 Blair of the Mounties, a story of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. We present the 19th episode in Blair of the Mounties. Inspector Blair's old friend Angus McGregor, one time Hudson's Bay Factor at Fort McAllister, is now retired from service and is living in Vancouver. Our scene opens in the dusk of a summer evening. As the darkness gathers over the quiet waters of English Bay, we find Blair and Angus talking together in the garden of the McGregor home. We'll know, Inspector. It was much too good of you to draw in the ash that didn't expect you. Why not, Angus? We'll, I was just reading the paper about the bank robbery in the city. I was thinking you'd be busy. That's nothing to do with me. Thank goodness. What? Are you no work in the day? Oh, yes, in a way, but crime in the city of Vancouver has nothing to do with us unless we're invited to lend a hand. All we do nowadays is loaf round and look important. We're known in the guidebooks as the picturesque survival of other days. We'll, we'll, just think of that now. But, Mornin, Inspector, it's a very bad kiss. Would you no like to be reading the report? No thanks. Had enough of bank robberies twenty years ago in Winnipeg. One of the queerest cases I ever ran across. We'll know it's a fine night for a story. Inspector, you know, I'm off for fun, the mystery's my cell. Angus, you're the most inquisitive old humbug I ever knew. Oh, well, here goes. You remember the old Canada Western bank in Winnipeg? I am in that wheel on Portage Avenue. That's it. I was stationed in Winnipeg then. It was the spring of 1904. I was a sergeant at the time. Marshall was there too. One morning he came bursting into the office when I was... Have you heard the news? News? No. I haven't seen except that door. All right. But listen, sergeant. There's been a robbery at the Canada Western bank. Over a hundred thousand in currency. I don't care if they rob fifty banks. What's that got to do with us? A job for the city police. But hold on, Inspector. They've arrested old Danny McBrennan. You know him, don't you? No old Danny, rather. He used to be in the police. What a mess they arrest Danny for. Well, he's the night watchman at the bank. They suspect him of complicity. They call Danny? Why, that's ridiculous. Well, they've got him anyway. And masoned the cashier too. That's too bad, Marshall. I'd take my oath old Danny would never do a thing like that. That's what I think too. Hold on a minute. Hello? Oh, yes, sir. Good morning. Canada Western? Yes. Marshall just told me. No. No, I don't understand it either. Maybe some mistake. Yes, yes, I'll do that, sir. Anyway, Marshall. Yes? We're on this case. Inspector's just given me instructions to go down to jail and see Danny. He used to be in our outfit and we got to help him. I see. Yes, it'd be a nasty crack for us if they convict Danny. We'd never hear the last of it. What do you know about this case? Any details? Just a few. Last night at eleven o'clock, the cashier mason was working late at the bank. He lives in the rooms above the bank anyway. All right. What about Danny? I was coming to that. He states that a man got out of a cab and walked across the pavement to the main door. Where was Danny? Outside on the corner. He was making his rounds. Did he identify this man? No. He says it was the manager, Blake Fishborough. Fishborough? Yes, I know him. What then? Fishborough gave Danny a ten dollar bill and asked him to run along to the Craven Hotel and get him some cigars. That's practically all Danny's story. Well, what happened? The cashier mason says that Fishborough came into the bank. He was wearing a heavy coat with a collar turned up. He told mason to clear out and get to bed right away. Mason says the manager gave him the devil for being there so late. Then what? Why, when Danny got back, the manager had gone. He went upstairs and got mason. Then mason spotted a package of important bonds lying near the vault with a paper torn partly off one package. That made him suspicious. He opened the safe and found the currency gone. What did the manager say? He isn't in town. Skipped out? No. That's the funny part. This is the prairie yesterday afternoon's train. He's on his way back now. The cast iron alibi. Quite sure about that. Not a chance of any doubt. At eleven o'clock last night, Blake Fishborough was attending a farewell supper in Portage. All the prominent people in town were there. It's a dead shore alibi. All right, let's go down and talk to Danny. This way, sergeant. Morning, Danny. Good morning to you, sergeant. I just heard about you, Danny. Rubbing banks, getting a name in the papers. I'm surprised at you. Don't be making a joke of it, sergeant. Sure, it's bad enough without that. Come on now, Danny. Raise up my lad. Don't suppose anybody in the old crowd will ever believe this on you. We're all with you, Danny. We'll get you out of here if we have to start a war. That's fine to be talking, sergeant, but there's nothing you can do. Let's have your story, anyway, Danny. Sure, it's not much yours. I've told it three times already. It's so crazy I'd hardly believe it myself. Come on, Danny. I want that story just to happen. Start the beginning. Well, all right. It was exactly five past eleven. I came out of the alleyway at the side of the bank. Where have you been? Just on the usual rounds. I started at eleven with the outside of the building, checking the doors and fire escapes. It takes about five minutes. All right. What happened when you came out of the alley? Begurri, there was a cab just thrown up and Mr. Fishbury gets out of it. And I hurried up to meet him right at the front door. Be careful, Danny. You're sure it was the manager? Of course. I took me down north on it. He had a heavy coat on with a collar turned up. But I saw his face and I heard the vice of him. Sure, now don't I know him all of the seven years? All right. What, Nick? Well, then he pulled out a tin dollar bill and he says to me, Danny, he says, I'm going into the office for a while. Go along to the Craven House and get me a half a dozen of them long-tongued cigars. Craven House. That'd be quite a way from the bank, eh? Sure. Twelve blocks it is now with me walking. But it's the only place they keep them cigars. How long did it take you? Oh, it was 25 after 11 when I got back to the bank. And when I got back where the office was all dark and not the sign of the manager. What did you do then? Well, I thought he must be upstairs in Mr. Mason at the cashier's room. So I went up. Mason was just getting ready for bed when I told him the manager was gone. He wouldn't believe me. And we both busted downstairs into the bank. And what did you find there? Nothing at first. Then Mason spotted a bundle of papers, bonds they were, just by the door of the vault. He picked them up. That was when he tumbled to it as the vault had been opened. I see. So he reopened the vault, eh? That's right, Sergeant. And then he called me. There were bonds and papers thrown all over the floor. Oh, it was a deliverer of a mess it was. No time lock on that vault? No, there's a talk of putting one on in. Well, most of the banks have him now, but there's never been one in the old Canada Western. How many people know the combination? They're just Mr. Fishberry and Mess. I see. It's a bad spot for you, Danny. But I still don't see what right they have to arrest you. There's no tangible evidence against you. Just one thing, Sergeant. What is that? That $10 bill Mr. Fishberry gave me for a cigars. It was a brand-new bill. It was one of the bunch that was supposed to have been put into the vault yesterday afternoon. I see. So the theory is that you and Mason opened the vault and got that money last night. Oh, that's crazy. That may be crazy, but it's pretty hard to get away from that bill. Ah, bad says to it. This is the truth you're telling me, Danny. May I never speak a word against Sergeant? It's the whole truth. And you're sure it was Blake Fishberry, the manager you saw at the bank last night? I'd stack my life on it. And yet there are 30 or 40 prominent people who could swear that he was in poor little prairie at 11 o'clock last night. It certainly is there this morning. He must have been there, Danny. It looks that way, but I tell you I saw him here last night. They never believe you, Danny. That's what I'm thinking. All right. Marshal's having a talk to Mason the cashier. I've got to go now, Danny. Cheer up now. We'll find a way to get you out of this. Thank you for trying anywhere, Sergeant. Marshal. Yes, Sergeant? Get anything important? Fred North. Just the same thing over again with a few more details. What do you think of this man, Mason the cashier? Hang on, I know. His story is straight enough. It fits in with Danny's story about the manager, Fishberry, coming in just after 11 o'clock. He says the manager called him down for being in the bank at that hour. But he went straight up to his quarters, leaving the manager in the office. Yes. Hard to start a theory. Why should these two men invent that story? It's such a poor defense. The most impossible thing they could have thought of. Which, of course, is all in their favor. This cashier was in trouble. Old money in large amounts. He had the combination of the safe. Yes, I wouldn't pay much attention to his story alone, but I can't get round Danny. He's a simple-minded old fellow with a tremendous sense of duty. Can't see him as a criminal accessory at all. I believe he's absolutely positive he saw this manager. And yet, the manager was in portage at the time. By the way, did you see him just now? Yes, he's back. I had to talk to him. He seems like a man in a dream. There's no doubt about that alibi. At 11 o'clock, he was making a speech in full view of 30 or 40 people who've known him for years. Did you ask him about this statement of Danny's? Yes, but he just smiled at me in a puzzled way. I felt rather foolish. Because, Marsh, there's no getting away from it. That man was in portage last night and not at the bank. Yes, there's no getting away from that. Take it the other way around. Question of identity here at the bank. Yes, it's just a certain at this end. Even if Danny made a mistake, Mason the cashier saw the man in the light and talked to him. Also, he had the combination of the vault. We don't know that, Marshall. Suppose Danny made a mistake, but Mason didn't. Oh, you mean it might have been a Confederate of Mason's who fooled Danny? No, that's no use. If Mason wanted to rob the bank, why would he need a Confederate? That's true. Another thing, I can't get over the finding of that package of bonds outside the vault. And what puzzles me still more is the disorder in the vault itself. That seems to favor Mason. Why's that? Can you imagine any trained bank official throwing stuff around like that? Not unless he was done on purpose. It doesn't make sense. Any theory, Sergeant? Yes. There's only one that would fit this case and explain everything. But it needs just one little link of some sort before I even talk about it. Hello? Who's this? Oh, Mr Blair. Oh, Mr Blair. Why? Hello, Bridget? What's the matter? I just come from sea and Danny. Is there anything you can do to save him? We're doing our best, Bridget. Oh, but he never done it, Mr Blair. Sure, and I ran all the way from Mr Fishburry's when I heard that... Mr Fishburry? What are you doing there? Oh, don't you know? I'm his housekeeper. Him being a bachelor and all, I go into work there every day. That's interesting. Did you see him last night? No, sir. Not after I packed his things to go to Portage. Hmm. Did he take a big fair-line coat with him? Aye, it's funny. He took three sorts of clothes and two overcoats. See? Here, hold on. What were they? Well, there was a clothes he was wearing and then his dress clothes and the suit he wears to the bank in the detour. Did you pack that one? Sure I did, I don't know why. Holy smoke, that's got it. What is it, Sergeant? That's what I wanted. We've got him. Come on, hurry up, Marshall. Well, for mercy's sake. You have heard Episode 19 of Blair of the Mountains. The second and concluding part of this story will be told in Episode 20 of this series.