East Side Beat

It was late by the time I left the Kowalskis and the streets were empty, my footsteps echoed in the darkness. I had the feeling I was being followed, somewhere in the shadows, some of those watching, someone I've been trading for 20 years.

This is East Sidebeat, a big city story of the one thrilling moment in a man's life that can only be called... High Adventure! This is High Adventure. The telling of strange stories of strong men living the greatest and most exciting moment of a lifetime.

Their moment of high adventure. And on the agenda at this meeting is a story called East Side Beat, the author and director, Elliot Drake. And to tell it, here's the man who lived it, Bill Harrigan.

Bill? August 16th, with just like any other day. It had been hot the night before, and me and the wife had taken a mattress up on the roof. It was even hot up there, and we didn't get much sleep.

Walking to the subway the next morning, there was still some heat in the sidewalks left over from yesterday. And by the time I reached the newsstand at the corner, the sweat was trickling down my back my back under my shirt. This is only where he handed me my paper and the headlines said something

about the hottest August 15th in the history of the weather bureau. The subway was crowded like it always is and I couldn't get a seat. It was all right as long as it was moving. But every time we stopped at the station, the heat closed in like an oven. I was glad when

we got to 116th Street. Up on the street it was still hot but at least I didn't have somebody's elbow in my back. I even began to whistle as I walked the two blocks to the precinct station.