 This is John Steele, reporting on Adventure. I don't know how it is with women, but a man's lucky if he has two or three fellas he can really call his friends, especially a guy like me, moving around the way I do. So, when I got the letter telling me Mike wanted me to come at once, I didn't ask why, when, or how come. Bar Town, the letter said. All I wanted to know was how to get there. At the library, I looked Bar Town up. Bar Town, population unlisted. I had to look hard, a fly spec on the map. North, north-central Canada. North of Great Slave Lake. No roads, no trains. Only one way in by planes, private planes. Bar Town. So I started counting my money and looking for a charter plane with a pilot willing to take me. I called this transcribed yarn, junk mine. Bucky Miller was a pilot's name. He had a ski plane for charter. He was willing to fly me up to Bar Town. He made his living by being willing. Do you fly up this way often? Some. When it brought you to Friday, only got me a package to drop. Do back Friday. Flyin' somebody out Friday? passenger. Well, there she is, down ahead. Bar Town. Doesn't look like much. What there is? Town. Looks like somebody sprinkled pepper on the ice. What they call it? I'm settin' down, settin' tight. I waited to ask Bucky about my friend Mike, if he knew Mike. Mike always went on his own. Mike never begged. But I knew these northern bush pilots who fly for the buck and how they climb up. I concentrated on learning what I could about Bar Town by watching the bleak dots rush up at the plane from the ice instead. The dots turned into lopsided pine shanties huddling around a big unpainted ship. The shanties and the mine shaft house. That's all there was. Mining. What was Mike doin', diggin' down under the ice? Mike McCartle was a butterfly. What was he doin' away from the sun? I went on across the ice to the mine house. A beat-up sign flapped in the wind. J. J. Gregg, mine superintendent, the sign said. The man inside didn't even look up. He was sharpening what looked like a throwing knife. You, Gregg, the superintendent? Why did I come in? Dean, ain't you? It's cold. It's cold out there. One side. Knife might slip. Not bad. Not a bad knife throw. Ain't got a quite fruit. It's a good throw. You aimin' for that big knot hole? Ain't aimin' particular, no. I'm up for Manitoba. Have a look. You ain't from Manitoba. Toe was cold, not with them clothes. Fell out freezing, Toeva, this time of year, with them clothes. What's the difference where I'm from? Makes no difference where you're from, mister. Differences, what are you doin' here? Lookin' up somebody. Thoughtin' it'd be hard to find. You always flyin' around lookin' up your pals? Sure, he's a friend. Flyin' costs must be an important friend. No any other kind? What's your friend's name? Mike. Mike McCartle. Lambie. Lambie, come in here. What are you doin' in there? Been in here over an hour makin' up your sons. I told you to stay away from them ortonage shots. I'm only tryin' to help you. The incorporation law says you have to report the ortonage. Lambie, you big jerk, come in here. He's probably got a bottle sloshing it up in the shaft. I'll slush around that big jerk's brains. It's kind of cold up here, ma'am. Yes. Lonely. I didn't expect to find a woman in bar town. I'm his wife. The only woman. Only anybody. What do you want? Came up looking for a friend. Here? Mike McCartle. You couldn't miss him. Been so few men. No, I couldn't. Yes, I couldn't. He here? He here now? Go. Go quick before it happens to you. Get back where you belong. Don't let on. Not one word what I said. That's him, Lummy. Oh, yeah? Yeah? That's him, the fellow lookin'. Lummy, uh... Take the fella down to meet his friend. They kept their eyes on me. Jim Gregg, the super. In the human ox he called Lummy. They kept their eyes on me all the way down to the shaft head of the old mine. I remembered a warning. Mrs. Gregg, she warned me to go to get out. She wanted to tell me something more, but she'd been afraid. Not of me. Why wouldn't she tell me if Mike was here? What she was afraid I'd find out. I faked a stumble and risked to look back just before we let daylight behind, but the mine office door was closed. She was nowhere in sight. When I turned my head around, everything went black up front ahead. We were in the mineshaft. I had to play it careful. These were rough boys. The shaft, old-style cut. The shaft's old. Sure you're taking me to see Mike? Keep walking. What's Mike doing down here? Still asking questions. No harm. Any harm askin'? I just want to know what Mike's doing. Mike, you say, boss, pick on questions. Yeah, pick on. Hello, Mike. Don't you know him? Got no friends? You shut up. You boss here. I think he's gettin' it, Lummy. I think he's gettin' the idea. Mike, it's me. Me, John. I got your letter. I came right up. One of the few real friends a man ever has. Only now he was swinging his pickin' lookin' wild at me, crazy wild, watching me as if he'd never seen me before. Watching how I hefted the pick, how I brought it down into the rock. I wanted to stop to ask him what was wrong, what he was doing down here, and why he hadn't recognized me. But I couldn't stop. Maybe it was that wild look in his eye, the way he kept looking at me, but I didn't dare break rhythm. I kept working to pick. I'd always been as strong as Mike, but he was hefting his pick like a toy, and mine was getting heavy as lead to me. Keep this dumb act up. You know me. Mike, it's me. The silver, Reg? You don't trust him? Turn up and it's happen to you? Ever see a mile with only one man diggin'? No. How come you're here? What's this all about? You're no minor. You gotta. You gotta keep diggin'. Grab your pick. Back there in the shaft. Don't look. Love me the watchdog. Love me sneakin' back close, listen. That's why I've been actin' funny. Oh, yeah, yeah. Start diggin', Johnny. Sure I know you. Nothing to matter with me. Only love me some killer. I'll talk later. Of course I know you. You tell me somebody else in the whole world I know better. You'll have me worried. Why'd you say you didn't? Had to act that way, Johnny. Didn't want him to know you was my friend, and I sent you the letter. I want to be scared to think you're a government man, and where you come from there's a lot more like you. I'll come. What's going on? They need your radium, and a whole great sleeve up here's likely for us. What happened? Ran out of money. I didn't have any luck snooping around these mountains with a geiger counter. Anyhow, winter set in. No dough, no supplies. I stumbled onto this place. Only one tried to work here, so I said, sure, I'll go down in mine. Like you notice, me outside looks legit, like a real big place. Only when I got down in here, I found out nobody was workin' down here. You were the only one. Only Lummi and him around. How come? Why the front? I don't know. What do you mean you don't know? You're not dumb. You've been around. I don't know. When you got eyes. I don't know what's going on top side. I'm stuck down in the mine. You go up every night? The heck I do. I sneaked the letter out, and you gave it to the bush pilot. They won't let me up. What do you mean they won't? You saw Lummi. You see Greg with these drone eyes. Ever see their guns? You were always able to take care of yourself? You were watching me one minute. I got me a cop back down the shaft. They bring me down the grub. I tried breakin' out once. Here. Huh? Right through the shoulder. It still hurts. Greg, throw knife. Practice is all the time. And spirit right at 50 feet. Nice guy. I'll get him. See why he didn't want me around. Don't want nobody around. Just Lummi. He's two-legged rat. Ever ship out any of you roar? Ours like him. Ours no good. Junk rock. Junk. No gold in it. No good. Mine run by the company? Never saw nobody up here from no company. No engineers. Only once I saw another guy down here. City man he looked by the way he dressed. Stood way back in the shaft and looked at me. Think I heard Greg call him Fred. Must be a company incorporated back at it somewhere. Don't know. Don't know why any company want a no-good mind like that. No legitimate company. Huh? This gold roar. Think it assays uranium? Roar. Roar's played out. I've got a new way to extract uranium from gold ore residues. You learned about that prospecting. Uranium. Guess? Yeah. Guess it might smell down or trace. Trace might be enough. See what you mean? Bait. Sucker bait. You mean a company selling phony shares outside? Something on the phone. What do you want? Back in here. Both of you. What? Good shot off. Only asking. Good shot off. What do you want, Greg? In there. The old branch. She's a man trap. The bottom's caved in. She's fallen 10 feet. In there. Showering's half caved in. What makes you think we're going to squeeze in there? In there. What makes you think we're going to dig anywhere? Watch it. I see it. Yeah. Nice. Talk speak. Weaving a knife. I tell you the real truth. Just for you. Don't give them an excuse, John. Into that passage we're squeezing. Then for a second that's all I heard. Cold. I felt cold. It was ice. No, it was water. I was in water. The water was like ice. Then I heard him. Greg. The sound of the noise cleared my head. I opened my eyes. Dig yourself a hole. He was sitting up on a rock crystal ledge. His shoes almost touched the water. Mike and I were standing in the water up to our chests. What's the idea? We're half under. They're in our graves. They're crazy stuff. Jim. Passage flooded. She's still flooded. Water's rising. Jim. It's crazy. The hill rock is mine. I tell you the water's rising. I can feel it coming up my shirt. Jim. Jim. Jim. Jim. Keep our foot. That's the idea. Jim. Keep your head, Mike. Your shoes, Mike. Mine shoes are heavy. Kick them off, Mike. You hear me? I got the nut loose and the chipper. The rock chipper. I cut it, Mike. Underwater here. Cut it right to my hand. You saw where he was sitting. On the ledge, the ornage right over the water. I'm going underwater, Mike. I'm going under over to that ledge. You hear me? Yeah. Yeah. Strong enough to swim along under with me. I heard him laugh. The laugh came down thin through the water and tapped against my ears like the cry of some crazy animal. The laughing sounded good to me. As long as I heard it, I knew they hadn't discovered Mike and I were crawling underwater, crawling slow along the bottom of the flooded passage. Then my fingers grabbed the bottom of the ledge. My lungs were begging for air. I wanted to get to the chipper. Let myself break water for that air. But I lifted the chipper instead. I dug it in. Dug it into the base of the ledge again and again where the edge of the ore crystal shone like brittle silver. Then I braced my feet and Mike and I pulled and the ledge bottom cracked. It cracked right where I knew it wouldn't. It tumbled right in. Hey, Mike! I'll get to no good, Scott. No friction, Super! Let me fix that! I made and finished it. His clumsy waited finished what I started. Spreading the crack in the vein of crystal, breaking the crystal arch that held the roof and sides in. Dark. The rock slide had knocked out the lamps they'd been wearing too. Too dark to see. I fell in the round and the dark for Mike. He'd been beside me ever since we tumbled Greg in. But all I felt was water. Water all around. I was alone treading water in the dark. Then I felt rock under my feet and I hoisted myself up. Enough blocks from the cave in had fallen in to build up the bottom of a flooded passage. I hoisted myself up of what was left of the ledge. My fingers slid over something smooth and shiny. Too smooth for a rock. A lamp. Lummi's mind lamp crushed and buried in the cave in. I scrapped away loose dirt and rock. I rolled the rocks down and away. Are you all right? Keep holding. I found the lamp. The matches. The lighter. Hold on. Dry in it. Dry in it off. Works. Light, Mike. We got light. I never thought I'd see it again. Why? I tell you she's gone. Looked all over all through the minehouse. The living quarters. Gone. Not a sign. I guess we can't tell her about Lummi and her husband. Just like rats. Tron like rats. But you're finding Greg's mind books. I'm finished looking. Find anything? Enough to prove Greg was running a swindle. Like you thought. Phony stock swindle. Don't know how many made suckers selling him phony mind stock. He must have been ready to blow with a loot. Must have figured me as some kind of a government man. Up here to check on him, huh? My common made him suspicious. Especially the act you put on not knowing me. Man who's crooked's always got to be suspicious. The only thing bothers me. The loot. All that money he made in the swindle. No trace of it. Not a dime. Looked for that too. Not a dime. Money gone. Mrs. Greg gone. Now I wonder. Or am I getting unreasonable suspicious too? Figures. You going in after? I'm going to hang around for the fun. Fun? Two deadens floating down there in the mine. Someone's going to miss them. Going to want to know how come. Maybe ask a lot of questions about them. Maybe now about the mine. Let me get his from a falling rock. What they call accidental. I saw him take the rocks light when he fell in. But Greg was near you. What happened to Greg? Greg. No good. A scut. Just plain never no good. Rocks didn't fall near him. You were close to him. Greg he get killed accidentally too? Yeah. You were near him in the water in the dark. You're no killer Mike. But you had the chance. You hated him. It ain't no good to hate a man like I hated him. You kill him Mike? Hate. Funny thing. No I didn't kill him. He was yelling screaming in the dark. I could hear him yelling screaming something awful. Funny thing hearing him hearing everything falling in. Something happened like it was cured. Funny thing. Then I didn't hate him. Didn't hate him no more then. Hey who's flying? I've been waiting out by my plane an hour. Looking for a passenger Bucky? I got an order for a Friday pickup. Told you that when I brought you in. To pick up Mrs. Greg? Flew her out this morning. She laid out the emergency stop signal in the snow. Oh then she wasn't the passenger where you were supposed to pick up today. Told you she put out the special signal in the snow. Got nothing to do with this pickup. Got an order for this pickup last week. Where'd you fly her? Up the line. Where up the line? Up to poor rivers to wait for the regular airline. Airliner? Where? You'll have to ask her mister. Now I got an order and I'm wasting gas. Who's flying? You want to stay Mike? No. No I don't want to stay. But I got no place to go. You got no reason to hang around here. I believe you about Greg. Come on. We'll catch that regular airline. You can never tell what you're going to run into. And that's the way it was up at bar town. But there was more to it than that. It was what happened to Mrs. Greg and where her trail led Mike and me. Straight to jail. And that's where we'll go next week. On the trail of Mrs. Greg and a package full of hundred dollar bills. It's a real adventure I like to call Chris Cross. Heard with me on today's transcribed John Steele adventure where Jack Orison, Mary Ashworth, Maurice Tarplin and Charlie Holmes. I'm Don Douglas. So until next week then and Chris Cross. Remember, adventure is where you find it. But don't look for it. It may find you. Remember to be with us next week for another episode in the series John Steele. Adventurer. Remember, a country is known by its people. What people think of your country depends on you. This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and the Television Service.