can take it easy now. I'm not taking it easy. It'll cross our perimeter. How you gonna tell at night? Oh, let go. Maybe you think I got neon signs, huh? Well, maybe we'll see a landmark or something. Distances can fool you at night. We're liable to paddle right into a platoon of nips. Okay, what'll we do, Lacey? We'll stand by till morning. Then head for our convoy. Heh. We'll ride a shore in style. In an LST. I don't know. I think it'd be better for me to... Look, whatever you think you're outvoted, you're outvoted two stripes to one. What, are you pulling rank, corporal? Well, why not, knucklehead? This ship's got one skipper and I'm it. Oh, you're like a... Now look, if I want any stuff out of you, I'll knock it out of you. Now more than you, don't foul up this detail. So what was I going to do? Argue with him? You know, the middle of the China Sea? Ah, I was getting a little combat worry myself, but Lacey, he was all charged up as though his crazy dream had come true. Lying on the narrow deck of the canoe, I could hear Lacey, and the more I heard, the more confused I got. It's not like other islands, is it, Taki? It's different, Yagashi. Yagashi, I wish I could tell you how. I know, it's pretty, huh? It's very pretty, but... Is the fishing good? It's good, and we have pigs. Cows? Good cows. I knew it, I knew it. Cows and pigs, and Lacey getting all hopped up about them. Well, that was the last thing I remembered. I fell asleep, and then... suddenly it was daylight. Tabori, hey, look, Tabori! What? Look over there, what do you see, huh? An island? Just an island? It's not just an island, that's my island! What's so special about it? Well, look at it, it's surrounded by myths, just like I said. Oh, tell it to the troops, let me get back to Okinawa. Look, Tabori, stand by for our ram. We ain't going back to Okinawa. Hey, now, wait a minute. I don't want any more trouble from you, Tabori. Well, then don't make any, or I'll... Hey, what? Looking for your rifle? Well, don't bother, because I got it right here. Now you get forward. You're crazy! Go on, move, Tabori! You're flirting with a purple heart. All right, now lean on that paddle. That's right. We're heading for Yagachi. Our canoe scraped the coral beach at Yagachi about four hours later. It was a lovely island, with terraced hills and patches of tilled soil checkering the greenery. Well, Sien's believing that's a boar. I wouldn't believe it. So close to Okinawa. Where are your people, Taki? Wrong way, over here. But you must not come. You go back now. I'm going to the I'm going to the I'm going to the I'm going to the It is first time I am happy. Maybe you were waiting for me to make you happy. Like I was waiting for you. What do you mean, Reisi? Well, I mean it. Well, here. This is for you. Why do you give me flowers? I love you, Taki. No. No, you cannot. Why, Taki? You don't know. I don't know how to say. You do not know me. I know you. I've been dreaming about you for two years. I knew I'd find you. I never forget what you say. I'll never let you forget. Reisi. Reisi, honey. L-like in love. They walked on together up the trail. A tall marine and a slim girl with the ivory skin with a flower in her hand. Now and then she'd look at the flower and then she'd look at Reisi in a pained expression with a cloud of face as though she didn't understand. I didn't either, but I had to find out. Man, what a climb. You know, it'd be easier for you if you'd give me back my rifle. Don't worry about me. I'll get by. Well, we got it licked. There's the summit. It's the highest point on Yagashi. See? Down there far away in the valley. Hey. Hey, look. Look at them. They, my people. I told you they were big men. How can you tell from this distance? Well, look how broad they are. It's funny how they're all in a bunch like... Hey, listen. Well, maybe it's what you call a ceremony or something, huh? It is. Oh, maybe it's for us. I bet they know we're coming. No. It's for the dead. What happened, you suppose? A war? The war's not here. It's just my people die. Why, everybody's people die. It's just gotta happen sooner or later. Never heard it so well put. Why don't you drop dead, Tabori? Let's go, Taki. We went down the mountainside, down to a cape that jutted into the Pacific like a gnarled finger of doom. Far away we saw a village. We headed toward it through a sunless gorge. At the far end was a thatched hut. Looks like it's empty. As any fool could see. You wait here. I come back soon with headman. He speak English good. Tabori? You, uh... You gonna stay here with me? No, I see. I just want one good look at your big men and beautiful women and their native habitat. I'm off for Okinawa. He still won't prove, huh? Yeah. There's something strange about this place. I want to know what it is. It's not strange. It's just different, like I said. You're all fouled up, Lacey, in a dream. I'm not sure what it's all about, but I gotta find out or it'll drive me crazy the rest of my life. You mean crazy like me? I didn't say that. You know, since we left Okinawa, you've been giving me a bad time. Well, that's mutual. Now you just call me crazy. I know what I said. I know what you think. I know what you'll do once you get back to Okinawa. You'll tell the MPs I went over the hill and you'll tell them where I am. They'll come after me. You are crazy. I'm just crazy enough to make sure you keep your trap shut. You remember, Tabori, I said I'd be around to spit in your grave. Lacey, Lacey, stop kidding around with that rifle. I ain't kidding. I'm gonna kill you, Tabori. But first you're gonna see I was right. I want to see the expression on that smart aleck face of yours when you admit it. And then I'm gonna kill you. Now get back in that corner. Keep your mouth shut. Hello. You the head man? I suppose you could call me that. His name, Hiroshi. What can I do for you? I, uh, I want to stay here with Taki. I'm afraid you cannot. Well, I'll work my way. That is not the point. You cannot... Look, I don't want no arguments out of you. You cannot stay. Well, why? She is a leper. Well... But she's... She's so beautiful. Yes, I know, my son. But in three years, five years... Taki... I... I tried to tell you, but I... Did not know how. And then I could not, even if I wanted to. I wanted it to last... One more hour. One more minute. They stood there facing each other. The tall marine and the girl with the ivory skin with the flower still in her hand, the flower already beginning to wilt. Goodbye, Rielly. Thank you for the flower. I... I never forget you. Goodbye. I... You, Hiroshi, what's this all about? It is quite simple. Two nights ago, the Japanese came to the leper colony. They took more than half my patients to Okinawa, headed toward the American lines. Why? To disrupt your advance. There was no chance of contagion, but... Well, my patients do not all look as lovely as Taki. Oh, I see. Exactly. A weapon of terror. Yeah. Dobori? Yeah, Lacey. I... I guess we better move on. You... you ready, pal? Yeah. It's a long road back to Okinawa. For me, the... the road back is longer than that. Under the direction of Anthony Ellis, escape has brought you to the island by Miller Crosby, starring St. John Harris as Dobori and William Conrad as Lacey. Feature in the cab were Michael and Beret, Jack Crouchon, and Steve Roberts. Editorial supervision is by John Vexen, and the special music for escape is composed and conducted by Lee Stevens. Next week... You are standing in a darkened room in the heart of Russia's dreadful Bianca Prison. Your mind tortured into blindness, but across a desk from you, happily smiling at you, is a chief of Russia's department, who intends to drive you to insanity or to death. So listen next week, when escape brings you down, later, exciting story, the man with a genial teeth.
