 They say big game hunting is a sport only for the wealthy. Well, it didn't cost me much except almost my life This is another in the adventures of America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator Johnny dollar At insurance investigation Johnny dollar is only an expert at making out his expense account. He's an absolute genius Spence account submitted by special investigator Johnny dollar to home office Britannia underwriters Association Hartford, Connecticut The following is an accounting of my expenditures during my investigation of the unscheduled performances in max million Sandro's animal show or All the need was a clown and then I showed up or I once thought I'd run away with a circus This one I wanted to run away from Spence accounts item one $70 and 21 cents train and cab fare from Hartford to a vacant lot just outside Brunswick, Georgia The winner quarters of max a million Sandro's animal show The first animal to show was an elephant mister. Where can I find max a million? Hey, mister Question An area I should set opera back ten years Well, look, I'll stop interrupting rehearsal if you'll tell me where I can find your boss Maximilian Sandro my boss It is I I am Maximilian Sandro. Oh good. I'm Johnny dollar from the insurance company. Oh, that's make it something else Blanca your rest. I'm a come back when I'm through with mr. Dollar as I understand it mr. Sandro She don't like to see me go, you know, she's like a puppy to me But it's the new black leopard. That's the beginning of all my trouble. I'ma show you to her Someone is he tried to steal her and that's what I don't want to miss the dog Well since Britannia underwriters insurer for 20,000 that is what they don't want to see that cost me too much to get her from out to lose her that would ruin my financials everything would go Oh Hi Look, mr. Sandro, how does anybody go about stealing a neat little package like a black leopard and why why? Because she's a very special level. She's a very big very shiny. I'ma name her Ashanti She's gonna be my price of fraction. There's a lot. So animal shows would like to have Oh, you suspect your competition. Oh, she one was the attempt made one night last week They make with the truck that I tried to pull her cage away, and we say for just in the time Since my finches the parakeets in the cook and and this is my crow. Yeah Very nice colorful Did you try and trace the truck man? Oh, so no at the trade they went away whoosh no lights And it's something else. That's not right at all. Oh, yeah, what's that? I'ma make a big plan. I'ma get all the money I can put a handsome to buy her from this a man attacks Randall and and now he's say the money that was enough before He's not enough now. He think he'd cheat me to surrender. Well, I'd like to help you with that too, mr. Sandro, but I'm afraid that's your problem My job is to see that your leopard isn't stolen. I see I know you get the pay for your job But you do it and that's There is a shot There is to my lap I Guess somewhere way down on the tap roots of my family tree There probably was an ancestor with a low forehead bare skin overalls and a club Who went into an unpleasant double-take when he found himself face-to-face with a leopard? I know the feeling I had when I saw a shanty was inherited from somebody My feet wanted to run but my eyes wouldn't leave her as she paced back and forth in about a 12 by 12 cage Belfel yellow eyes set in a sable black face ears laid back and tail lashing in anger and lips that drew up showing the nastiest set of Choppers I've ever seen It was beautiful all right, but my vote would have gone to the iron bars that separate They were downright good Pretty Sony you and me we'd be good friends. You see mr. Dollar right now shanty. She's a very angry. She's a boy But I'm a know my animals and not long. She's gonna eat out of my hat Make a meal out of it right up to the elbow This is mr. Dollar he's a come from the insurance company I'm tech friend. This is the man. I tell you about all right. I mean you captured this thing Yeah, I brought her in from the Togo territory in West Africa. I thought my racket was tough sometimes What do you use captain? No, I dug me a pit covered her with a mat and some dirt put me a fresh-killed goat in the middle And when the cat fell in I got some robes on her Trust her up. You make it sound simple. Oh, she's a make-up sound the simple and why does it cheat to me? Why don't stay with the first surprise? Hey now you take a listen to me, Sandro? I told you I'd give you your money back and sell this cat somewhere else The pit cost more than I thought it would and I ain't about to lose dough on it just to make you have Sometimes I'm a thing to you don't talk straight I'm a go back to my elephant. No, mr. Dollar. Okay, mr. Sandro. I'll check with the letters He's spent too much time talking to critters. He don't make no sense out of nothing I'm glad you're here dollar. I ain't been 20 yards away from this cat since I got it here Been bunking in that sleeping bag every night right close to the cage Now maybe I can get a break. Well, then you must have been here the night somebody tried to put the snatch on her Anybody nobody I could be sure of Except maybe the little blonde guy. He left me something to remember my way till I pull my shirt up Look you there. Look you there on my back. Just took the stitches out today Ouch, right a little run caught me half in and half out of my sleeping bag Doc says if that knife blade had gone in another hair's breath I'd have been spilled And with that happy thought Tex Randall a hard man to kill left to go into town I watched a shatty turn into enough raw meat to keep a kennel of great Danes happy for a week After which he settled down for what you might call the original cat nap Sandro's elephants settled down to a short vocal lesson and I settled down for a game of mumbling peg But before I could get warmed up. I had a visitor Wow Eva Gardner type with darker hair and olive skin Well, who couldn't I was beginning to think the only females around here walked in all fours I've had the same feeling about the males Then then he didn't mention me Who pop the boss? Oh, no, no Sandro didn't mention much of anything, but his black leopard. Well, I'm Angela Oh She probably forgot to mention you on purpose hoping to keep my mind where it belongs on my work What can you do you can't stay with the shandy for the rest of the life Before I found out about you. I would have said no, please be serious All right There's only one thing to do if the leopard isn't safe here and from what I've seen it heard I don't think she is I'll just have to take her someplace else until this is all cleared up Take her someplace else With that would break dad's heart. It would break the heart of the company that hired me if a shanty turned up missing Look, he can't take her on the road until next summer. We'll keep her safe until then I'm sorry, but it's all I can do He's going to hate you for it, you know, oh well that I can stand But there's no sense. You're wasting our time feeling the same way. I Didn't say I would do that As a matter of fact, I was going to stay right here until you asked me out to dinner Well, let's not worry stick around I'll figure out where to invite you when I know you better and There during the waning hours of the Georgia day. I learned that up to a point Angela was an easy girl to know She liked cocktails dinner and dancing So that's the schedule we set up for later as soon as Tex Randall showed up to temporarily relieve me of my duties as leopard But at martini time I was still sitting and may I say that the cocktail hour spent in the middle of a menagerie is Not the restful period. It's supposed to be as soon as the sun dropped the noise rose Wild brains and caged bodies reacting to the night Instinctively telling the countryside that whether they were free or not. This was their hunting time I normally felt like Tarzan the apes. I felt uneasy Shanty complained to me a light from somewhere behind me glinted in her eye Then disappeared as she started her back and forth pacing again Sounded like she was trying to tell me something She was I was too stupid to understand it. Oh Whatever hit me from behind in the land hard enough I stayed on my feet put a pair of strong hands twisted my arms behind my back And one hand pushed my wrist into a double hammer lock The point of a knife was to have it in my back and started moving me forward toward the cage The leverage stopped her pacing as she saw me coming. She reached out between the bars for me A great poor spread claws extended the last thing I saw was a smiling face in the poor reaching That was a lunge behind me and something hit my head again Cocktail hour was over. I'd passed out without a drink In just a moment. We will return to the second act of Johnny dollar, but first Last week Vaughn Monroe's caravan saluted the Rose Bowl team tonight Vaughn will play the favorite songs of Louisiana statement Oklahoma the Sugar Bowl team Vaughn's caravan will also bring you the five top tunes of the week is chosen by variety and later Gene Autry will be here with his Western music and cowboy humor The Vaughn Monroe caravan and the Gene Autry show are regular Saturday evening features of most of the same CBS station Now with our star Charles Russell we return to the second act of yours truly Johnny dollar Well, sir, I don't know how I lived through that one, but as it turned out I did When I opened my eyes, I was still in Georgia, but that condition was about all that hadn't changed for the worse My head was not only aching in the back, but a new lump had been born above the bridge of my nose But nothing else had been added When I finally got to my feet I saw that only a trace was left of a shanty the black leopard a Pair of ruts in the dirt made when her wheeled cage had been hauled away I Start out to find Sandro on a telephone, but one of my feet found something else before I'd taken three steps. I Didn't know how he had gotten where I was supposed to be But he'd made it Tex Randall his neck twisted in the marks of claws on the side of his battered head Hello, my name is dollar. I'm an insurance investigator. I'm calling from the winter quarters of the Maximilian Sandro's animal show From the owner's trailer. I want to report two things There's a body out here that your corner or take a look at either accidental or murder Who grand larceny somebody stole a black leopard? Too late to joke sergeant just sent some men out. I'll give them the rest of the story when they get here Joke yet. What passes for humor in Georgia anyway? Hey, Sandro Sandro, come home. Nobody answered me, but an old live being lion. So I shut up I browsed around Sandro's trailer when I was waiting for the police. I wasn't looking for anything But I found it on a table. There was a small Christmas tree that had been transformed into what is commonly known as a Friendship tree meaning that about a half a dozen Christmas cards were hung on with cellophane tape It was nothing else to read. So I scan through those and the third one I opened Opened my eyes. It was inscribed. Sorry. I can't be with you greetings from San Francisco Your loving daughter Angela Before I could fully digest that tidbit. I heard a shoe scrape on the steps outside and the trailer door opened Very good, my dear With the Angela by whom I had so recently been taken in looked fifties capable suntanned and well armed Well, well, well, Mr. Dollar You don't appear to be surprised what's happened already tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if General Sherman dropped in on his way back Let's see Yes, Flint. I admire a show of courage a sense of humor at the point of a gun Oh, think nothing of it. Sometimes my jokes are so funny. They kill people Yeah, I think we'd better get him out of here, Ben. I don't think it's safe Yes, you took the words right off the tip of my tongue my dear Shall we go mr. Dollar should I ask where and why I've taken a small place in town There is our leisure. We shall discuss a fascinating subject. Hmm. Namely the whereabouts of a splendid black leopard Move right ahead mr. Dollar. Oh my dear run up to Harold's room fetch him down. I may need him Into this room mr. Dollar and Please be seated. Have you don't mind my asking Ben. How do you manage? I do sir It just so happens that my full name and title is sub-benet Mountford The term of familiarity Ben is to be used only by my closest friends Now if you will couch your question properly or wasn't important I just wondered since that gun seems to be so much a part of you How do you manage without shooting yourself while shaving? You've already with haven't you I Know the proper time and place for a weapon my boy. I've learned from Experience I Chose early and you there's my avocation the hunting of big game If you had faced the last desperate charge of a wounded lion or a maddened rhino as I face them You too would realize that a good weapon probably aimed his man's best friend Which? Brings us to the subject of our mutual interest the black leopard What have you hidden her what makes you think I have now no no no let's have no deception sir Report brought back by my charming accomplice who so ably posed as the daughter of that stupid showman mr. Sandro Who's that you made no secret of your plan to carry off the cat to a place of safety? You will not deny that why should I you wouldn't believe me if I did yeah an admirable attitude, sir now once more Where is the leopard I told you it wouldn't be worth much as a hiding place What if you do not tell me sir your life will be worth very little Come now perhaps your loyalties are misplaced What did that market hunter mr. Randall tell you about the cat not much Except that he got a knife in the back put there by somebody who was trying to steal her well then sir I'll spin you a tail that'll set your blood to pounding What would you say my boy if I told you that that black leopard is Worth the King's ransom Well, I don't know I'd probably ask why well she is sir, but I'll tell you why She was captured in the togo territory West Africa. I am quite familiar with that section I thought it there a district power excellence for elephant buffalo and Citrutanga It's a matter of fact. I was there before and shortly after Randall's infamous trapping of that fine beast Did he tell you that well he did didn't make any impression I hear there are a lot of people in Africa Well to continue the togo territory is inhabited by the away tribe a group of long-headed Utter linear people whose most interesting characteristic at this moment is the fact that they are animal worshipers now Does the point sink home? vaguely That leopard Randall snagged is important to them. Is that it? Yes. Yes precisely. You struck it and they'll pay a veritable fortune per return $100,000 Now that I Let the cat out of the bag so to speak Do you have a price in mind in return for which you will share with me the hiding place of the animal? Yeah, you go on back to togo, and I'll cable you the address. Yeah It's obvious sir that you are not in full command of your senses and old Look if Harold is your violence department Ben you can save your breath and his muscles I'm not having any Stay where you are, sir. I Give you a fair warning. I'm not to your fair warning You want to find that black leopard, and I'm the only one that knows where she is you're not gonna do it by puncturing me Come back here you fool come back here Better call off your infantry Ben Oh Brother As I went out I caught a glimpse of the man Mountford had called Harold the same little blonde runt Randall had talked about Had wrapped up the question of who had played tic-tac-toe with a knife on a Texan But ten yards of Sir Ben's front walk later. I suddenly remembered Mountford's last words Lest Randall have the upper hand he said Sounded like he didn't know Randall was dead Which shook my head and in a strictly nonsensical way made sense Well, there was only one place for me to go. So that's where I went back to max million Sandro's animal show When I got there, I was awake, but all the smart animals were asleep Except for one max a million Sandro hailed me from the least side of a tent Into the shadows The police is it by my trailer where have you been Sandro? I was a hiding but I worry so much about you when I come back where you are You're not there you mean by your black leverage cage I'd left that place had unpleasant memories for me. Oh, see you see me, too. I'm a sadwood It's when I'm a seed that man or and He's a push you to the cage you with a knife. I'm a go crazy. I'm a nothing I'm a run-up and a push So then you follow you hit your head in the bottom of the cage and then a shanty She hit the rental instead, and I'm so sorry. Oh Oh Don't bother with an apology to me. No, no, no, no, no, you don't understand Look I'm a commit the murder With these two hands. I'm a push him on the leopard. Oh, there's such a thing as justifiable homicide You were saving my life. So let's not worry about it until it gets the court if it does Where did you take your cat? Oh, you know that nobody else has her so you must You were at the right place at the right time to haul her away. All right I tell you true See I take her away where she's the same I keep her where she is until this trouble is a no more No, listen to me Sandro. I know how you feel, but I've met the people who were after your leopard They say they can get a hundred thousand dollars for her back in Africa But that kind of money they'll never stop looking for her The only way to stop them is to let them find her and then we'll try and wind this thing up wind up It's a mean finish. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've been followed here Now will you take me to the hideout? No, sir. These people they follow you there. I'm gonna like that. I don't either Sandro $100,000 worth of cheese would even make a mouse Sandro was a hard man to convince I wasted more words than a Republican campaigner and then I used blackmail then I told him I'd turn him in for Randall's killing and Testify against him instead of for him. He saw things my way The leopard's lair turned out to be an abandoned barn five miles farther out of town to which we went in a truck The Sandro had driven into that jungle type vacant lot Okay, it's a little inside the door a shanty was performing that old dance of hers again Pacing the length of her cage back and forth her head swinging rhythmically each time she turned We'd made ourselves easy enough to follow on the way out But my neck was getting stiff from helping my eyes follow the leopard's movements before I heard a sound outside the door It sounded like a bolt jamming a shell under the chamber of a rifle And that's what it was because a rifle was what Sir Bennett Mountford was carrying when the trio came in You're my dear stay here Well, mr. Dollar, I would say that the long stock is successfully completed the search ended quite a hunter Not for somebody should crown you with a coon skin cap with a raccoon still living in it Yes, I'm glad to see you enjoying yourself sir Since the time for levity is on the wing so to speak Keep these two in your sights with a ready finger on the trigger I'll set about putting this vicious cat out of existence. No, no, he's gonna shoot my shunt I'm not for you crazy. Put that rifle down. Get up dollar. You won't run in place If that cat's worth a hundred grand alive why killer because we shall realize a much greater profit with her debt Namely a half million of uncut diamonds that are hidden in the floor of a cage diamonds Well, they couldn't have been safer. Could they precisely Randall's idea of when he put them there in Africa Now stand aside, sir. I don't wish to fire through your head, but I will if I must no no Hey I Mountford had a lot of guts But sometimes luck helps and that night he didn't have any a shanty sprang straight to the little door of a cage She was still in the air when she went past him head high and as she did one of her fatal front paws reached out for him It looked almost delicate But the force of the blows sent Mountford clear across the barn and when he landed he didn't move a Shandy streak toward a square of night sky showing through a window and she was gone I turned back away from the window to check on the rest of our guests, but they were gone Apparently there was something about a leopard on the loose But it made a half a million dollars in diamonds not as important to Harold and the phony Angela as distance between them and that barn So there I was Suddenly left with nothing to worry about if you can call enough diamonds to stock the Kimberly mines nothing Expense accounts item two Item two a Case like this and I haven't let up a cent. Oh Well Christmas is coming Item two three dollars cab fare from Brunswick police headquarters to a hotel After giving them my statement, which they didn't believe until they saw those diamonds And they sent out a three-state alarm to pick up the phony Angela and Montford shiv man Harold and Expense account item three seventy dollars and twenty one cents Train and cab fare Brunswick to Hartford. Oh and this advice I'll toss in for free at last report a shanty was seen headed west toward Okie-Pinokie swamp and Sandra was organizing a group to go after her My advice is this Don't ensure the lives of those men if you want to throw your money away. So what to me? See expense account total 152 dollars and 70 cents signed yours truly Johnny Frank Buck dollar yours truly Johnny dollars stars Charles Russell Tonight script by Paul Dudley and Gildow was produced and directed by Ralph Rose Featured in the cast were Lynn Allen Larry Dobkin Bill Conrad and Polly bear The special music is written and conducted by Leith Stevens your announcer Bob Stevens Be sure to be with us at the same time next week when another unusual expense account is handed in by yours truly honey dollar Teamwork, that's the American way Working together to produce more per man per machine per hour so that everybody on the team benefits The American economic system is geared to benefit all of the people Under this system everybody moves together toward the common goal of better living the better we produce the better we live For your free copy of the booklet the miracle of America write box 10 Times Square Station, New York City They tuned now for Vaughan Monroe's caravan, which follows immediately on most of the same CBS station This is CBS where yours truly Johnny dollar meets adventure every Saturday night the Columbia Broadcasting System