 Johnny dollar hey Johnny listen this is Steve Steve you know Steve Yokem oh yeah way out there in the where is that Steve Callis Bell Callis Bell Montana oh yeah you know for state mutual right well what seems to be the trouble Steve listen can you fly on out here right away Johnny sure I guess so what's up rich old man got him insured for nearly 500 grand and well if what it looks like has happened the company is going to be out almost a million you know cause of the double indemnity for accidental death yeah if like I say that is the way it's happened I mean if it's happened at all well is he dead or isn't he that's the trouble I don't know not for sure what do you mean I mean that's what you better get on out here and find out for us all right and if he is dead whether it was accidental or it wasn't but if he isn't dead well that we got no about to but if he is all right all right Steve I'll be out to see what I mean it huh right listen if you can catch a plane tonight y'all to get here some time in the morning I'll be waiting for you at the airport well first I'd better check a schedule of me hello hello okay rattle brain I'll be there yes radio network brings you Bob Reddick in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator yours truly Johnny dollar expense account submitted by a special investigator Johnny dollar to the four state mutual insurance company office in Kalispell Montana following is an account of expenses incurred during my investigation of the yak mystery matter expense account item one ten cents for a morning paper after carefully checking meteorological reports for a slant on the weather in northwestern Montana I made sure to throw some gloves heavy woolen socks and a set of long handled underwear into my luggage item two five bucks for a cab to Bradley Field item three a hundred and forty five fifty plane fare it was almost nine thirty a.m. by the time we sat down at the small but prosperous looking city of Kalispell and true to his word young Steve Yocum was there at the airport we piled ourselves and my luggage into a jeep that had the side curtains up but no heater and then took off now reaching back out you Johnny swap that top coat of yours for a sheepskin you'll find back there you're going to need it where we're going where's that Steve 130 40 miles up to the yak but what up near town called yak if you can call it a town just a glorified crossroads maybe 40 50 people living around there put it on you'll need it you're the doctor Steve yeah we're going in real snow country you still haven't told me why all that client of ours John Turner Whitcomb made a lot of dough and lumber when his wife died he retired so he and his good-looking daughter Valerie is his only child and her husband Lou Larson took off last week for a little vacation little hunting maybe out of shorty Bessam's camp that's up in the rugged country east of yak over near lost horse mountain what's happened to him I got a call from shorty Bessam just before I called you seems the weather calmed down for a couple of days and where to come and the kids took some gear and horses and went out hunting hunting at this time of year what for Steve that's what I don't understand they went out anyway over shorty's protest oh and I only didn't come back but shorty hasn't been able to find hide no hair of them oh 90 miles out of callus bell on route to we stopped for lunch at the colorful sawmill town of Libby a kind of headquarters and main supply point for the logging operations in that area and then we cut north on one of the worst roads that I'd ever traveled yeah the snow plows had been through but that was all and what's more it clouded up and then what started out as a cold drizzle turned into a heavy wet snowfall in the middle of May yet Steve had called it rugged country and he wasn't kidding most of what we passed through was heavy forest lands spots almost impenetrable except perhaps for the logging trails here and there lots of big trees jungle of heavy tangled undergrowth not a good place to get lost my good hunting country to Johnny mean when the weather is good lots of deer and wolves mountain lions lots of things at yak we stop long enough to fill up with gas that's item four four seventy and then plunged into the deep forest going eastward on believe it or not an even worse piece of road following a vague sort of wagon path through the trees and the heavy snow only a four wheel drive would ever have made it it was after 5 p.m. by the time we finally got to shorty Bessam's camp but there in the big log cabin or other lodge Mrs. Bessam a bright-eyed sprightly old lady took one look at our frost bitten faces sat us down in front of a roaring fire that stone fireplace was big enough to walk into logs burning in it were over a foot thick and then she bought us full of strong steaming coffee heavily laced with rum and I began to feel warm for the first time in hours well I told him Mr. Dolly sir shorty told Mr. Whitaker and those young kids they ought to pack out in those woods without him going along with them I told him I told him likely there might be another snow coming up to them just wouldn't listen to him and I'll have some more of this oh no thanks Mr. Bessam names Kate you know you need this you feel to still look a little blue around the gills in the cold out there thank you put some more rum in it shorty oh you too Mr. Yolkham well oh don't mind if I do thank you yes sir Mr. Whitaker just wouldn't listen him having been such a great hunter all over the world so much over in Africa open Kilimanjaro candy and all those other places he talks about all around high mountains all kinds of weather just wouldn't listen yes wouldn't listen ask me I think he was trying to prove with that Sun Law that young Larson was really a man up in this country well at least he promised they'd be back the next morning so well I let him take some of the horses and go then it snowed a bit that night snow to me when they didn't come back the Branson boys and said killer from over near the ranger station they started looking yeah yes they started looking up until dark yesterday and most of today snow they couldn't even find their tracks couldn't find their tracks and they hadn't said where they was going to so all we could do is look at all the likely places but we didn't find a sign up and Steve how did you expect me to find them and these people who know this country so well can't do it well I know Johnny but not we listen what is a shorty why yes that's a horse out there oh maybe they're back they're all right after all come on boy right no look what's that Johnny yeah young Larson yeah but he's just a little hot come on come on let's see if he's still okay Larson you still alive Steve give me a hand with him help me get him out of that saddle sure Johnny shorty I don't know well get him inside here where I can do him some good easy now Steve easy with him yeah Johnny I'll take care of the horse Lou Larson was still alive and I wondered how a city boy that was obvious from his soft hands and pale complexion as general build I wondered how he had managed to survive when the others the others but it was well into the night by the time Kate brought him around enough to tell us what had happened they're dead they're dead mr. dollar mr. Witticombe my my Valerie oh that poor lovely little girl where Lou and how did it happen somewhere somewhere in the south slope of lost horse Mountain Hill at least that's where that's who mr. Witticombe said we were now here now boy you just get some more of this hot coffee inside yeah boy get some hot coffee in you thanks I'm feeling all right now I think go on Lou what happened when the snow came he he said we better make camp not try to get back here now that was wrong of him you've known this country at all wondered about that too Kate was getting dark he found a kind of shelter and built a fire was under some big rocks beside a real deep crevice on the side of the lost horse yes dead man's hole very narrow very deep that's all it is a death trap that's what it is told me to go look around with some more wood while he and Val try to make camp five under the snow that piles up there dollar if my horse hadn't followed me we we'd have died out there too maybe it would have been better if I'd stayed with them with with Valerie and died with her easy now she was my wife mr. dollar I loved her very much I know go on I only got a couple of hundred feet away when I heard that terrible sound like thunder an avalanche that's what it was and I look back and that's what's taking the lives of more people in that awful chasm it's a death trap I tell you it's a death trap go on well I could see was thousands of tons of snow and rocks falling down where I'd left them rolling everything even their horses into that chasm it was terrible terrible all right now son you just take and take yourself another drink of this and then you sleep a while thank you Kate so tired sure you are here you man help me to bed come on shorty give me a hand sure mr. dollar and we'll put him in what was mr. Whitick comes room it'll be warmer than that's a good idea it'll also give me a chance to what's matters come on let's get him getting kind of late mr. dollar other folks are all asleep how far is it to that canyon shorting oh couple hours if you know the way if you don't know the way in this kind of weather it could take a couple of days like it is young Larson awfully easy to get lost out there but if you're thinking of going out and try and find them mr. dollars yeah there's no point in it why do you say that like Kate said they're not the first to have fell in dead man's hole but nobody's body has ever been drug out of it why not it's too deep too dangerous too easy to start more rocks sliding down inside of it I'll take your word for it most anything that started slide there build a fire under the snow overhang on top of that rocky is talking about you'd start a snow avalanche really just fire a shot on some of the smaller rocks on the side you'd start them tumbling down why even a little animal walking around up there do it oh it's happened many times mr. dollar read up in all the books that ever been wrote about this part of country yeah well now mr. dollar I don't know about you but it's late and everybody else is to bed so why don't you me it's back to huh not more we can do tonight anyhow you go ahead I'll be along shortly I don't know what I was really looking for there and Lou Larson's room and I had to be very quiet but then in one of his suitcases under a pile of shirts was a piece of a topographical map a map of the area surrounding lost horse mountain at one point on the south side was a check mark what was obviously a very deep narrow canyon and there was a book to the legend of lost horse mountain reason for suspicion sure that that was all or was it all the next morning was surprisingly enough quite warm though heavy storm clouds raced across the sky you never know this time of year mr. dollar one day it'll be hot like this next it'll be freezing up again or maybe snow I knew now that I had to have a look down into dead man's hole and before another avalanche could fill it up some more happens 810 15 times a year they'll never fill up that big chasm washes out in the summer floods and over his protest shorty and I set out on a couple of the horses armed with pick and shovel and a pair of binoculars as for Steve Yocum who'd struck me as being pretty useless in a situation like this I left him behind to look after young Larson still asleep in Whitickham's bed like those clouds mr. Dolly chances are we're gonna get a lot of chance we'll have to take but if you think I'm gonna let you lower yourself down in dead man's hole to look for a couple of bodies that are probably all covered up anyway sorry shorty but I have to let's get there before the storm breaks but we didn't I'm gonna storm hits that part of the country it isn't fooling part of it across from where the others and then I see him the rain has melted away the snow that covered a book but we'll never get to let me have those field glasses no shorty thanks this rain will also cover them up again with all the rocks and stuff it'll wash down there and that'll be the end I'll know it won't shorty break out those ropes and help me down there now don't you try it come on help me wriggle on I tell you you're crazy what I'd seen in the glasses had told me mr. Whitickham and his daughter had been murdered before they'd been thrown into that canyon bullet holes in their heads slowly I worked my way down toward them careful not to dislodge any rocks or rain so clumps of gravel and now even without the glasses I could see the bullet holes now that you're sure come on back here come on back up dollars just yes another few feet so I can get a line on them and we can what was that that wasn't no fondly dolly that was a rifle shot I know never managed to hold me up out of that pit of death with tons and tons of rock and mud pouring down all around me from the far side of the chasm I'll never know but somehow he did and then panting from exhaustion we lay there well back from the edge the blessed rain in our faces I'm sure they was rifle shots dolly I'm sure of it and when I saw one of the key rocks blasted away over there and start another slide again I'm betting it was the same rifle that was used to kill Whitickham and his daughter before they were thrown down in there he knew how easy it was to start a slide at this spot from a book that he'd read one of those that you talked about and he knew that nobody but a fool like me would try to come here and look for those bodies well why darling why money Whitickham didn't like him did he now see that's true Kate said that Whitickham brought him out here to see if he was really a man yes sir that's true and that means he didn't like having young Larson married to his daughter in line to share all of his money when he died Valerie was his only child that's true too dolly but why should Lou share it by getting rid of both of them he could have it all that is true sure it is but he seemed awful sorry about losing that Valerie oh sure he broke right down and cried that he did sure he did but he also recovered pretty down quickly shorty in order to go on with his explanation of what was supposed to have happened out here that's true too but believe me the only reason that Larson ever married that girl was to get his hands on the old man's money certainly never did any work with those hands of his so maybe he came to try I mean despite the way she's taken care of him after he came in well she just didn't like him didn't trust him wait a minute shorty huh if he's still around here and armed with a gun I mean those shots he was still asleep when we left and that insurance man that Steve Yocum is watching over he was supposed to be watching him he could have slipped away from Steve now maybe Larson saw the slide and thought it killed us both and went back maybe but if he is still around right here dollar put a put down that rifle now live another chance shorty and all I said was true a loom first it was dollar but nobody else will ever know it how nice of you to come out here we're another rock slide and this time a big one will take care of you know what you're going to do Larson very stupid of you dollar to go through my things last night wasn't it pretty stupid of you to come out here after us came where so far as anyone knows when I left the lodge it was simply to wander aimlessly about in the woods in a sort of delirium following my state of near exhaustion that pretended state of exhaustion fooled you didn't I and shorty and his wife even that stupid insurance man I should have realized your horse Betsy was in too good shape when you brought her in last night of course shorty because Betsy and I had been perfectly comfortable on your hay shed the other side of the property all the time we were supposed to be missing so now you got to us what you're going to do Larson me nothing you're going to do it for me up on your feet now huh I sit up on your feet come on sure but very careful dollar I warn you you have the gun loom I'll back up back up way into that canyon you two dollars no no no no it'll kill us either that or a bullet shorty back up better look behind you loom come off a dollar that old gag won't work now back up sorry loom you give me no choice he means it's dollar he means he's gonna shoot you I doubt it shorty is right dollar you're going now you're going now get his rifle shorty yes sir yes sir but that gunshot mr. dollar where did it come from I'm sorry Johnny almost didn't make it mr. you're telling me Steve when he sneaked out of the lodge I thought instead of stopping him I'd better follow see what he was up to you knew a suspicious of him too and well sure but man with him making such time for a guy supposed to be all in and me not used to walking so far well I almost didn't make it and I'm sorry he did all right Steve you sure did son for the laws of succession takeover and somebody else gets the insurance and the old man's estate as for Lou Larson even hangings too good for that kind expense account total including the trip home 207 75 yours truly Johnny dollar here is our star with an important message and a few words about next week's story the CBS radio network and this station are both very much a part of National Radio Month but the figures show that you the listener are just as much a part of the celebration you take part every month of every year with your purchases of new radio sets today there's an all-time record number of radio sets in use today there are more listeners than ever and the number one network for the best sound around is of course CBS radio and now next week the stock in trade matter and the stock I'm talking about is just exactly that stock join us won't you yours truly Johnny dollar Johnny dollar starring Bob Reddick is written by Jack Johnstone produced and directed by Bruno Zirapa Jr. musical supervision by Applehuber here in our cast where Robert Brighton as shorty Bill Lipton as Steve Athena Lord is Kate and Alan Manson as Lou Larson be sure to join us next week same time same station for another exciting story of yours truly Johnny dollar Art Hanna speaking this is the CBS radio network