On the strange island of Euclidia, the magic island of the South Seas, is being enacted one of the weirdest dramas ever seen by man. When Mrs. Gregory brought Captain Tex Bradford and Jerry Hall on her yacht to find her long-lost little daughter Joan, none of them dreamed that the island would be anything like it's been found to be. This artificial island is the headquarters of a group of mad scientists. The Gregory yacht is held powerless at one of the island piers, and Mrs. Gregory and her brave friends try to plan their escape from the island. Just when it seems they have a ray of hope, Jerry disappears. Are you sure that you saw Jerry follow those scientists in the submarine lock when they went to look for the escaping prisoner, or what they thought was an escaping prisoner? We watched him carefully. You saw him go into that elevator, didn't you, Joan? Yes, mother. Jerry obviously went into the entrance to the submarine chamber elevators. He could have gone no other place. But what happened to him? If he went down there with those men, why didn't he come back with them? Oh, Captain Bradford, there might be so many answers to that. Joan, dear, you don't think they would would harm Jerry? If Jerry got in their way, or made them angry, they might punish him in in ways that... Oh, mother, I do not want to talk about such things. Can't we do something, Tex? Must we just sit here on this helpless yacht and wonder what's happened to that boy? We would not be allowed to do anything if we tried to. I'm afraid Joan's right, Pat. I think G-47 and his mad crew have even worse things on the silent than Joan has told us about. We couldn't find Jerry unless they warned us to. If we insist too hard on anything, it may mean the lives of all of us, and it certainly would mean the end of our chance of escape. But Tex, dear, we have no chance to escape as it is. I think, Captain Tex, that no one will ever escape from Euclidia until G-47 wills it so. Well, don't be too sure of that. I'll admit it looks bad enough right now. But there's two things to remember. The first one is, I've got a formula these scientists know something of, and they're afraid of it. What is the formula, Captain? Tex wouldn't dare tell you now, Joan. Of course, we think we're safe in talking with this cloth screen around us, but how can we be sure this cloth is absolutely opaque to all the waves and and raise these fiends' control to watch over our movements with? You may be sure of that, mother. I know that these men would trust their lives to that cloth. It will successfully refract every light and sound wavelength on the island. Well, if you're sure of that, Joan, then you can be sure that one of these days we'll get away from Euclidia. How can that seaweed cloth mean all that, Tex? I'm not thinking so much of the material as I am of the fluid they soak it in. They do put it in the liquid, you said, Joan. Yes, Captain. When it is manufactured in the noisy machines I showed you, it is just a cloth made from seaweed. It is a fine and strong and good cloth, but it is not protected against these rays until it has been immersed in the secret liquid preparation. What are you trying to arrive at, Tex? Well, I'm going to take a chance on our being safe in here and figure that we can work out a plan without being overheard. After all, we must all understand just what we expect to do. Now, here are two points necessary to our rescue. You mean our escape. No, I mean rescue. I'm ready to concede that escape is absolutely impossible. That leaves rescue as our only hope. But Captain Bradford, surely you must realize that rescue is also impossible. On the contrary, dear, we have some things in our world that you know little about. All we need is to get a message through to the government of our country, any civilized country, and a fleet of battleships and airplanes would destroy this island within an hour after they had sighted it. No, mother dear, you are mistaken. Your battleships would mean nothing here. Tex, do you realize what Joan means? Is it possible? Not only possible, but probably a very conservative statement of a plain fact. A battle fleet helpless? But how? With what? I haven't been able to find out yet. Probably we'll never see all the weapons here. But I know without seeing them, this colony of scientific criminals could undoubtedly destroy any war machines the civilized world could send against them. You are right, Captain. G-47 and the Euclideans have ray guns, no larger than a man's arm, which will destroy a battleship with only a little crying sound. What is the range of these rays? I am not sure, but they will not shoot accurately as far as one of the large rifles on your battleships. There you are, Tex. The heavy armored ships could stay out of range of those ray guns and shell the island. Yes, and their projectiles would fall all around the island and never touch it. How was a battle projectile fired at long range and high trajectory going to enter an area so magnetized that a large boat is held powerless by magnetism? No, there's no help to be expected from that quarter. And a weapon which might penetrate the defense here could not be brought within range. It would be destroyed. Then it's just about hopeless, isn't it Tex? No, it's going to be hard, but not hopeless. I don't see what you can be thinking of. We haven't any weapons I ever heard of which would destroy this place, and you admit our battleships and planes would be useless. Do you know of something in your country which will destroy Euclidia? Something which will rescue us from this terrible island? Yes, Joan, I do. Just how it can be used and how we are to get word to our friends that we want them to attack and use this weapon. Those are things we've got to figure out. What do you propose to use, Tex? My formula. But no one knows the formula except yourself. You would have to send the formula to someone, and how can we do that? We can't even use the radio without G-47 hearing it. And he would get the formula if you attempted to give it to your friends through the air channels. Yes, I know that, but there must be some way to get that formula to the government chemists and some civilized capital, and we'll find out what that way is. But what is the formula, Captain? I know that G-47 wants it. It was for that reason he allowed your yacht to reach this island, and my mother to find me. What is your wonderful formula, Captain? I couldn't tell you that. It would be too dangerous. Even if the seaweed cloth does protect us from sight and sound waves, and even if G-47 didn't actually hear me tell you the formula, it would expose you to added danger. Don't you see, my dear? If you knew the formula, G-47 might torch you to get it from you. Tex has protected Jerry and me the same way. No one in the world knows the formula but the Captain, and everyone knows that he alone has it, so the rest of us are safe in that way. I did not mean to tell me the ingredients of the formula, but just what it will do. G-47 knows that much about it now. Yes, I thought so. And G-47 knows a great deal about my formula. Well, enough of that. We'd better be thinking about Jerry and what we can do for him. We can do nothing, only wait. Wait until it pleases G-47 to allow Jerry to return to us. Is this true, Tex? With all your knowledge of science, all my money and influence, and all our friends in the world out there, we must just sit quietly while a mad scientist does as he pleases with one of our party? Yes, I guess that's about right. Here we are, sitting in a cloth room within a little cabin, trying to plan an escape from the most powerful man the world of science has produced. I wish Jerry were here. You do not understand the terrible things that could happen to him here on this island. Don't you...don't you think we ought to go and look for him, Tex? I'm sorry, but I don't. Whatever has happened to the boy, it's...it's something G-47 has planned to have happen to him. And for the sake of ourselves, our rescue, and possibly the safety of many others, we've got to keep quiet and let G-47 do as he pleases. I think there's no danger of his hurting Jerry, or any of us, unless... J-12. Unless he gets my formula, then. J-12C calling J-24Y. Hello, J-24. There's Johnson. Hello, J-24Y. Hello, Bradford. J-12C standing by. Your last message received and logged. Your position, 29 South, 12430 West. Can't understand why no signal from you, since I warned you at Storm Center at 27 degrees South. We'll be standing by when possible. Johnson, standing by. Good old Johnson. He'll get to us some way. He knows that I would have the receiver standing open if possible. It won't be long until we have a friend within striking distance. Hey there. What's the idea of the tent? Oh, it's Jerry. Come inside the little tent, Jerry, and be careful not to leave any opening. Boy, have I had a time, and have I seen things. They didn't hurt you, did they, son? No, not yet, but they showed me plenty of things they could hurt me with if they wanted to. I've been in their local observation chamber, looking through the instruments that let you see everything on the island and inside it, too. Could you see us in here? No, sir. This cloth is a real stuff. I could see through every other place on the yacht, but this cabin just showed us a black square. We couldn't see or hear anything you were doing here, but we could see the skipper. Oh, then our plan to keep the skipper and hiding has blown up. I was of the opinion that it would do no good to hide him in the hold of the boat without this cloth to cover him. No wonder they weren't more worried about his escape attempt. And of course they gave up looking for him just as soon as their instruments located him on the yacht. I guess they let me see all that just so it would scare us out of not trying any more tricks on them. Yeah, we're going to try one more, just the same. You sure we can take it freely here, kid? Oh, absolutely. This cloth stops all the loud and sound waves. Okay then. Pat, will you and Joan take a few turns around the deck? Just to be sure, no one surprises us while Jerry and I work out a little plan? Of course, Tex. Come on, Joan. Call us when you're ready. Now, Jerry, we've got to figure out how to get the formula of my universal solvent to Johnson. I didn't want Joan to know about it. Then she'll be safe in G-47 when he tries to find out more about it. The universal solvent? So that's the formula? Yes, Jerry, I've actually got the formula for a universal solvent. Oh, swell. Oh, but when you make some of it, what are you going to keep it in? You're all right, kid. You use your head, don't you? Well, I figure that if you have something which will dissolve everything in the world, it would be impossible to keep it in any container. It would just eat right through it. Good boy. But I can do it just the same. And I'll show you how when the time comes. Just now, we've got to figure out how to get the formula to Johnson. He's a lot closer to us than he was right now. Gee, how do you know that? We just heard his signal. I'm keeping this set hot all the time. Only the receiver, of course. And Johnson said he was standing by and that the latitude of the storm center is now 27 degrees south. That's all in our code. I remember. He means he's on his way here with a boat. And he'll stand along north of us at latitude 27 south till we can get a message to him. Right, kid. And even if they intercepted his message here, they wouldn't get much out of it. Now I know how Johnson can rescue us. If I can figure how to get that formula to him. But with this magnetic fog of theirs intercepting all our messages, how can we do that? Heck, a code would be too dangerous for that formula. There is only one way I can think of that a message can be safely run past the automatic protection ring on this island. Is there really a chance, Tex? More than a chance. And it's all thanks to Mrs. Gregory's good sense that they're on board. She's carried them on every cruise we've ever made and trained them constantly. Now they're going to save us all. They'll get that message to Johnson.
