The Adventures of Stetson McGraw
Episode 4: Stetson McGraw and the Cherokee Bride
SCENE ONE: INTRO
MUSIC: THEME MUSIC.
ANNOUNCER
Radio theatre presents: "The
Adventures of Stetson McGraw".
Episode four: "Stetson McGraw and
the Cherokee Bride".
MUSIC: FADE OUT THEME MUSIC.
ANNOUNCER
In our last episode, legendary
lawman Stetson McGraw had
discovered that "Mad Dog" Doud was
no train robber, but an inventor
out to stop a fiendish plot against
the state of Texas. But at that
very moment of discovery, an
explosion tore through the derailed
train, leaving both men to an
uncertain fate....
SCENE TWO: THE WRECKAGE
SOUND: CRICKETS CHIRP. A BONFIRE BURNS NEARBY. IN THE
DISTANCE, A COYOTE HOWLS.
SOUND: TWO MEN WALK THROUGH THE WRECKAGE, OCCASIONALLY
KICKING BITS OF METAL OUT OF THE WAY.
JESSE is barely out of his teens. He always sounds a little
sullen and a little slow-witted.
LEE is middle-aged, with a weary, cynical edge to his voice.
JESSE
Damn. Derailed, wrecked, then
blowed up.
LEE
And then the bandits picked it
clean. Some luck. We gotta clear
the tracks, Jesse.
JESSE
I'll chain up the prisoners.
SOUND: THE LEE STOPS WALKING, THEN THE JESSE STOPS WALKING.
JESSE
He dead?
LEE
Mm-hmm. Old hobo.
JESSE
Stowed away near the locomotive?
LEE
Mmm-hmm. Where the blast hit. (He
sighs.) Bury him later.
SOUND: THEY WALK OFF.
SOUND: STETSON WAKES UP, PUSHES ASIDE SOME PIECES OF METAL,
AND GROANS.
STETSON
Water...
SCENE THREE: ELSEWHERE IN THE WRECKAGE.
SOUND: SAME AMBIENT SOUNDS AS IN SCENE TWO, PLUS BACKGROUND
CONVERSATION AND THE OCCASIONAL CLANG OF METAL.
SOUND: STETSON STAGGERS THROUGH THE WRECKAGE.
JESSE
But I can't --
LEE
Tell 'the governor's man' we're
busy!
STETSON
Water!
JESSE
Huh. He ain't dead. Lee sighs.
LEE
Here.
SOUND: LEE UNSCREWS A WATER FLASK.
SOUND: STETSON DRINKS GREEDILY.
LEE
What's your name, old-timer?
Stetson's voice is wheezy, with frequent pauses for breath.
STETSON
Stetson. Stetson McGraw.
SOUND: THE CONVERSATIONS GO SILENT.
JESSE
What?
LEE
Well if it ain't the most
cowardliest, lily-livered excuse
for a man to ever hang on to a
badge. And look what he's come to.
STETSON
This train was--
LEE
Thirty folks died at Devil's Gorge
on account of you turnin' yella.
STETSON
I'm tellin' you something
important, you damned fool! Just
before the explosion, Mad Dog told
me that--
LEE
(laughing)
"Mad Dog" Doud was on the train?
STETSON
I know--
LEE
The man you bound up and pushed
into a ravine twenty-odd years
back? When he was already half
shot to death?
STETSON
He said the train was taking
something to Waco -- and it was a
threat to the whole state of Texas.
JESSE
(mocking)
He says there was a threat.
SOUND: SOMEONE WALKS TOWARDS THE GROUP.
STETSON
But before the wreck, there was
this noise, like --
RUFUS
Just one second.
STETSON
Rufus! I talked to Mad Dog, and
there's something --
RUFUS
Marshall... arrest this man.
SOUND: HANDCUFFS JINGLING.
LEE
With pleasure, sir.
STETSON
What?
SOUND: HANDCUFFS CLICK SHUT.
SCENE FOUR: A WORK GANG.
SOUND: NIGHTTIME SOUNDS CONTINUE.
SOUND: THE RATTLING OF CHAINS. THE CLANG OF HAMMERS AGAINST
METAL.
SOUND: LEE APPROACHES.
LEE
Water break, fellas. No dallyin'.
SOUND: THE CLANGING STOPS. HAMMERS THUMP TO THE GROUND.
SLOW FOOTSTEPS.
SOUND: A RIFLE COCKS.
LEE
You watch it, Stetson.
SOUND: LEE WALKS AWAY.
SOUND: PAOLO UNSCREWS A FLASK AND DRINKS.
STETSON
Pass it on, fella.
PAOLO says something brief in Italian. Paolo is gruff, and
rarely says more than a few words. GIANCARLO, in contrast,
speaks rapidly and ingratiatingly in a broad Italian accent.
GIANCARLO
One moment. My brother, he want to
know why you arrested for.
STETSON
They say I wrecked this train so
that the bandits could rob it. They
say I must've made a deal.
GIANCARLO
Paolo and me, 'they say' we pulled
one of the most amazing art thefts
in a hundred years. Is of course
untrue.
MIKE speaks with a slight, hard-to-place accent, and with an
intense, earnest quality.
MIKE
Give him the water.
GIANCARLO
(surprised)
You speak English?
JESSE
(from a distance)
Be quiet down there!
SOUND: THE FLASK IS PASSED; STETSON DRINKS.
Paolo says something in Italian.
GIANCARLO
He want to know, what did you 'not
steal'.
STETSON
They were shipping something to
Waco, and it must've been downright
dangerous.
MIKE
Waco.
Giancarlo shudders.
GIANCARLO
Don't talk of that place. Paolo
says something in Italian.
GIANCARLO
(agreeing)
Yes, we're not afraid of it. Just
-
STETSON
What about Waco?
MIKE
There are evil forces there.
GIANCARLO
Same as always.
MIKE
No. This is new. These bandits --
they had uniforms?
STETSON
The ones I saw, yeah --
MIKE
And an insignia like a Mason jar?
STETSON
Sure enough. Look, whatever it is
the bandits wanted from that train,
Mad Dog was willin' to damn near
die to keep it from getting to
Waco. What do you know about these
people?
MIKE
Very little. But I think that what
the bandits took from the train was
headed their way anyway. The old
woman knows more.
GIANCARLO
What old woman?
MIKE
At the reservation.
STETSON
Well, we ain't gettin' there.
SCENE FIVE: SOME DISTANCE FROM THE WORK GANG
SOUND: METALLIC CLANGING, VOICES ARGUING IN THE DISTANCE.
LEE
Hmm. They're gettin' right worked
up over there.
JESSE
Heh. No gettin' along with that
old coot.
SCENE SIX: THE WORK GANG
SOUND: SAME AS SCENE FOUR.
All dialog in this scene is in harsh whispers.
STETSON
There's a dozen armed federal
marshals not twenty feet away!
GIANCARLO
It adds to the challenge. Paolo
says something in Italian.
GIANCARLO
Paolo says 'panache'. Is similar.
STETSON
If we want to find out what in
blazes these bandits are doing,
we've got to get free of these
chains, travel down fifty miles of
track.
MIKE
If we don't, who will? Paolo says
something in Italian.
GIANCARLO
Exactly. Also, if one of us can
pretend to be law-enforcement
personnel, we may have a good
chance.
STETSON
Hmm.
SCENE SEVEN: LATER, BY THE TRACKS
SOUND: MORNING SONGBIRDS.
SOUND: A SMALL LOCOMOTIVE CREAKS TO A STOP, AND A DOOR
CREAKS OPEN.
ENGINEER
Howdy there, marshal. These the
prisoners?
GIANCARLO
That's us!
SOUND: SOMEONE HITS GIANCARLO.
GIANCARLO
(quietly)
Ow!
ENGINEER
Telegram said four prisoners.
Where's the fourth?
STETSON
He died. Injuries from the wreck.
ENGINEER
Hmm. What about the rest of your
posse?
STETSON
Sorting out the wreck. We gotta
get movin'. We get there much
after ten, the judge ain't gonna be
happy.
ENGINEER
All aboard then.
SCENE EIGHT: ELSEWHERE IN THE WRECKAGE
SOUND: LEE SNORING.
JESSE
Wake up! Wake up!
LEE
Son? (pause, then confused) You're
nekkid?
JESSE
The prisoners got loose!
SOUND: THE LOCOMOTIVE STARTS UP AGAIN, SOMEWHAT DISTANT.
JESSE
I can't figure why they took the
uniform!
SOUND: THE LOCOMOTIVE SPEEDS UP, GETS QUIETER AS IT MOVES
AWAY.
LEE
Reckon' I do.
SCENE NINE: AT THE RESERVATION
SOUND: BONFIRE. CRICKETS. PEOPLE WALKING THROUGH TALL
GRASS.
STETSON
She's your aunt?!
MIKE
Great-aunt. And she likes the
isolation.
GIANCARLO
How can she know about these
bandits?
MIKE
Because they kidnapped her.
GIANCARLO
When? Thirty years ago?
MIKE
Last week. She escaped, and she
made it all the way back here. I
killed the men they sent after her.
STETSON
That's what you got arrested for?
MIKE
Mmm. I tried explaining to the old
lawman, but...
GIANCARLO
He does not care for the
explanations.
SOUND: A LENGTH OF CANVAS DRAWN ASIDE.
GIANCARLO
People still live in these?
STETSON
Quiet.
SCENE TEN: A TEEPEE
SOUND: SAME AS SCENE SEVEN, BUT MUCH SOFTER.
AUNT
Mike!
GIANCARLO
"Mike"?
AUNT
How did...? Who are...?
MIKE
There is no time. Great-aunt, we
have to ask you about the bandits.
AUNT
Santa Ana's men?
STETSON
Santa Ana?
AUNT
Yes.
STETSON
That man's awful dead to have
himself an army.
AUNT
I tell you: these were Santa Ana's
men.
GIANCARLO
Why did they kidnap you?
MIKE
Because she is his wife.
AUNT
No. His widow.
GIANCARLO
See? Dead.
AUNT
They kidnapped me because he wanted
me back.
STETSON
("You're crazy.")
Okay.
AUNT
But I escaped. Besides, no woman
would be married to such an
abomination.
STETSON
Right.
MIKE
Where did they take you?
AUNT
To their encampment, Mike.
MIKE
I mean --
GIANCARLO
Ah! I have a map!
SOUND: PAPER UNFOLDING.
AUNT
Ah. It was... here. Silence.
Paolo says something in Italian that can only be a profanity.
GIANCARLO
The far side of Waco.
SCENE ELEVEN: A HILL NEAR WACO
SOUND: THUNDER, A HARSH-SOUNDING WIND, HORSES CANTERING
FORWARD
GIANCARLO
I see nothing.
MIKE
She said it was here.
STETSON
Maybe... your great-aunt wasn't
remembering things quite right.
Mike sighs.
MIKE
Maybe.
Paolo says something in Italian.
SOUND: PAOLO GETS OFF HIS HORSE, WALKS AWAY FROM THEM.
GIANCARLO
Paolo! Where are you going?!
SOUND: THE OTHERS DISMOUNT.
SCENE TWELVE: AN IMPROBABLE STAND OF TREES
SOUND: THE FOUR MEN WALK AWKWARDLY THROUGH THE UNDERGROWTH,
BREAKING TWIGS EVERYWHERE.
SOUND: FADE IN MARCHING FEET (VERY FAINT).
SOUND: THE FOUR MEN STOP SIMULTANEOUSLY.
Paolo says something in Italian. Again, it can only be a
profanity.
STETSON
You said it.
SOUND: THEY TAKE A FEW MORE STEPS FORWARD.
SOUND: IN THE DISTANCE, A HUGE CACOPHONY OF NOISE. MEN
SHOUTING ORDERS. MARCHING. STEAM-POWERED MACHINERY CLANGING
AND HOOTING.
MIKE
There must be hundreds of them.
GIANCARLO
And what are the huge contraptions
with guns? That cannot be good.
STETSON
We've got to get --
SOUND: A rifle cocks.
The soldier, like the soldiers from episode #1, has a Mexican
accent.
SOLDIER #1
Halt!
SOLDIER #2
Tell us what you're doing here, or
we kill every one of you!
GIANCARLO
This is not so good.
SCENE THIRTEEN: OUTRO
ANNOUNCER
What are the nefarious plans of the
bandit army? What did they take
from the Round Rock Express? And
why does a dead Mexican general
have his own army?
MUSIC: THEME MUSIC.
ANNOUNCER
Find out on our next exciting
installment of: "The Adventures of
Stetson McGraw"!