 The signal oil program the whistler is your signal for the signal oil program The whistler and the whistler and I know many things for I walk by night I know many strange tales hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows Yes, I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak Yes friends. It's time for the signal oil program the whistler Rated by independent research the most popular program on the west coast Remember, let every traffic signal remind you With new signal gasoline you do go farther than ever Look for the familiar big yellow and black circle sign that identifies those popular signal service stations in seven western states from canada to mexico And now the whistler strange story The cistern there was murder on Ronnie Hartfield's mind long before he discovered the cistern in round valley But the discovery more than anything else made him decide to do it The groundwork had been laid of course He was a partner with old Hank Murphy in the gold-bearing ledge Hank had discovered on the shoulder of sharps peak a Million dollars in rich ore and Ronnie owned 10% of it It wasn't bad for a young metallurgist fresh out of college But Ronnie wasn't the kind to think of his own 10% No, his mind was on the other 90 and the inheritance clause in the partnership agreement There had to be other things of course like the casual conversation He had one afternoon with sheriff Dawson as they sat on the porch of the sheriff's office Looking across the lake, but that ain't what makes a law enforcement out here so much tougher than in the city What's the first job in a murder case for example find the body body? Yeah Look at that lake look that Ronnie the sun on that water If I could move that lake to the coast I could sell it for a million dollars Come around sometime during a rainstorm and I'll close the deal for 10 cents. Why? She ain't a natural lake, you know But we've had to move this shack twice now when the water was right up the floor level She ain't always as pretty as she looks now blue and calm and shiny. I don't know. I think it's worth it. You'd be a mountaineer yet, Ronnie What was I saying a while back you were talking about law enforcement. Oh, yeah It was this business of bodies You can say all you want about city police, but let me tell you they ain't in it with a county sheriff When it comes to a murder case No You see before you do anything else you got to find the body got to prove the guy's dead No, that's one thing in the city, but it's something else in a place like this Or down in arizona for instance Where a man's got 20,000 square miles of country to hide the body in I see Funny thing though how bodies have a way of turning up That guy in arizona. I was telling you about yeah Eight years. It took us no one all the time. He done it. You found it, huh? Yeah, the wind uncovered it in a dry gulch 10 miles from town Dry air has a way of preserving things you could identify it sure we hung him But if it hadn't been for that wind well, it would have been something else Sometimes it don't pay to go looking for it. If you just lean back and relax, it'll work itself out sometime Well Ronnie it's odd that the sheriff should have hit upon the subject of bodies And it's a good thing he couldn't read your mind Because everything he said made you think of the cistern in round valley With the bare traces of a ruined cabin more than a hundred years old nearby You'd been exhausted the day you found it after following a four-point buck down the length of the ridge above and losing him there in the willows Then as you fought your way through the brush your foot suddenly rang hollowly on the cover of the cistern And there it was deep and dark Completely lost in the tangled mass of trees No desert wind there was there Ronnie Once you dropped hank into the cistern he'd be there for keeps runny runny Huh? Sorry, you know what hank? I think ronnie's in love Well, what's the matter? I've just been talking to you for five minutes. That's all I was thinking I guess just like you hank comes into my store to buy groceries and goes to sleep by the stove He's thinking about that hole in the ground. What? What's the matter? Marge knows all about the mine. Oh Yeah, you picked yourself a pretty good partner ronnie if that ledges as good as hank said it is Even steven I got myself a good metallurgist too What with a stamp and mill to be built and all this ain't no picking shovel project, you know Going to take money. Oh, don't worry about that. We got that all settled. Hey, we ronnie Soon as mr. Coulter sees the plans ronnie made up. Who's mr. Coulter? Oh fella down the city old friend of mine I'm going down below to see him next week alone. Yeah Ronnie thinks he better stay around and look after things. Uh-huh. What's matter? Don't know about hank alone the city with all them saloons Oh Last time hank went down for a weekend. Nobody saw hide in a harem for six months if we didn't know him better We would have thought he was dead Oh my better keep a close tab on him ronnie You're right. I'd better You're pretty close to the brink aren't you ronnie The sister was in your mind then too and it keeps returning more and more frequently until it excludes almost everything else Particularly at night when there's no sound but the crickets outside and you can lie awake and think of the ledge A million dollars or more in gold or almost on the surface A tenth of it yours according to the agreement Unless of course something should happen to hang It would be all yours then wouldn't it ronnie a million dollars And that kind of thinking always leads to the cistern the me willow thicketed round valley There's no possible way they could ever discover it is there Finally on the night before hank is scheduled to leave you make up your mind Hank I just ran on to something. I want you to come with me What are you talking about? I've been up to round valley all day What were you doing up in that gut forsaken place? I got a new outcrop hank. I'm sure of it What in round valley why there's no gold there is you've got to see it before you go down to the city Whoa, wait a minute. Wait a minute. This ain't a joke. I tell you there's gold up there I'm serious. Look it'll only take us about two hours tonight. Why it's dark already. Listen. Will you believe me? This can't wait Okay, ronnie. Let's go Can't see where i'm going. It's not much farther. Why didn't we come up the other ridge? I don't see no sense in cutting across this infernal will of tickets Wait up with you over this way Where are you? I can't see a thing ronnie I'll keep my feet in this brush Ronnie, where are you scared? Here's the light the cistern Signal oil company is bringing you another strange story by the whistler There's an old hindu fable about the blind man and the elephant Being unable to see an elephant these blind men decided to feel one to determine what an elephant is like Well, the first blind man happening to grasp the elephant's ear promptly exclaimed Why an elephant is like a large leaf? But the second blind man wrapping his arms around one of the elephant's huge legs protested Oh, no an elephant is like a tree trunk And the third man feeling the elephant's tail shouted You're both wrong an elephant is like a rope all three were right But only partly right And i'm always reminded of this story when i hear a motorist say Signal gasoline is outstanding for quicker starting or another say signal is tops for faster pickup Or a third say new signal has higher anti-knot Now all three are right, but only partly right For in new signal you get all three advantages quicker starting faster pickup and higher anti-knot But in addition there's a bonus a bonus of extra mileage For because of the amazing power in signals new super fuel that helps you get this greater efficiency This extra performance from your motor you actually go farther than ever With new signal gasoline And now Back to the whistler Yes, ronnie It took a combination of things to put the murder of hank murphy in your mind The ledge on sharps peak in a million dollars in raw gold The sheriff with his idle discussion on the importance of finding the corpus delecti Marge's contribution about your partner's habit of disappearing for months at a stretch But most of all It was the cistern in the willows of round valley The hiding place a thousand men could hunt for without ever coming close That was the most important thing wasn't it ronnie? And it's the thing that makes you feel absolutely secure now On the morning after you kill them As you walk into marge's general store Oh marge now wait a minute if you're gonna ask me how I am the answer is awful What's the matter? Coffee no coffee forgot to pick it up last night. Yeah, I missed you missed me Mostly hank he's picked up his groceries on tuesdays and fridays for as long as I've been here Well, what'll it be a pound? Yeah, that'll do for fun. What do you think about hank? He's an old galutin lots of ways, but part of him is regular as far as drinking arm for one thing Yeah, and getting his grub for another last night when he didn't show up. I says to myself There's something wrong somewhere You say you ain't had breakfast yet. Uh, no Hmm hanks probably cussing you out for fear waiting for his coffee at this hour Drunk or sober he gets his breakfast at seven o'clock. What do you mean? Ain't he waiting up in the cabin? No, he's gone. Huh? Yeah, he left for town this morning Why he wouldn't do that. Huh? What go off like that without Tell me what time did he leave? I don't know when I woke up. He was gone Well, that's a funny one He swore on a stack of bibles. He'd take a package down to my niece in sacramento I had a few drinks probably forgot where to get the liquor Well, I suppose he had it in the house. He didn't have a drop in the house He told me yesterday when he came in here and tried to buy some we were out too Far as I know there wasn't a drop in town and none come until monday Say How'd he get out of town? Oh the six o'clock bus I guess You know, I can't help feeling there's something fishy somewhere Why? Well, there wasn't no six o'clock bus this morning. It's still at crema's bar with a broken axle Say what? You don't suppose old hank sprouted himself a pair of wings, do you? I wouldn't put it past him You can't beat that old barman I told you keeping a tab on him was no sin Funny though, ain't it? About that package for my niece Hank never done a thing like that long as I can remember Forgetting that away. You know, that's not like hank at all You're not whistling now as you cross the street to the bank You keep telling yourself that marge is an old busybody that the rest of the town will chuckle over hanks on ceremonious departure There's a forced self assurance about you as you walk up to mr. Jenkins at the teller's window Hello, mr. Jenkins. Hi, runny. What can I do for you this morning? Ah, how about 20 dollars? Okay? All right. There you are 10 15 and five is 20 Say, what about hank? Huh? And he's supposed to leave today. Oh, he left this morning. Yeah, that's funny What's the matter? What do you use for money? Why he had the money? No, he didn't he came in here yesterday afternoon after three and told me he didn't have dime Want me to open up so he could draw 200 dollars for the trip? Well Well, you know about that. He didn't pick it up either pick it up I got it from just for closing and left it at the express office Oh, no, ain't that something You couldn't uh going down without money. Maybe Maybe that's why he borrowed a hundred from me That's why I came in this morning. He took all I had now. Wait a minute runny. Are you kidding me? No, why hank never borrowed a dime in his life It's kind of a legend with him Oh I suppose since I'm his partner. I'm not hank Well, he didn't have much choice leaving this morning. I told him the money'd be waiting at the express office Ain't that one for the book never heard tell a hank born just not like him. That's all You're beginning to thank your lucky stars for the cistern aren't you runny During the next few days the town's curiosity about hank doesn't die down It changes first into wonderment Then into genuine worry There's a feeling in the air that something is wrong It hangs over the town like a cloud And as the days go by you begin to notice the conversation suddenly hushed as you approach the penetrating curious glances feeling of terrible doubt Then just a week after hank's disappearance you come home to the cabin To find the sheriff waiting for you Oh, hello sheriff What do you want just dropped by to say hello getting the might worried about ink. Yeah, so am I are you Me me nothing Curious ain't it how a man can get out of town without transportation or money. He had money Maybe and maybe he could have got liquored up without liquor too. I don't know where he got that Kind of jumpy, ain't you? Well, I'm getting sick of this talk all all this insinuation behind my back Nobody's insinuating runny. We're just a might worry that I tell you he's probably in san francisco right now That's just it he ain't just picked up this wire from the telegraph office take a look, huh? Been expecting murphy for a week. Where is he colder? Whoa, he's probably in some bar down there. No What do you mean? He used to disappear for months at a time You just don't know hank if there's money mixed up in it anywhere There ain't a soberer man in the county your crazy hank was a drunk and you know it Was I mean he is Hmm ain't it funny that you and I were talking about in murder cases just the other day Now listen here. I have better see who it is Hank murphy live here. Yeah, they told me down at the hotel that the sheriff was up. What do you want? Send them in runny Come on in you the sheriff. Yeah, what is it? I just happened to say something down at the hotel a night and they told me you might be interested I was driving through here the other morning on my way to sacramento. What morning friday Okay, I picked up a guy on the road about six o'clock. What did he look like did he have a minute runny? Tell us what he looked like son. Oh, I say about 55 Kind of bald up here with gray hair and a mustache I think he was kind of drunk Said the bus wasn't running you have a suitcase. Yeah, yeah And I think he was wearing a black suit. I see six o'clock last Friday morning, huh? Yeah Yeah, I chuck him down the road always let him off at the sacramental highway Satisfied sheriff might be Like I was telling your Ronnie sometimes it don't pay to get all worked up over these things They have a way of solving themselves sometimes Well, I better be getting home looks like we're in for a storm You have a lot of time to think during the next few days, haven't you Ronnie With the storm pounding around your ears forcing you to keep close to the cabin The nervous feeling inside is almost gone now. Thanks to that boy who just happened to pick up an old hitchhiker at the right moment That was a lucky break. Wasn't it? Most of the townspeople are satisfied now that hank is off somewhere on another spree And you finally feel it's time to call again on mr. Jenkins at the bank As a matter of fact mr. Jenkins, I'm beginning to wonder about hank A bit more than a week now. Yeah, it is funny him hitchhiking out of town that way Listen to that But we've had 10 inches of rain in this storm Lake level is up 12 feet Wouldn't surprise me if the sheriff had to move his office again And now let's see you want to look over the agreement between you and hank Yes, you see there's a lot to be done before winter sets and we ought to settle that business with mr. Calder get our materials up to the site and you're wondering if you can go ahead. Yeah No Looks as if hanks in the driver's seat Long as he's alive anyway Of course in case of his death you'll take I didn't mean that all all I meant was we're losing a lot of time I know you didn't mean that Well, I guess you got away till hank shows up running And put this away now Getting kind of tired looking at it. Sheriff was just in an hour ago asking the same question. What yeah He wanted to know about the 10 percent and 90 percent and who got what when who died He got no right to stick his nose in my business Funny about the sheriff Seems to think this is his business now Maybe Better go see him. That's a good idea Find a wet for you to be running around in it. That doesn't doesn't seem to bother you Does it sure that lakes beginning to bother me? I'll tell you look at her down there 20 feet away That's not what I'm talking about Well sit down in the porch here and tell me what's eating. Let's go inside. Nothing doing I want to keep an eye on that lake Now what's matter when are you going to admit you're wrong about hanks? Yes Well, I'll likely admit i'm wrong on the day that hank walks up to this porch like he used to and says howdy sheriff Have a cigar Trouble is that ain't never gonna happen So I reckon I ain't never going to admit i'm wrong That answer your question he left town. Didn't that kid satisfy you? Nope Could have been someone else who don't know Too bad. No one had a picture ain't don't you see what you're doing with your stupid guessing. They all think I killed him. Well Well, what they're right ain't they they're wrong. I tell you he was gone when I wait a minute ronnie Hank was nothing more than a hunk of clockwork. He never went off his schedule You just didn't know him well enough That's why I know you killed him ronnie. I know why and I think I know how But just like I told you when it comes to finding a body A county sheriff has a job on his hand And of course we can't do nothing till we find the body. I tell you you've got no right to talk Now wait a minute if you're trying to bluff me it won't work I ain't bluffing ronnie You see all the time you and hank were supposed to be inside your house having a few drinks before he took off The house was empty wasn't it because you happen to be off somewhere is killing him at the time I happen to know Because I dropped by at 10 o'clock to deliver marge's packing Don't worry though. I can't do nothing until I find the body and like I told you That takes time Oh, no eight years that time in arizona, but we got him the day after that windstorm County sheriffs just got to have patience, you know Matter ronnie Nothing nothing your white as a sheet what you're looking at Nothing I tell you You're sick It's all right It's all wrong. Something's haywire somewhere. What are you staring at? Good lord See it too in the water the edge of the lake It's It's hanks buddy. It's not it can't be come on. Let's take a look. No. No, I can't I said come on It is hank the whistler will return in just a moment with a strange ending of tonight's story Meantime with reconversion occupying the spotlight today. Here are some facts I think you'll be interested in You know, of course the vital role that independent businessmen played in the building of america And you know that today more and more men are expressing a desire to get into business for themselves But did you know that my sponsor signal oil company has for over 14 years sold its products only through independent businessmen? Substantial responsible men who are so earnest about their business of serving the motoring public that they're willing to invest their own money in it Naturally signal dealers are carefully chosen for their ability and integrity Which explains why the average dealer has been with signal oil company over seven years So you see there's a good reason why you find more conscientious experienced men operating signal stations and why signal dealers with an incentive to build their own business Naturally give your car more thorough service That does help it go farther And now back to the whistler It's too much isn't it ronnie too much after the tension of the past week To look down at hank's body floating at the edge of the lake right under the rail of the sheriff's porch Everything breaks loose at once. You're jabbering like an idiot telling the sheriff. It's impossible. Oh, don't lie to me You found it. Didn't you you found him it brought him here? It was a plot wasn't it? Wait a minute ronnie. Why did you have to drag it out? You knew it all the time. You just wanted to talk Shut up. Listen, I don't have. Shut up. Now what in thunder you're talking about Somebody brought him here. I put him in the cistern cistern round valley in the willow cistern in round valley There ain't no such thing as there is in the willow thicket that runs along the bottom. Wait a minute Did it have a square wooden cover on it? Yeah What's that mean looks like you sent hank back to us special delivery run it What was dry of course until there's rainstorm Uh, it was dry when you put him in it wasn't it Yeah, you see it ain't a cistern runny It's an underground water flume What a water flume Carries the water underground from the upper lake to this one When she overflowed up above the water just picked up hank and delivered him right to my door Like I said runny Sometimes it just don't pay a county sheriff to get all excited and go running over the hills It pays to just lean back and wait Nine o'clock the whistler will bring you another strange tale The whistler is broadcast for your entertainment by the marketers of signal gasoline and motor oil And fine quality automotive accessories And by your neighborhood signal dealer This program produced by george w allen with tonight's story by harold swanton music by wilber hatch Is transmitted to our troops overseas by the arm forces radio service at whistle Is your signal for the signal oil program? the whistler This is marvin miller speaking reminding you to look for those familiar yellow and black circle signs That identify those popular signal oil stations in seven western states from canada to mexico This is cbs the columbia broadcasting system