 From Hollywood, it's time now for Johnny Dulling. This is the operator at the Explorer's Club. Oh, good. Have you been able to... Sorry, Mr. Dull. Well, hasn't he been there at all? He was there any calls then. Since you first telephoned, he hasn't been back. Well, do you know when he will be back? No. All right, then leave a message. I'll meet him there at the club. Is it... It's important that I keep him from being murdered. And every weekday night, Bob Bailey in the transcribed adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account, America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator... Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. From Special Investigator Johnny Dollar to Inter-Allied Life Insurance Company, Crutchfield Square, Hartford, Connecticut. Assignment? The Curse of Konoshek matter. Expense account continued. Item 6, $9.80, trained in New York, quick lunch and taxi to the Traders Bank and Trust Company. There, I picked up the American Express Traveller's checks that Eric Turnbull had left in my name, had left for expense money to take me to Egypt to make sure his nephew Donald Cronin lives safely through an expedition to open the grave of the ancient Pharaoh Konoshek. The bank teller's brief remark gave me something to think about. I'll sign, Mr. Donald. Yep. Yes, now let me check the amount for you just once more. All right. 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 3,500, 4, 45, 47, 48, and $5,000 each. Here you are. Good. Thanks. And as I'm sure Mr. Turnbull knows, this will close out this particular account completely. I thought about that remark a little later when it began to tie in with some other learned. Right now, item 780 cents care fair to the explorer's club. Donald had not yet returned, so I left another message for him, asking him to sit tight until he heard from me. And I meant sit tight. Because apparently after the latest argument with his uncle Eric, he was quite likely to hop off to Egypt on short notice. This I didn't want. As a matter of fact, at this point, I wasn't sure I approved of his expedition at all. Both his uncle and his girlfriend Dorothy Harkness had told me they thought his life was in danger. And each accused the other of plotting his murder. I was about to leave the explorer's club when I was buttonholed by a short, kind of cute looking old character in gray striped suit, tatters all vests, spats, believe it or not, and all but a monocle. I say there old man. Yes. If you'll pardon me, I believe I overheard you inquiring at the desk for Donald Cronin, didn't I? Oh yes, do you know him? I most certainly do. But excuse me, I'm Percival Thronhurst Scatterday. Mr. Scatterday, I'm Johnny Dolan. Oh yes, yes, yes, Donald. I told him that he'd met you at his home. Tell me, do you plan to accompany him on the expedition to Thebes? Well, yes. Excellent, excellent. It should result, you know, in one of the most important archaeological finds of the century. Think of it. The Tomb of Kamashek. Yes. Do you know where Donald is now? Treasures, artifacts, and that should put to shame the ones that were excavated from the Tomb of Tutankhamen. Yes, I'm sure of it. But now... If history has told us the truth about Kamashek, 18th dynasty, I believe. That I wouldn't know. But now, Mr. Scatterday, it's important that I reach Donald Kroner just as soon as... No, no, no, no, now that I think of it, Kamashek was twelfth dynasty. Mr. Scatterday, if... But he couldn't be, because that was the era... Oh yes, yes, I remember now. It was the 18th, the same period in which the great temple of Queen Hatshepsut was erected at Daya El-Bahari at Thebes, of course. You've seen that, of course. No, I haven't. More magnificent and thralling. Now look here, sir. But now, Mr. Dolan... I'd like to reach Donald Kroner, so if you'll excuse me... Mr. Dolan, please, you say you are going with Donald. You do know about the curts of Kamashek, or do you? Yes, yes, I've heard of it. Oh, then you'll certainly arrange not to be present at the opening of the sarcophagus. Why? Well, as I'm certain you know, all the preliminary work has been accomplished by the advance party, of course. So I understand. The anti-chamber of the tomb was opened over a month ago. So? Well, it simply means that as soon as Donald arrives, they will penetrate to the sepulchral chamber and the sarcophagus itself. Well... Mr. Dolan, it was engraved on the stone slab, barring the way to the last chamber, Mantak Kofore El, and so on. Oh, it's not supposed to be. The warning, my boy. The warning that whosoever violates the tomb and desecrate the body of the noble Pharaoh by contact therewith shall quickly die. You don't believe in those things, do you? Mr. Dolan... As I always understood it, those warnings were just put there to discourage thieves from robbing those old tombs. Mr. Dolan, I only ask that you remember what happened to those who violated the tomb of Tutankhamer. Oh, well, couldn't the deaths of the people who entered that tomb be due simply to coincidence or other things, circumstances quite apart from their having done so? Of course, of course they could, but were they? Mr. Dolan, I assure you that if it were not for the warning of the curse of Kamashek, I would be the first to want to enter that tomb. Instead, I have refused to go on the expedition at all. Take care of Donald. Well, that's what I'm being hired to do. And of yourself, sir? Yeah, sure. Now, sorry, but I'm anxious to reach Donald and you say you've seen him here at the club? Yes, only last evening. He was here making some of his final preparations. Oh, do you know where he is now? Yes. Well, where? At his uncle's place in Stamford, Connecticut. You're sure? As sure as I am, but you've not heeded my warning about the curse of Kamashek, but I beg you, Mr. Dolan, for the welfare of Donald, Cronin, and yourself. Yeah, sure. Thanks. If this were a mystery story, instead of an accounting of expenditures on a case, I'd tank Percy Scatterday as a prime suspect for whatever might happen later, like the man who tries to throw you off his own trail by suggesting that somebody else is gunning for you. But I decided he was just an old foggy who'd been turned down on the Kamashek expedition was trying to justify his own shortcomings with the tales about the curse. But you know something? I was wrong. I should have listened to him a little longer. Item eight, 75 cents, taxi to the office of Harrison and Dilman and Co. to see David Wilt, the man Eric Turnbull had named as his stockbroker. The reason? The remark the bank teller had made about closing out an account as it turned out my timing was perfect. Sit down, sir, sit down. I'll be with you just as soon as I finish this phone call. Oh, sure, thanks. Hello. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, but someone just stepped into my office. If you'd rather be left alone, I'd rather be left alone. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, I'd rather be left alone. No, it's all right. Now, as I started to say, if you dispose of the gold metal mining stock, your holdings will be reduced to practically nothing. Yes. Yes, that's right. Yes, but Mr. Turnbull... Look, you're sure you wouldn't rather I come back another time. Very well, very well. It's just that I hate to see what was once a very strong investment program. Very well, Mr. Turnbull, if you insist. Turnbull. Yes, yes. Goodbye. Now, sir. Eric Turnbull? Mr. Wilt? Yes, but... Now, just a minute, sir. It was very remiss of me to mention a client's name in front of you, at least under the circumstances. Whatever I may have said on the phone just now was quite confidential. Yeah, I'm sure it was. I can only ask that you discreetly forget anything you may have heard. Not by a long shot. What's this? Who are you, sir? Dollar, I believe, the receptionist said. That's right, Johnny Dollar, insurance investigator. And that conversation told me just what I came here to try to charm you into telling me. Mr. Dollar, please remember this. That was entirely confidential. None of your business. Yeah, my credentials. Yeah? Well... Now, you remember something. So far as Eric Turnbull is concerned, my coming here is entirely confidential. None of his business. Goodbye, Mr. Wilt. So the wealthy Eric Turnbull wasn't so wealthy after all. Big investments in the stock market, he'd said. But they didn't look so big anymore. And the closing out of bank accounts. I had a $9.30 phone call to Dorothy Harkness. Yes, Mr. Dollar. I just called to tell you, Dorothy, that if it'll be any satisfaction to you, I'm going to make the trip to Egypt. Oh, Uncle. Oh, gal, that sounds like a line out of an old melodrama. I know you don't like. You know something? I'm beginning to feel a little that way, too. I can't seem to find him. Do you know where he is? Have you tried the explorers? No, not there. Really? Well, if he does happen, get in touch with me. Where, Mr. Dollar? Right now, I'm going out to Eric Turnbull's house. After that, I'll be back in Hartford. Item 10, $7.00, even train fare back to Stanford and taxi to the Turnbull residence in the hope that there I would find Donald Cronin, the real principal in this case, and the one person I hadn't yet talked to. But it was Eric Turnbull who met me at the door. Mr. Dollar, I'm glad to see you. Come in, come in. Have you seen my nephew, Donald? Well, no. Isn't he here? No. Or is he at the explorers' club? I've called them several times. I'm worried about him and his present frame of mind... I'm worried about him too, Mr. Turnbull, but not for the same reason. Because of that girl, Dorothy Hartness, here, sir. No, that isn't what I meant. In his present frame of mind, he's likely to jump off on his flight to Egypt without... Look here, I wonder if he's with her. No, that much I do know. Oh, I wish to heaven he would call if anything happens to him. If anything happens to him, you'd love it, wouldn't you? What? What did you say? I've done a little checking up on you, Mr. Turnbull, since I last talked to you. What do you mean? In a case as involved as this, it's necessary to check all the angles, everything, every one, even the man who hires you. Has that girl been poisoning your mind against me too? Your banker, from whom I picked up the American Express checks, let it slip that your account is in pretty bad shape. Non-existent now, as a matter of fact. Go on, Mr. Donald. And your stockbroker, quite inadvertently, made it all too plain that the big investments you told me about aren't so big after all. Mr. Donald. All right, tie that in with the fact that if anything does happen to Donald, you'll come into his estate. You've said enough. But it's true, isn't it? You laid so much stress on Dorothy and the museum getting his 100,000 life insurance, but you're the one who would really benefit by his death. Donald, you have talked with one banker, with one stockbroker. Why, in your snooping around, didn't you talk with the others who hold my accounts? Like who? Like, that's none of your business. But if what you are implying were true, why in heaven's name would I ever ask you to come in and protect my nephew? As a cover-up? I should knock you down with my bare fists and believe me, my boy, I could do it. Now listen to me. I am listening. If I didn't have any money, how could I afford to give you the 5,000 and expense money, pay whatever other costs may be involved in your employment? And why do you suppose, in spite of this high-handed attitude of yours, I'm still begging you to stay on this case? See, Donald, Mr. Donald, talk with him. You'll find that in spite of the angry scene between us, I'm concerned only with his welfare, that I want to protect him, that I want you to protect him. Wait, wait, that's Donald. Now, let me take it. Well, now, just a minute. Oh, Mr. Dollar, I was calling Mr. Turnbull. Mr. Scannady? Yes, at the explorers' club. Mr. Dollar, I've just talked to a couple of fellow members who saw him off. Saw him? Donald Cronin? Yes, last night. His plane has probably reached Cairo by now. Fooled all of us, didn't he? Yeah. Thanks. Well, I thought you'd want to... Well? Donald left for Egypt last night. Oh, no. Oh, yes. Then please, please, I beg of you, go. In Heaven's name, go to it. Stay with it. Protect him. For a long moment, Eric Turnbull simply stood there, sobbing, pleading with his tear-filled eyes. And suddenly, I don't know why, I found that I believed him. I wish now that he'd been lying. Two lives might have been saved. Now here's our star to tell you about tomorrow's episode of This Week's Story. Tomorrow, a flight into darkness, and when day has come, there's blood on the desert sands. Join us, won't you? Yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Today, Johnny Dollar, starring Bob Bailey, is transcribed in Hollywood. It is produced and directed by Jack Johnstone, who also wrote This Week's Story. Be sure to join us tomorrow night, same time and station for the next exciting episode of yours truly, Johnny Dollar. Roy Rowan speaking.