DOC SAVAGE
Program Number Two
"The Golden Legacy"
(Adapted from DOC SAVAGE MAGAZINE)
CAST
DOC SAVAGE...............Deep, cultured voice.
MONK.....................Small, almost ludicrously falsetto.
HAM......................Harvard accent.
JOHNNY...................Precise, scholastic voice.
LONG TOM.................Southern drawl.
RENNY....................Roaring, tough-guy voice.
KING CHAAC...............Powerful voice, uncertain English.
PRINCESS MONJA...........Deep voice, warm, slightly uncertain English.
FIRST NATIVE.............Guttural voice, labored English.
SECOND NATIVE............Coarse grunts, broken English.
BUSINESS:
l--Rapid gun fire.
2--Low-throated bird whistle trilling.
3--Shouting of natives.
4--Explosion.
5--Gun fire in distance.
6--Babble of crowd.
7--Gong.
8--Blows.
9--Pounding of door.
10--Howl of wind.
11--Whistle of wind.
12--Sound of aeroplane.
Playing Time: 15 minutes.
Script by: Lester Dent (Kenneth Robeson)
EFFECT: (RAPID GUN FIRE) (LOW-THROATED BIRD WHISTLE TRILLING)
ANNOUNCER: Another episode in the life of Doc Savage! When young Doc Savage
learned of his father's mysterious Red Death, he also found a
paper indicating a fabulous inheritance in Hidalgo, where Doc and
his five scrappy companions immediately went there by aeroplane.
Following their arrival, they found many enemies among the native
red-fingered warriors and their leader, the Feathered Serpent.
Before Doc Savage can claim his inheritance he must stay in this
mysterious land for thirty days, as a guest of the friendly king
and beautiful princess who shows a decided interest in the big,
bronze Doc Savage.
EFFECT: (RAPID GUN FIRE--FULL AND FADES AS SHOUTING COMES IN)
HAM: Which way did Doc and that princess go?
LONG TOM: Don't get excited. Doc can take care of himself.
HAM: I wasn't trying to be funny. He's liable to get shot!
EFFECT: (SHOUTING OF NATIVES IN FRENZY)
RENNY: D'you hear that?
JOHNNY: That's the natives around here. They're doing the Dance of the Red
Death.
RENNY: Yeah. It's spreading through the city. People are dropping off by
the dozens.
EFFECT: (DOC SAVAGE'S WHISTLE SOUND)
LONG TOM: Do you hear that? That's Doc coming back.
HAM: He got rid of the girl.
SAVAGE: (APPROACHING) Well, boys, we're in for it now. We've got to save
the friendly element of the natives around here, the king...
MONK: And the beautiful princess--eh, Doc?
SAVAGE: Yes, Monk--the princess.
RENNY: The first thing to do is to find out what is causing this
epidemic. Find the germ.
MONK: Where to look--that's the question.
SAVAGE: I suggest the water supply.
LONG TOM: Yeah, and by some mysterious means the whole water supply for all
these people comes out of that pyramid there.
RENNY: So that's what the Feathered Serpent was doing around there. Ham
and I saw him go in the pyramid with a jug full of something--eh,
Ham?
HAM: Right you are! And he came out empty-handed.
SAVAGE: Just as I thought. Since then the water supply has been poisoned
and the natives are dying of the Red Death. The Feathered Serpent
wants them to believe we are responsible.
JOHNNY: They do and now they want to kill us so we can't take the gold
away.
RENNY: We're in a tight spot. What're we gonna do about it, Doc?
SAVAGE: First of all, we should prevent the needless death among the
natives.
HAM: How're you going to do that?
SAVAGE: I was examining one of the victims and this Red Death is a species
of parrot fever.
MONK: What do you think of that!
SAVAGE: From our medicine supplies in the plane I took a supply of this
fluid. It should cure them.
LONG TOM: Say, Doc, take a look over there in those tropical bushes. See
that thing moving?
SAVAGE: It's the Feathered Serpent.
HAM: And that's our man. He is the instigator of this Red Death, the
very man who sent the fellow to kill you and your father.
LONG TOM: You can pop him off from here, Doc.
SAVAGE: And have that gang of natives down on us in a mad rush? No, there
must be a better way.
ALL: What?
SAVAGE: How about your gas bombs, Monk? I mean the bombs which bring only
unconsciousness. No fatal effects.
MONK: I got plenty of 'em--pockets full!
SAVAGE: Then come on, fellows. We'll throw bombs
HAM: Yeah, and when the fumes paralyze those red-fingered warriors,
we'll go out and tie 'em up.
RENNY: That's the idea. And prevent them from attacking us.
MONK: Sure, our brains will outwit their numbers.
SAVAGE: They're superstitious. When they breathe these bomb fumes, they
will be knocked out for a couple of hours. The others will think
they are dead. We'll try to work some hocus pocus and pretend to
bring them back to life.
HAM: They will think we know a lot of magic, before we finish.
MONK: Stand back, guys. Here goes the first bomb.
EFFECT: (EXPLOSION FOLLOWED BY SHRIEKS AND YELLS OF TERROR)
SAVAGE: That got some of them.
RENNY: I'll say--see 'em run. Here goes another.
EFFECT: (EXPLOSION)
SAVAGE: There's something queer going on out there. That Feathered Serpent
is going off for more men and guns, I guess.
EFFECT: (EXPLOSION)
SAVAGE: They'll gang up on us. Princess, where's a place to hide?
EFFECT: (GUN FIRE IN DISTANCE)
PRINCESS: The pyramid! That is the only place.
SAVAGE: Is the pyramid hollow?
PRINCESS: Yes!
EFFECT: (LOUD BABBLE OF CROWD VOICES)
SAVAGE: Come on, men, we'll make a dash for it. Get in the pyramid with
the princess and the king and his followers. Let everyone but the
hostile red-fingered warriors in, and guard the entrance!
PRINCESS: Where are you going, Mr. Savage?
SAVAGE: I'm following that Feathered Serpent. He started all this trouble
and if I don't get him first, he'll get us.
RENNY: Sure he will! He knows you're the rightful owner of the gold and
he's decided to drive us out or kill us. He wants the gold for
himself.
PRINCESS: Mr. Savage, you will be killed out there. The only safe place is
in the pyramid.
MONK: Yeah, Doc. You haven't a chance with that tribe of crazy galoots.
RENNY: Wait a bit, Doc. Look at them. They're panicky over that gas
attack. They don't know what to make of their friends that have
fallen down and can't get up.
SAVAGE: Get in the pyramid.
HAM: Whatever you say, Doc.
EFFECT: (GONG) (WILD YELLS OF NATIVES--FOLLOWS GONG)
SAVAGE: (APPROACHING) Stop! Or you die--all of you! Why war against us
just because we are white?
FIRST NATIVE: You bring Red Death. You take gold away.
SAVAGE: No--we did not bring this Red Death but we can cure it.
EFFECT: (ANGRY SHOUTS)
FIRST NATIVE: (LAUGHS) We tie you up.
SAVAGE: Hands off of me. Don't touch me.
EFFECT: (ANGRY GROWLS)
SAVAGE: Well, all right then, if you want to fight... Iı11 fight, too.
EFFECT: (SOUND OF BLOWS)
FIRST NATIVE: He man of steel--he fight like tiger.
SECOND NATIVE:I take this to kill him what he kill us with.
SAVAGE: One of Monk's bombs. Where'd you get that?
SECOND NATIVE:From your quarters.
SAVAGE: Stole it, eh? What are you going to do with it?
SECOND NATIVE:Kill you. Run back, everyone. This just for strong bronze man
with golden eyes.
EFFECT: (EXPLOSION) (BABBLE OF VOICES)
VOICES: (APPROACHING) Look at him. Fall down--face on ground. He's dead!
Now he not take gold away. Now he killed and Red Death stop.
Feathered Serpent say so.
SAVAGE: So that's the story. I thought so.
VOICE: He not dead--he talks--he on his feet.
SAVAGE: You can't kill me, my friends.
FIRST NATIVE: Doc Savage miracle man. Bomb not stop him like it stops warrior.
SAVAGE: No, it doesn't, and I am here to tell you something. We didn't
bring this Red Death on you--your leader, the Feathered Serpent
has brought it. But I will cure you. Now, here, take these little
bottles. Take them--you take some, too. (BABBLE OF VOICES) Give a
bottle to everyone who has the Red Death, swallow every drop that
is in the bottle and you will get well.
FIRST NATIVE: How you know?
SAVAGE: I am a doctor. I am your friend. Get that? Now, take these bottles
to the women and children who are sick. Make 'em swallow the
liquid. I'm your friend, see?
EFFECT: (HAPPY SHOUTS) (GUNFIRE IN DISTANCE)
FIRST NATIVE: Look! Feathered Serpent--he come back with more men, and fire
guns.
EFFECT: (WILD WARWHOOPS -- SWIFT GUNFIRE CLOSER) (EFFECT FADES)
(GONG) (POUNDING ON DOOR--DOG SAVAGE'S WHISTLE SOUND)
MONK: Well, look who's here. Doc himself.
RENNY: Roll the stones back and let him in.
HAM: Yeah--let him in the gates of the pyramid, Monk.
PRINCESS: Mr. Savage--you are not hurt, then?
SAVAGE: Hurt? No.
PRINCESS: How did you not die when they threw bomb at you?
SAVAGE: Just a trick, Princess. I held my breath until the wind blew the
fumes away.
KING CHAAC: We saw through the window here in the pyramid. The natives bowed
down and thought you were a god.
MONK: Yeah, people have a habit of doing that when Doc's around.
HAM: Then the Feathered Serpent came back--with guns. I don't see how
they missed you.
SAVAGE: Now listen, folks. The Feathered Serpent is on the job. I couldn't
make them all listen to me and they are going to attack the
pyramid.
ALL: We're with you, Doc.
KING CHAAC: Wait, Mister Savage. You may have wondered why I said I would
delay thirty days before I disclosed to you the location of your
inheritance, the gold supply.
SAVAGE: That's right.
KING CHAAC: It was my agreement with your father. I was to satisfy myself that
you were a man of sufficient character to put this fabulous wealth
to good use.
SAVAGE: That was not a bad idea.
KING CHAAC: I am satisfied, and now I will show you the gold.
DOC'S MEN: (CHEER)
KING CHAAC: Or at least my daughter, Monja, will show you. It all lies in a
secret passage leading from this inner chamber of the pyramid.
RENNY: Can the Feathered Serpent and his warriors get in here?
KING CHAAC: There is only one entrance. And that is the opening you are
guarding now.
MONK: Let 'em try to come in!
SAVAGE: All right, Monk. You stay and guard the door. But be careful! They
outnumber us fifty to one.
MONK: O.K., Doc. But I'm out of ammunition.
SAVAGE: What?
MONK: Our bombs and ammunition are all gone. But I can use my fists.
PRINCESS: My father, stay here, too. And I, Mr. Savage, will take you and
Mr. Renny and Mr. Long Tom and Mr. Ham and Mr. Johnny. Come with
me and I will show you the secret passageway to the greatest
wealth in the world.
MONK: Go ahead. I can handle this narrow door. I'll roll rocks down on
'em.
EFFECT: (GONG) (HOWLING OF WIND, ENDING WITH DOC'S TRILLING SOUND)
PRINCESS: Now you can stand straight. I will hoed this torch so you can see.
Look!
DOC'S MEN: (EXCLAIM IN SURPRISE)
PRINCESS: There, Mr. Savage, is the gold the Feathered Serpent wants to keep
for himself.
SAVAGE: I didn't believe that there was so much gold in the world.
PRINCESS: That is the gold you are to spend in doing good throughout the
world.
That was the understanding with your father.
HAM: How are we going to get it out of here? Those natives will never
let us take it.
PRINCESS: There is no other entrance or exit except that one through the
golden pyramid.
SAVAGE: We'll have to find a way.
PRINCESS: This is the storeroom of the ancient Mayan nation. Legend has it
that forty thousand artisans worked for generations making these
golden vases, pitchers, urns and things you see stored here.
JOHNNY: Well, all this gold knocks me deaf, dumb and blind.
HAM: Iıll say! Look at it on the floor in heaps!
JOHNNY: Great stacks of the yellow stuff.
SAVAGE: So this is the legacy my father left me!
PRINCESS: Yes. Do you wish to go on?
SAVAGE: Do you mean to say there is more of this?
PRINCESS: Much more.
LONG TOM: Lead on, Princess!
SAVAGE: Yes, Monja, we must seek an outlet. We will starve if we stay
here. The red-fingered men have the pyramid entrance blocked.
HAM: Monk can guard the entrance. But we're sure prisoners.
RENNY: Yes. We have no ammunition. We have nothing.
JOHNNY: We're in a tough spot, if you ask me.
SAVAGE: Not so bad!
PRINCESS: What do you mean?
SAVAGE: You see this wall here?
JOHNNY: Yeah. Hey Doc, it's sulfur!
SAVAGE: Right, Johnny. And you see over here? Knock a bit off there over
the tunnel, above your head. What is it?
JOHNNY: Tastes kind of salty--saltpeter, I guess, Doc.
SAVAGE: So here we are in a cave of gold, sulfur, and saltpeter. All we
need is charcoal.
PRINCESS: Char-coal? What is that?
SAVAGE: Char-coal, Monja, is made from burnt wood. Got any matches,
fellows?
DOC'S MEN: Plenty of them.
SAVAGE: All right. Start burning up some of these boxes that are scattered
around here.
RENNY: Whatıre you going to do, Doc?
SAVAGE: Why, Renny--sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal, adds up to what?
RENNY: I get it! Gunpowder!
SAVAGE: Right you are! Now, Long Tom, you get to work on that sulfur
deposit.
Chip off some of it as quick as you can.
LONG TOM: O.K., Doc.
SAVAGE: And Johnny, you harvest a supply of saltpeter. Dig it out, son.
JOHNNY: I got you, chief.
SAVAGE: We have to blow our way out of this place before we die of
starvation and thirst. Monja, you've been a brick.
PRINCESS: What is that?
SAVAGE: A wonderful girl. Now, will you do something else for me?
PRINCESS: I will do anything you say.
SAVAGE: Then, return to the heart of the pyramid where Monk and your
father are holding the friendly natives. Select the most powerful
and able among them, and have Monk bring them back here quickly.
PRINCESS: I understand.
SAVAGE: One more thing, Monja. Send along a number of those gold vases
that you showed me. The thickest, the heaviest ones--say about
fifty of them.
HAM: What are you going to do with the gold vases, Doc?
SAVAGE: Going to put the gun powder we are making in them.
HAM: Bombs of gold! What do you know about that?
SAVAGE: It's the only thing handy. Now get busy, you fellows, and have
that gunpowder all ready when Monja and Monk get back here with
those vases! Go ahead, Princess.
PRINCESS: (FADING) I'll hurry!
EFFECT: (GONG) (WHISTLING OF WIND) (DISTANT REPORTS OF GUN FIRE)
SAVAGE: The Feathered Serpent and his men haven't given up hope, have
they?
HAM: They're still wasting bullets on the outside of the pyramid.
MONK: Well, Doc, this takes the cake! Making bombs out of golden vases.
But there they are, all ready for you. Now, what's next?
SAVAGE: We're going to explode the end of this secret passage. Blow it up
and make an opening so we can get out. And when I give the signal,
I want every one of you men to throw your bomb at the same time.
Understand?
EFFECT: (MANY VOICES SHOUTING AGREEMENT) (TERRIFIC EXPLOSION) (GONG)
MONK: Well, we are out.
RENNY: Those red-fingered warriors are flabbergasted.
HAM: Sure, they don't know yet how we got out, or what happened.
LONG TOM: Where's Doc?
JOHNNY: There he goes. Look at him. Chasing that crazy Feathered Serpent.
RENNY: Look at the natives stand back and let Doc go through.
MONK: Sure. They think he is a bronze god now. They know he can do
anything he sets out to do.
LONG TOM: I'll say. Didn't he get us all out of here alive? If it had been
left up to us we would have stayed sealed in there like it was a
tomb!
HAM: Look! Look at Doc! See him there on that cliff. He's following the
Feathered Serpent. The fellow's trying to climb the face of it.
RENNY: Yeah, and he knows that Doc's catching up with him.
PRINCESS: (SCREAMS) Oh--see--Mr. Savage fight him with his bare hands and
Feathered Serpent goes down, down. He be carried away by rushing
waters. My people are free. No more red fingered warriors. No more
Red Death. The Feathered Serpent is no more.
HAM: Yeah! And now we can go back home with some of this gold and do a
lot of good for people who get into trouble.
PRINCESS: I suppose Mr. Savage will find some American girl?
MONK: Now you- listen, Princess. There won't be any women in Doc's life.
If there was, you'd be the one.
PRINCESS: I would?
MONK: Yeah. Doc's come nearer falling for you that any other girl he
ever met.
HAM: And I'll say some pippins have tried to snare him, too.
PRINCESS: Is that truth? Then I do not feel so badly that Doc Savage will
not smile for me.
EFFECT: (GONG) (SOUND OF AEROPLANE SWIFTLY IN THE DISTANCE)
ANNOUNCER: That's Doc Savage's plane with Doc at the controls, carrying
himself and his five scrappy companions back to New York where
they are to meet Karl Kar with his horrible schemes and a fighting
weapon such as civilization has never seen before. But through it
all Doc Savage, the bronze man, will triumph. Because in the land
where Kar leads them, it is the survival of the fiercest, the
survival of the brainiest, the survival of the mightiest--and that
is Doc Savage.