 Autolight and its 98,000 dealers bring you Mr. Jeff Chandler in tonight's presentation of Suspense. Tonight, Autolight presents a true story, the report of two murders, and the heroic man responsible for these necessary atrocities. It's called Death at Scrakerood Pond, our star Mr. Jeff Chandler. $100,000 in cash. This is Harlow Wilcox asking if you've signed up for the great Autolight family charity drawing. $100,000 will be given away to the churches, hospitals, or other recognized local or national charities picked by the 25 persons selected in this huge drawing. And there's no obligation except writing your name and address. Before we tell you how to enter, here's what Mr. Bruce Palmer, Executive Chairman of the United Defense Fund, has to say about this Autolight family drawing. This offer deserves the attention of everyone interested in helping his fellow man. I hope that the United Defense Fund, which includes the USO activities, will benefit too. But no matter what your favorite charity, I urge you to enter this Autolight drawing. Thank you, Mr. Palmer. Friends, just visit any of the following Autolight family car dealer showrooms. DeSoto, Hudson, Plymouth, Studebaker Dodge, Willis, Nash, Packard, Kaiser, or Chrysler. Fill out the registration form at any of these dealers, and you may help your favorite recognized charity get a major share of $100,000. And now, Autolight presents transcribed Death at Scrakerude Pond, a true story starring Mr. Jeff Chandler as Arnie, hoping once again to keep you in suspense. Mother, mother, you're hurt, you're hurt. The train was up. The train is not moving. You and the blood, and the train is not moving. But screams like something... Close the door. Close the door, not Chandler. Yes. Train full of Nazis. George, George, do you hear me? I'm not badly hurt, father. Let me see. No, no, you're not. Seems, yes, the bullet has gone through your shoulder, and the blood you've lost. Get him up. Get him from the floor. Yes. Put your arm above my neck, George. And I hear. Now, what have you done? I've helped to blow up the train. The Nazi troop train. And in running away, you were shot. Yes. Let him alone. I'm sorry. I... Can you walk? Yes. Yes, I think so. Come on. Come on. I'll help you. Come on, Mrs. Helman. We're taking him out of the country, first to a doctor, and then outside, the undercurrent. The undercurrent. And there's victory, mother. Papa. No! Get off! Make love. Let them go. Let them go. There was a trail of blood. I followed it here. We'll go back to bed. To shiver with fright. Go to bed and stare at the dark and wait for the knock on the door in the Gestapo. Stare in the dark and think gambits. Think of clever things to say to the Gestapo such as what? My son, a member of the underground? My son? Surely there is a mistake. Or I have no son, Lieutenant. Therefore you cannot arrest me for something this boy has done. Will these be your thoughts, too, Anna, when you go to bed? The same. For surely they will come. They will come and knock on the door and they will drag us from our home and send us where? Perhaps to Germany and Dachauanna to burn. Niklas, these are the thoughts I have. Because of our son. Anna, because of our son. Yes. Now he's been recognized and he said. Yes. They will come here. They will come. We can go to bed now and stare at the dark. At least now we know this will be the last time. No. What are you doing? Quiet! This is all the money in the house? Yes, but the bank, we have so much more. Twelve thousand Krona. Suddenly I am a pauper. Anna. What is it? Your jewelry. Get it. But why? All of it. Get your things together. We're getting out of here, across the border. They'll take us across the underground. They have to, they have to. You understand me, honey? You are the Patriots. And you, the sellers of freedom. And Mrs. Helman and I have come to bargain and buy. I've told you the borders are closed. The Nazi patrols swarm. I don't know, Mr. Helman. You don't know. Your underground has helped hundreds to escape. Less worthy, yet you walk at us. Why? What do you think, handsome? I think this, Arnie. The Gestapo has searched for us two years now. These people coming here have made it easy for them. Let's have nothing to do with them. And I think this. If you do not help us, if you do not lead us across the border into Sweden, then I will report you to the Gestapo. I personally will tell them who you are, where you hide. No, wait! Wait! No, he did not mean that. My husband, Miklas, did not... You heard him. He did not mean it. He is frightened and he is desperate and he does not know what he says. Do not beg of them, Anna. We are not their beggars. Please, Miklas, I will not beg. I will tell them of us. Thirty years we have lived in your country, Mr. Arnie, Mr. Hansen, with pride, with respect, with love for the things of your country. And because my son has spilled blood for this country, we now must flee it and begin another life. And we are not young. But we are rich. And we will pay you well for this new life, more than any of the others. We are rich. We will pay you well. We are not in this to make profit on sorrow, Mrs. Helman. Heroes, then, is what you are. Listen to me. It's not good, Arnie. I tell you, it's not good. Listen to me. This new life you are, it lies through bitter wilderness and savage hardships and swamp and cold. Be eloquent, Arnie. Be eloquent. Let the words spill slow and thoughtful from your mouth while the Gestapo searches for us, for you who comes nearer and nearer. Good try, Hansen. How? I know a way through the forest, a way unused before, where Skrykerud pardoned us. Maybe we could... Yes, I think we could. Good. Then it is settled. You see, Anna, it is simply a matter of bargaining. One knows how to bargain. One lives. Get your things together. We're getting out right now. Quickly. At your command, Arnie. At your command. What's the matter? I... I... I cannot go farther. I cannot. You have to keep going, Mrs. You heard her. We will rest here. Listen to me. It's taken us almost seven hours to go three miles. There are still twenty miles to the Swedish border and there are Nazi patrols that will be lightened in an hour. You take us for animals, for beasts. We will rest here and we will eat something. You hear me? We will rest and we will eat. Where is the food? Hansen. Arnie. We've got to keep moving. We're going to rest here, Flo. Get... Get some of the food out of your pack. Look, Arnie. Get it. Here, take this, Mrs. Helman. Mr. Helman. This is food. This, that one, throws to pigs leaving the gutter. This, you ask us to eat. It's all we have. You want it? No. No. I have much better here. Here in my flask. Get up. Get up at his nearly light and twenty miles to go. No. The patrol will be by here soon we're still... Live with it then, Arnie. We cannot move. Must. This way you endanger the lives of hundreds of others. You destroy the underground. You play into Nazi hands. And if we do, I will save my life and my wife's life for what I can tend them. Rest here for a while. Thoughtful hero. Generous hero. Hanson, come over here. Hanson, yes? They can destroy us and the underground. The lives of other men and women who believe with us. Yes. Destroy what their own son has fought for in the plant. Yes. Enemies then. Yes. We are at war. I have fought these things when I carried her on my back and then him. And I wondered how long for you to think all this... was rock under the snow there. Hanson, take it from the snow. And this one for me. And when we are across the border, Miklas, they will be for us. Old man who is dead. And with you, your old woman. And I am sorry. For them the border reached and an end to wilderness and freedom and vast stillness. Understand, old man, old woman? The only stillness we can give you. Because this time is what it is. It is done, Hanson. How quickly we go home. Autolight is bringing you, Mr. Jeff Chandler, in Death at Scrykerud Pond, tonight's presentation in Radio's Outstanding Theatre of Thrill's Suspense. Say, Harlow, who gets that big Autolight salute tonight? Well, Hab, tonight it's our privilege to honor distinguished truck manufacturing members of the Autolight family. And along with them the entire trucking industry. It covers a lot of ground, Harlow. And so do America's trucks. Hab, over 90 billion miles last year alone. Why, Hab, do you know that trucks move more tons of goods than any other form of transportation? Yes, Harlow. And did you know that the trucking industry recently celebrated its 50th anniversary of service to America? Right. And during those 50 years our trucks have become marvels of ruggedness and dependability. That's due to the unique design and manufacturing skills of the truck manufacturers we salute tonight. And let's not forget the men who drive those trucks, Harlow. They've got the world's finest safety record. They sure do, Hab. And that's another reason why Autolight wishes to take this opportunity to express appreciation for our many years of close association to truck manufacturer members of the Autolight family and their dealers everywhere. And now, Autolight brings back to our Hollywood soundstage Mr. Jeff Chandler of Death at Scrakerude Pond, a true story well calculated to keep you in suspense. Drink alone, Arnie. Drink with me. Yes, Helga. Victory drink, Arnie. For the end to war and again a time of peace we once knew. And you and my brothers then Hanson to live as you were meant to live. The bells of our village, the small bells and the great. You hear them, Arnie? Yes. Once long ago they rang. To you, Arnie. And to my brother. To your brother, Sven Hanson. Who is brave and a good man and who fought for us for the women and the children of women who fought and bled and blessed us again with peace. My brother and you, Arnie. There were others. My brother and you. Drink with me, Arnie. And may I also drink to you, Arnie, as Helga drinks to you as all do in your house. You are welcome here, Kurt. Drink, dance. Whatever thing your joy will have. To you, Arnie. And to your fine house and your warm friends. But I look about and I do not see a certain warm friend. Soldier friend. Underground friend. Oh, who? The friend of the sabotage train of many years ago. The friend George Hellman. Where is he, Arnie? I don't know. And a lost son brings to mind the father and the mother. The old people and their money. Jewels they had, it is said, and many kroner. And now the old people are lost. And there is wonder of them. And you have fine things in your house. The kroner, Arnie. The kroner and jewels of the Hellman's. Where, Arnie? That you bought with them, the lamp and that. Now I must teach you another thing. Not to lay your murderers hands upon me. Enough, Arnie. Enough. Get out of my house. Full days of war. Shouts and sobbing. Dead. Many years now. Underground and explosion brighter sunburst. Out crying alone in a snow field. Wondering alone in a snow field. They are dead. You hear me, Arnie? The old days are dead. Forgotten. Helga. Quickly. I have brought you extra clothing and food. Why, Helga? Why do you... The body of Nicholas Hellman. And of Anna, the old woman, his wife. The villager found them at Scrapperwood Pond. Clothes and food for us? Why? Warrants have been issued for the arrest of their murderers. It is what they have named it. They too have forgotten the old days, the days of war. They call it murder. I told you. I'll tell them. Run. Hide. No. Take my brother with you and go. I'll tell them what happened. I'll convince them. You'll not convince them. These are other days, and they have forgotten how it was. Sven and I did what had to be done. There was no shame in it. Then tell Sven to go, my brother. Tell him. Sven. What you say, Arnie, that I will do as in the old days. Go, Sven. Go. What Arnie said, there was no shame in it. It was a thing of war, of need. Then we stay. Let them come. How do you plead? I confess freely to having caused the death of Mr. and Mrs. Hellman. However, to the charge of murder, I plead not guilty. And Sven Hansen? How do you plead? It was with Arnie, Leuchan. The Hellman's died because of me. Yet I did not commit murder. There was nothing else we could do. So we did it. Why couldn't you let them try to reach the border themselves? They would never have made it. Come now, Mr. Hansen. Men have crossed Greenland on foot. Those old people. Consider what you have said. Those old people. Yet you killed them. Something obscene. Not so. There is nothing else we could do. Nor could they have crossed another hundred yards on foot. That, of course, is your opinion. I suggest, Mr. Hansen, that you had other motives that made it necessary to kill. I suggest that these motives correspond with that which is most basic. Because the war is over. Because the mass killing is done. And the death of two solitary people is important. It's forgotten now that the Hellman's were our enemy or surely have... Enemy? How? How? They would have betrayed us. It would have meant the end of the whole underground. And yet, of course, is conjecture. Mr. Lichen. Arnie Lichen, tell me a thing. It concerns motive, Mr. Lichen. I told you. It concerns motive, Mr. Lichen. Both you and Mr. Hansen have repeatedly stated that your only motive was to silence the Hellman's. Is that correct? Yes. Truly? Yes. Not to rob them? No. Not to rob this unfortunate couple of the money they had brought with them? No. Nor their jewels? Nor their jewels, Mr. Lichen? Mr. Lichen? Days of how long ago, Mr. Prosecutor, when death leaned close to every man and beckoned? When death was a Nazi, when to trick the brown-shirted man with a club with... You are quite right, sir. It was long ago. Now it is done with. Now the return to dignity, which is why you are here. Prosecutor respectfully requests the court to grant recess until tomorrow. Court will adjourn until tomorrow. Struck them down in cold blood. Then did you or did you not go through their belongings and search for the money? Over a hundred thousand kroner? No. You did not go through their belongings? We searched them for papers. We wanted to destroy their papers so they could not be identified if they were found. And you found the money? And we found the money. And not being murderers, not being killers with malicious motives, rather gentle people, murderers to rest of old folk who, by some misadventure of age, happen not to be able to walk twenty miles, therefore you did not take the money. What do you want me to say? What? What? That you did not take the money. We took the money. Oh? We took the money. There was not a lot of it. Only... Only twelve thousand kroner. Listen. The real motive then? Listen to... Silence them. Take their money. Throw them into the lake. That is not true. Well then forgive me which part of it is not true. That you did not take their money. That you did not throw them in the lake. That you did not kill them. Listen. Kill them. There will be silence in my courtroom. Kill them. Who is it who speaks? Olson. Canute Olson and well you know me. And since it is you respected citizen, there is no need to tell you that it is a spectator. No longer spectator, sir. Man with compulsion to speak certain facts. I request permission to address the court. Very well. Kill them I say. These two men killed the Helmens, took their lives from them. No doubt of it. Mr. Olson. Mr. Olson. Mark, what you said sir. Mr. The Q to it all. And what was my fanciful name when there was war here? Myself I can hardly remember. Avenger was it or Snowhawk? I cannot remember all of them. Code names that changed each week. Head of the underground myself with childish names to help fight a war. To shield me so to live in the long... All of those here remember that you were... Heroic. Did you want to say that? The soldier fighter for liberty? No less than these two men who killed. Heroes, soldiers, fighters for liberty. Killed because they were under orders to kill those who brought liberty into jeopardy. And I gave those orders. This is what I needed to say. As your jury reached the verdict. Yes sir, we have. I'm the charge of murder of Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Helman. We find the defendants Arnie Leuchan and Sven Hansen not guilty. It is customary sir that the accused upon his acquittal offer thanks to the foreman of the jury which tried him. So I wish to do this thing. From my heart I thank you. This too I must say. What happened at Skrykorut Pond, what was done there was done on the face of a bleeding world, a world at war. I was caught up in it and Sven and those two old people and you and all of us. Now it is done. A trial was held here today. Proof that humanity is with us again. I will go home now and make prayer. Let no one ever be called upon to do what I did. Let the world live in peace. Suspense. Presented by Autolight, tonight's star, Mr. Jeff Chandler. This is Harlow Wilcox again. Don't forget, you may help your favorite church, hospital, march of dimes, United Defense Fund or any other local or national charity to share in the $100,000 Autolight Family Charity Drawing. If you're one of 25 persons selected, you will name any recognized charity you wish for a big share of this huge sum. There's nothing to buy, write or solve. So if you're 18 years or over, visit any of the following dealer showrooms. DeSoto, Hudson, Plymouth, Studebaker, Dodge, Willis, Nash, Packard, Kaiser or Chrysler. Fill out a registration form and have the dealer sign it. That's all, but your favorite charity may have you to thank for a big part of $100,000. Those dealers are DeSoto, Hudson, Plymouth, Studebaker, Dodge, Willis, Nash, Packard, Kaiser or Chrysler. Help your favorite charity. Sign up tomorrow. Next week, we will dramatize an astounding experience. A man and a machine flung at a barrier of sound. It's called the Outer Limit, our star, Mr. William Holden. That's next week on Suspense. Suspense is transcribed and directed by Elliot Lewis, with music composed by Lucian Morrowick and conducted by Mark Lushkin. Death at Strykerud Farm was adapted for suspense by Morton Fine and David Friedkin with James P. Kavanaugh from Theodore Olson's report. Featured on tonight's cast were Paula Winslow, Herb Butterfield, Kathy Lewis, Byron Kane, Lou Merrill, Jack Krushen, Joseph Kearns and Herb Ellis. Jeff Chandler may currently be seen co-starring with Maureen O'Hara in Universal International's Technicolor Production War Arrow. And remember, next week, Mr. William Holden in The Outer Limit. This is the CBS Radio Network.