038- The Fourth Man -Berry Kroeger

Tired out from a spring house cleaning? Find your life uninteresting. Want to get away from it all? We offer you escape! You are drifting on the burning, glassy surface of a tropical sea, trapped on a flimsy raft, with three murderous companions from whom you cannot escape.

Escape, designed to free you from the four walls of today for a half hour of high adventure. Light, at your request, we bring back one of our most popular escape stories. We take you to New Meer in the South Pacific.

A French penal colony as notorious as Devil's Island. And we invite you to escape from New Meer in John Russell's The Fourth Man. The raft stood to open sea. A mat of pandanus leaves served for its sale, and a paddle of wood for its helm.

Its flooring was woven of reeds and bamboo sticks and rested on triple rows of bladders. It was like to elastic fit to ride any weather, and it carried four men. Three of them sat huddled together at the far end.

Their bodies were blackened with dried blood. The hair upon them was long and matted. The war only the rags of convicts blew canvas uniforms. On wrists and ankle they carried their mark. The dark and wrinkled stain of the manacles.

There was the Rose, Doctor, Leader, Man of the World, Murderer, Friends. The thing is done. And Fennell, Forger, Ladies, Man, Weekly, College. Yes, we got away, alright. And the one known as the parrot, thief, and cutthroat.

So far, so good. Gentlemen, by way of celebration may I offer you cigarettes. Cigarettes! Oh, Doctor, you're a Marvel magician. Look at them. White and fresh as though they just came from the package. How did you do it?