What happens
Commissioner Linin, a district official on the upper Santissima River, warns plantation owner Line Engine that a vast swarm of army ants is advancing toward his plantation. Line Engine refuses to flee and instead builds an elaborate system of ditches, dams, and petrol-filled trenches to hold the ants back. His Indian workers stand with him, and the commissioner returns to watch the defense unfold. The ants attack in waves, using leaves and debris as rafts across the water, and Line Engine must keep improvising to stop them. This episode of Suspense, first broadcast on August 25, 1957, starring William Conrad, is adapted from a story by Carl Stevenson. The transcript ends partway through the story.
A plantation on the upper Santissima River in South America, surrounded by ditches, a dam, and a growing army of ants.
Characters: Commissioner, Line Engine, Blos
Listen for: The commissioner's growing admiration for Line Engine as the ants keep attacking and the plantation's defenses are tested.
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.