 Autolight and its 96,000 dealers present. Suspense. Tonight, Autolight brings you Mr. Dennis O'Keefe in Very Much Like a Nightmare. A suspense play produced and edited by William Spear. Yeah? What spectacular event heros the approach of summer. Why, getting an Autolight-stay-full battery. The battery that has three times as much liquid reserve above the plates as batteries without stay-full features. The battery that needs water only three times a year in normal car use. Come on now, Wilcox. I mean for fun, for pleasure, for excitement. Well, so do I have. What could be more fun than driving a car that has an Autolight-stay-full battery to give you extra starting dependability? What can give you greater pleasure than the knowledge that your Autolight-stay-full battery needs water only three times a year in normal car use? And what excitement when you find out that SAE life cycle standard tests show that Autolight-stay-full batteries give 70% longer average life than batteries without stay-full features? The circus is what I had in mind, hollow. You should have seen the menagerie. Every kind of animal. Camels? Naturally, wouldn't be a circus without camels. Well, no camel can tea-total water like the Autolight-stay-full battery that needs water only three times a year in normal car use. Just remember, friends, you're always right with Autolight. And now, with very much like a nightmare and the performance of Dennis O'Keefe, Autolight hopes once again to keep you in suspense. It started out like nothing more than a small freaky accident. The kind of thing you could tell a little sheepishly as a joke on yourself. By the time it was over, it was very much like a nightmare. A dream you wake up from drenched in cold sweat shaking all over with the clock pointing at 3 a.m. and the covers on the floor. It was only my second day back on the job after a short bout with the flu germ and I'd been up practically all night working on a job. My boss, old hard rock Gilman, had been kind enough to say, especially for me. As I walked into the lobby of the Nugent building, my biggest worry was simply whether the little pills my pharmacist May Hermey had given me would keep me alive and jumping through a rather long day. Eddie, the hawk-faced kid who ran the elevator, was just about to take it up as I came in. Hold it, Eddie. Oh, I am Mr. McClang. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Pray. Didn't see you. Good morning. Good morning, Mr. Pray. How are you? Anybody for three? Down to God, seeing you around lately, Mr. McClang. No, I've been playing hooky. Lucky you. Far ready. Have I ever let you off in the other place? Mr. Pray, though not precisely my type, was one of the rare plus qualities to be discovered in the Nugent building. She was one of the few girls I've seen around office buildings who actually looked as though they belonged in somebody's penthouse apartment. She usually tagged along with Faris, a cocky-looking character who also worked at Circassian brothers' importers up on fire. Hi, Bob. Watch your step. Thank you, Eddie. Mr. Pray. Yes? Is everything all right? What? Oh, yes, I think so, Eddie. But maybe you'd better check with Mr. Faris. He may want to send out for a sandwich around eleven. Okay. Seven, Mr. McClang. Watch your step. Thank you, Eddie. The morning went slowly, even with Hermes' pills to help, but at noon I resumed a pleasant custom which had been temporarily interrupted by my illness, out of having lunch with Miss Catherine Warren, a delightful young lady on whose future I had very definite, if not especially dark design. Now for the gruesome lecture. What time did you go to bed last night, Bob? Who, me? Last night? Well... All right, then. It was this morning. It was this morning, wasn't it? Such a charming girl to be so snoopy. Would you like to hear about a very interesting conversation I had going down on the bus this morning with a young man named Hermes? Hermes? How a guy like that can run a prescription shop, beats me? What would the doctors do if they knew he went around blabbing professional secrets? It's you not Hermes I'm concerned about. And I'd like to know what makes you think it's smart to start taking dope? Oh, that Hermes and his melodrama. All he gave me was something to... Something to keep you from getting to sleep you ought to be getting. At this rate, you'll be back in bed again before you know it. They're just little white pills. Perfectly harmless if you don't try to swallow the whole box. What Hermes says, here. Well, let's take a look for yourself. Oh, that's it. It's a wrong box. What do you mean wrong box? All right. So I'm a fugitive from a drug counter. These are the, uh, one of the other ones. The other one? Well, the fact is, darling, at first I was as leery about these stay-awake things as you are. And I started worrying. Suppose the stuff was slow-wiring off, or suppose I developed insomnia or something like that. I heard me steady dollars as that would happen, but just to make sure, he fixed me up with these, uh, sleeping pills. More dope. Oh, look, honey, it's not Gilman I'm doing this for. You know that. It's us. I wouldn't have tried to come to work with you. I know, I know, boss. I'm sorry. Do I call you tonight before I tuck myself in? If you don't, I'll come over and toss tear gas through your window. I made my way back toward the Nuget Building. Wedged is very appropriately near Narrow Dead End Street. About halfway down the block, I heard footsteps behind me, and then a voice. Familiar enough. Explain. It's Ferris. Marie-Dupri's boyfriend. Hi, McLean. Haven't seen you around lately. Been out of town? No. Just had to stay in for a few days. How's it with Circassian brothers? Never better. Never better. And with you? No complaints. Say, something was said in the elevator this morning. You know, Eddie, it's about him picking up a sandwich for you around 11. I was wondering if that's just an arrangement with the people on your floor. Sandwiches? I don't get it, Mr. McLean. Eddie's never picked up any sandwiches from me. Somebody's kidding. Oh, here we are. Calling up. Hi, Mr. Ferris. Mr. McLean. Eddie. Eddie, what's this about some sandwich service you've got and holding out on me? Well, I, uh... Well, Eddie, I just thought I overheard you and Mr. Ferris say something about handing out for a sandwich, so I... Oh, no, no, that was... No, you got us wrong. I never said that. I told Mr. McLean, Eddie, that it was probably some kind of kidding you and Mr. Ferris were carrying on. That goes to show you should never kid on the job. That's a good motto for Eddie, huh, Mr. McLean? Never kid on the job. Um... The three of us stood silently in the rising elevator. It seemed to me that Ferris had pushed the sandwich topic a little farther than necessary. Eddie was pretty upset. Why would he? Oh, well, it wasn't any of my affairs. I went back into my cubby hole and waited till three o'clock the hour for which Gilman had called a conference with Fisher, Barton and Fisher. Our big account. And it was in this conference that the sleep I hadn't got started creeping up on me. Out of a feisty fog, I suddenly heard Gilman barking at me. McLean! Yes, huh? Heaven's sake, what's the matter with you? You didn't get out of bed too soon, did you? Oh, no, no, I'm all right, Mr. Gilman. Oh, good. I'd appreciate your getting Mr. Fisher's brief finished up for me. I hate to ask you this, but I wonder if you'd mind getting it done before you go. He's an apology and stood up. My eyes burned and my neck muscles seemed to be dragging my head down as I went back to my office. It had been 10, maybe 12 hours since I had taken the last couple of stay-awake pills. If I could borrow enough energy for the next 45 minutes, I told myself I could clean up this last job and the whole blessed night would be mine for sleeping. This time I'd cut the dose in half, only take a single pill, sir. I shook one of the pills out of the little box and followed it with a glass of water. Then I sat down at my desk and unclipped the sheets that Gilman had given me. When it was that I noticed that the words had started running together, I looked at the papers and it was like peering through water. A bell was bonging somewhere far off in the distance and I seemed to be lying across a bed. Slowly I forced over my eyes and blinked while reality swam into focus for a moment I really didn't know where I was and it was just silence and the lost feeling of being in the wrong place. Then suddenly I realized the bed I had seemed to be lying across was my office desk. Was it clear? What was I doing here? The outer office was nothing but darkness. Stiff and cramped I stood up and I looked at my watch and it was 215. 215, but that's impossible. Only a few minutes ago I looked at my watch and it was, oh no, it couldn't have been a few minutes ago where Gilman was here then and Miss Tyler and the others, it can't be two in the morning. Oh, bright boy McLean. Hermes pills. For the second time I've made a stupid mistake about the pills. When I went into the washroom I'd taken the wrong pills with me. The sleeping pills. The others were still in my top coat. Oh, oh, oh, again but this time I didn't like the sound so much. Somehow it seemed too hollow and then suddenly standing there in the middle of the floor seven stories up in an empty office building the darkness moved in on me. I got that funny feeling as if the darkness wasn't all as if I had something worse to contend with. Like in blind man's buff when you're a kid and you shrink back and hold your breath while the hand fumbles past you in the darkness. Weird as it seemed all of a sudden it was like being on the island again with the Japanese somewhere near you and not daring to let a match and holding your breath for the darkness so they could choke you. Holding your breath because that overlapped breath might be your last. Auto light is bringing you Dennis O'Keefe and very much like a nightmare. Tonight's production in radio's outstanding theater of thrills. Suspends. One of the circus men told me that elephants drink 10 gallons of water a day. 10 gallons a day? Wow. And an auto light-safe full battery needs water only three times a year in normal car use. It's the super battery that has three times as much liquid reserve as batteries without staple features. Yes but the elephant is a mighty powerful critter Well, I'll talk about power. Man, the auto light-safe full battery is amazing. You see, there's a fiberglass retaining mat at every positive plate to hold the power-producing material in place. That gives you advantages like extra long life, extra starting dependability. You know, O'Keefe, the elephant lives a phenomenally long life. Yes, but half think of the lifespan of the auto light-safe full battery while according to SAE life cycle standard tests it gives 70% longer average life than batteries without staple features. And the auto light-safe full battery needs water only three times a year in normal car use. So friends, see your friendly auto light battery dealer. Remember, you're always right with auto light. And now, auto light brings back to our Hollywood down stage our star, Dennis O'Keefe. In very much like a nightmare, a tale well-calculated to keep you in suspense. I felt my way out into the darkness beyond the door. The hall stretched out like a cave to the stairs and the faint red glow of the exit lights. The angle of the stairs at the landing there was a window and I pressed my face against the cool of the glass. I had to wake up. And suddenly a light found out over the loading platform down below. Somebody must have opened the door down there. I saw a truck and three or four men dwarfed by the distance. Light from the door was gone, but I still see the stabbing beams from a couple of flashlights. It was working out this hour. Why? Eddie. Eddie, the elevator boy. What are you doing here at this weird hour? Two o'clock in the morning in an empty building with no passengers. The lead footed I moved down one flight and waited there on the sixth floor straining every cell to hear the whistling again, but I didn't. Instead I heard something from the fifth floor and got my way down toward it. Because I know Marie, and I know that when she talks like this, she's not even half what she's saying. And then we've been drinking. I haven't been drinking that much. We've seen him out in the airport. All he's got to do is walk in. Even before the cell is out of the plane, he's ready to cheat us out of what he promised. Marie. Wait a minute. I'll tell you something, Mr. Dupreeze. You don't know who you're fooling with. You start calling names and you're going to get hurt worse. You hit you and that ain't all. You figure you don't get enough for what you do. You figure you're being cheated out of your cock, but I'll tell you something now. You open your mouth the wrong way I handle you myself. No way, Joe. You think we're so scared of you, we'll stand for anything, don't you? Well, if I get nothing, you get nothing, too. Open my mouth! I'll open my mouth over! Look down on the platform from 7, it would have been tipped off by the flashlights. Sir Kissian would never have had his workmen stumbling around in that sketchy light that he was in on a two, handing something a little hotter now than sandwiches. But after the doors opened, I noticed that the whistling stopped like being caught in two by a knife. The longer I stood there, the more unhealthy my position became, and I wanted about Albert. The night watchman. Well, was he? He had a gun, but suddenly I wanted to get out of there more than anything in the world. Just get out. My dash for the stairs to the fourth floor was like a slow motion dream, and the wheels clumped to the floor just out of ranges and nearing light as the elevator dropped toward me. Suddenly there it was. A nakedly lighted little room suspended in space. I was staring through its fourth wall at Eddie. His face looked sick and green as he hugged the corner there at the controls. If nothing could make him look behind to the rear of the car where a big man I hadn't seen before held something in his arms. Something like an oversized doll whose legs dangled lently. When the panic was fighting my fogginess, I stood there trying to think. Then I remembered the telephone. There was a perfectly good telephone in my office, but that was five flights up, five long flights. It had been a phone on one of the other floors of the station. I thought my way upward again and found it. I found it on the third. I remembered not to close the door of the booth completely because if I did that, the little light would flash on and light was the last thing I wanted. I went off the hook, took a deep breath and finally sounded louder than a fire bell on the dead of night. Fumsly, I dialed the operator. Number please. It wouldn't come out. Number please. I thought I heard a slight scuffling from the street north. There's a robbery going on here. A robbery. A girl's been killed. I worked in this building. The address is all right, Mr. Hang up that phone. I decided. It wasn't Joe. It wasn't any of the men I'd expected. It was the guy had almost written off as gagged and tied or dead. Albert! Albert, the night watchman. I was looking for you a while ago. It's all right. I'm McLean. Mark McLean, remember? Stillman and company up on the seventh floor. Hang up that phone, Mr. McLean. I understand. You don't know what's going on. I know what's going on. Well, you take that gun out of my face. I tell you, there's a gang of cooks in this building. Never should have been here the night, Mr. Come on. We're going to see him. Him? A hundred times for combat use, but I never tried it before when it really counted. I came to the head of the stairs, I whirled and chopped down hard in my right hand. I heard the gun go clattering, but my timing was way off. My lover and luck never got into the play. Albert had me by the throat and two of his pitchers down the steps towards the landing. Locked together at the brunt of the fall. We just knocked out before. How long? Suppose if someone had hurt us, they must have hurt us. The gun fall too. The gun. Albert would come too and start talking. Stumble over to my desk and put the gun down and started to reach for the phone. Move out where we can see. Even before I thought the desk door was open, I put the gun into it and moved in front of the door. Okay, Mac. Or whatever your name is. P.D. Look him over. Yeah, sure, Joe. You're late, Mac. I went down the hall for a minute. I had some work to do. I guess I fell asleep. When I woke up, I just want to find out what time it was. Hey, mister, I think you pick a bad night to work late. P.D. You wait in the hall and keep your eyes open. In five minutes, we'll be out of this dump. You stay here with this guy, Feds. You know good to work downstairs and I'm tired of looking at you. P.D. I'll tell you what. We better make it easy for Feds. Oh, no, look, Joe. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? I mean, suppose we take this guy's time, make a nice hand car for him. Then these two businessmen can sit down and talk business until we're ready to go. In a few seconds, not only were my wrists locked together, but I was sitting in the chair facing the door while Ferris slumped in the seat I wanted to have. A chair at the desk. Inches away from the gun in the drawer. Ferris didn't look at me at all. Silence ticked by an agent. I shifted a little in my seat, testing Ferris, seeing if he'd noticed and I got no reaction. There's that clear look on his face. The elevator would be bringing bad news in a matter of heartbeats. Hey. Hey, who's that? Huh? What? The phone, the telephone. Oh, the phone? Well, it's my wife, I guess. You see, I told her I'd be working late. She's probably calling to say that she's on her way down to pick me up. Why is she coming down here? Look, you don't want nobody else buttoning in down here. I don't want her down here any more than you do, but the phone ringing and ringing like that, she'll just figure I've dozed off and come on down. Yeah, but you're my... Hey, Ferris, don't you think this guy had better hands? Come over here, Mr. Talk to her. Tell her, uh... Tell her, she... she don't have to pick you up. Hello, Bar. Hello, darling. I figured it was time you were calling. Oh, it is you, but, darling, I've been worried out of my mind at three o'clock in the morning. Hermie and I have tried to... Oh, yes, dear, yes. I've just about wound up the work for the, uh, Warren people. I figured you were just having a little trouble putting Junior to bed. Listen, tell her not to come down. What is it? What are you talking about? Who is Junior and the Warren people? What's the car back in the garage? Hermie... Hermie is here. He's gonna drive me home. But Hermie's here with me, don't you... You're absolutely right, dear. Absolutely. Oh, God, darling. All right, don't talk all night. Goodbye, darling. Who is this Hermie? He's a friend of mine. Sometimes we both work late and he drives me home. I had to tell her something, she believed. I didn't want to call him back. Yeah, well, we'll fix that. So he pointed me back to my chair and took the receiver off the hook. All the time we might have been pictures on the wall for all the interest that Ferris took in us. Did he went back out in the hall and when Ferris did speak it was all I could do to keep from jumping out of my skin. And he spaced. I suddenly remembered when and where I'd seen a look like the one on Ferris's face. Funny thing. All this time I never knew you were married. Oh, yes, yes. We were married three years. Marie and me, we... That's what we had in mind all the time. We figured we could make it work. We were going to get married. But you know how it is sometimes. You run up all you make on clothes and cars there. Still said no ruster. Marie just got excited. He didn't have to. He didn't have to. Right in front of you, in a desk drawer, open it. Get the gun. You went out to find what time it was. Smart boy can't keep his nose out of people's business. We're going to fix all that up. Shut up. We found the watchman, wise guy. But one little thing we didn't find. We don't find the gun you took off of him. Now you're going to tell me where that gun is. I got something figured out for that little guy. Okay, well... Come on. In the darkness I groped for the outer office. He was through stopping anybody. When I got to the window there at the first landing, I didn't waste motion this time in the lock, especially with my hands done up the way they were. I kicked quite. Pain was out of the window and then I was out. My escape was rickety, but it had a railing and the cold, wonderful night air was smacking me in the face. I realized that the throbbing in my left arm meant that not all the stray lead had missed me. I heard the music that I had been waiting for. Bless me. It was my captain. Without putting too great a strain on my blood pressure. A situation which not only pleases Mrs. McClain, a girl named Captain, but also meets with the unreserved approval of her husband. Aside from an aversion to a little white pills and a tendency to sneak frequent looks at his watch long about closing time each day, that husband is reputed to have only the normal number of faults. His greatest strong point remains his memory, which is convenient equipment for him. It will also ever be cherished for reminding him that the look on the face of a fellow named Ferris was a carbon copy of the expression he had last seen that say one of the men in his outfit disobeyed orders and wiped out half a dozen belligerent niponies. Ferris got only two, while a man who was protesting what had happened to his brother got twice that many. But it is possible that he died just as happy. Personally, I... Oh, good Lord. Look what time it is. Where's my briefcase? When the barker sings out, ladies and gentlemen... AutoLite makes more than 400 products for cars, trucks, planes, and boats in 28 plants coast to coast. These include complete or perfectly work together perfectly because they're a perfect team. So friends, don't accept electrical parts opposed to be as good. Ask for and insist on AutoLite, original factory parts. At your neighborhood service station, car dealer, garage, or repair shop. Remember, you're always right with AutoLite. Thursday for Suspense, our star will be Mr. Edward G. Robinson. The play is called A Case of Nerves. And it is, as we say, a tale well calculated to keep you in... ...a spend. Tonight's Suspense play was produced and edited by William Spear, directed by Norman MacDonald. Music for Suspense is composed by Lucian Morrowek and conducted by Lud Bluskin. Very much like a nightmare is an original play written for radio by M. Carl Holman and John Michael Hayes. Dennis O'Keefe may soon be seen co-starred with Ann Sheridan in the Howard Welch production, Woman on the Run. In the coming weeks, you will hear such stars as Charles Boyer, Broderick Crawford, and Jack Carton. Don't forget, next Thursday, same time, AutoLite will present Suspense, starring Edward G. Robinson. You can buy AutoLite's faithful batteries, AutoLite resistor or regular spark plugs, AutoLite electrical parts at your neighborhood and AutoLite dealers. Switch to AutoLite. Good night. This week marks the 16th annual observance of World Trade Week. Every one of us has a stake in the commerce our country carries on with the rest of the world. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.