 Personal notice, Stange is my stock and trade. If the job's too tough for you to handle, you got a job for me, George Valentine. Write full details. Standard Oil Company of California, on behalf of independent chevron gas stations and standard stations throughout the West, invites you to let George do it. A visit from Merlin, another adventure of George Valentine. My dear Mr. Valentine, perhaps you have heard my name, Arthur Thurston Renwick. Or just the Renwick collection of medieval art. I don't like violence or violent people. So you can imagine my shock at the following episode. A stranger, Mr. Valentine, and I am habitually kind to strangers, ventured into my somewhat unusual domain, Renwick Manor. A little man in a tattered coat. Due to certain circumstances, I was in the position of feeling it necessary to give him a small gift. But before I could complete this friendly gesture, the man halted me. He gave me a gift. It was a tenth-century dagger, Mr. Valentine, stolen from my own precious collection. The dagger was covered with blood. My husband is in here, Mr. Valentine. Oh, thanks, Mrs. Renwick. This is certainly an unusual house you have. Oh, George, look, a real suit of armor. Not my size. Miss Brooks, it isn't a house. It's a castle. You should join my staff on dusting days. You'd find out. He built it on the ruins of some Spanish grandee's old fortress. That's why it's so English. What? Oh, don't mind me. You live out here on the ocean, buried in the Middle Ages, and about that far from civilization, with nobody to talk to but King Arthur and all wolves. There seem to be plenty of people here now. Visiting day, Thursday. My husband is a frustrated professor, and so the curious come in to track up the floors and pretend they're interested in his lectures. Wait, there's a little man standing there. I'm sure he was. Short, catadol coat, right in there behind you. I didn't see him. He was there. I'm sure he was. All of you, I'm sorry the tour is over. Excuse me, but the visiting hour is done. It's, well, it's the hour when we lock the castle gate. I am nervous. This little strange man, he haunts me. But why? Why? And where did he disappear, Mr. Valentine? How? Look, Mr. Runwig, I think you'd better start at the beginning. You met my wife, she's sarcastic and complains, but we really get along quite well together. You've seen my house, my castle, it's strange, and you say I'm eccentric. Of course I am. The antiquarian, the man who ran away from the present. So we see. Miss Brooks. I think what I'm trying to tell you first is that despite all this worship of the past, the Middle Ages, I'm not crazy. A man with a love. Yes. A man to be laughed at. No. Nobody's laughing, Mr. Runwig. But there's still something to talk about. Now, here's what happened. This is a very peaceful place, actually. My only regret is the lack of interest shown by other people in the gray, dusty part of the history that's my specialty. So you can imagine my reaction about two months ago when a man, one of the usual Thursday visitors, spoke up and corrected me on the point of English history, pre-norman, of course. Well, I investigated. The man was quite correct. That's the same little tattered man? Yes, yes. And when he showed up again the following Thursday, I complimented him. He only shrugged his shoulders, went off snooping around some more, looking at everything. That's it. He only looks. He seems to want to study over everything I have, my entire collection. Wait a minute. Hold on a second. Will you please? I did a little research myself. You have right here in your house several hundred thousand dollars worth of gems, early bracelets, crowns, that sort of thing. Mr. Valentine, I may be eccentric, but I'm no fool. The gem collection is not in the house. It's in the keep. Yes, yes. Real authentic stone walled over a dungeon, that sort of thing, but guarded by my own private guards, and they use the latest locks and latest guns, I assure you. Bond and men who've been with me for years, listed with the police so that not even they could get away with anything. No, it's not theft, I'm afraid of. But the dagger was stolen? Yes, from this case, right here. But it's the man I'm afraid of for a long time. You see, he came back and came back. The guards had several run-ins with him for trespassing, but he always had an excuse. Then finally one day he asked me for a job. Oh, the day I wrote you. A job doing what? Lecturing his books. He wanted to take my place as guide. Imagine. Well, his knowledge is sufficient. But of course I refused. But I was embarrassed. He has strange eyes. That's when I felt I might give him a gift. Perhaps get rid of him once and for all. Only instead he handed you the dagger with blood on it. I've never seen a man look so offended and angry, but only in his eyes. He said he belonged here. Here, I locked the dagger up in this cabinet. It's right. It's empty. Well, looks like he got it again, huh? You're sure this is where you... Yes, I locked it up myself. But I'm not surprised. No. Why should I be surprised? He said I had gone too far. I had turned him out. I had collected too many treasures of the past. I've lived to regret it. Hey, wait a minute. What kind of a thing is this? Mr. Valentine, I think I expected this. That it would disappear again. You did? I don't know what compelled me. Yesterday, as he left, I spoke one word. I said, Merlin. You said what? Merlin. You heard me. I called him that and he smiled. Oh, you mean Merlin, like the sorcerer at King Arthur's Court? Stop looking at me that way, both of you. We don't know what's possible. We haven't even scratched the surface of the Middle Ages, the superstition and the beliefs. Of course, I don't think he's really Merlin. But he follows me. He watches me. Why? He's always here. Why? And his peculiar knowledge. Why? How? I tell you what's right for me. Keep your shirt on, boss. We got him. What? Yeah. We got him, I tell you. A little squint. Nobody in the crowd here that they even noticed. He's in the town jail. Jail? Just a two-bit-like thinker boy. That's all he is. So cool. Look, it's all over. You Valentine? Yeah, that's right. Joe's my chief guard. Joe, you shouldn't have... He was in the crowd again, boss. You've seen him. But he lifted one of them old salt shakers off at a mantel. And both of my boys seen that. Yeah. Pretty neat, huh? Six months per theft. That'll keep Merlin out of your head. What? What? What did you call him? Merlino. Says he's a member of the Magician's Union. I thought one for last. Oh, the boss is a nervous nilly. That's all, Miss Bruce. So I gather. Here. Only a couple of cells down this way. Nice to wait for you, understand? But a little on the crack, boss. This Merlino seems to have him scared pretty badly. I don't know why the boss bothered you, though, Mr. Valentine. If I couldn't handle a guy like him with both hands tied... Okay, okay. I just want to talk to this guy. Yeah, well... Yeah. Here he is. This is where he was locked. This is... He was locked. That's all? Where? I don't see anybody. Now, Joe Kooloff. I didn't turn him loose, I tell ya. I don't know how he could get out. A great sheriff, you, uh... Joe, let me ask the question. No, neither one of you are going to. I was home eating supper. Bring a man down here for me to lock up without charges or evidence. Don't blame me if he... Without what? Without evidence, he said. Huh? Huh? Yeah, here's Merlino now. What's all the leather about? I guess I forgot to lock that cell door on ya, huh? No, no, you locked it. But I was hungry myself. I'm just on my way back. But if the sheriff locked the cell, how in the name of the... Please, young man. I just walked out. I'm a magician. Is that Joe? Well, this time... Play out, Joe. Cut it out. Sheriff, you said there was no evidence. Clean that up, will you? Well, we searched him when he got here. So did the guards. Just waiting to tell ya, Joe, there wasn't any salt shaker on this guy. What? But I seen him pickin' myself. I seen him... We searched, I tell ya. There wasn't. Of course, it's not in my business. I'm just a visitor in your town. Live at the boarding house, as I told ya. Suppose I have been kind of a pester, Mr. Renwick. But if you ask me, Sheriff, if anyone is stealing out there, well, his guard here, he's the one I think you should send. What? Why, you little half- Hold it, Joe, easy. What? What's the matter? What? Salt shaker... In my pocket. All right, sleight of hand, artist. But I haven't been near him. That's right, Valentine. He hasn't. Not even bringing him in. I told the boys I'd get rid of you. I will. I'll show you some magic... No, no, no, no. You'll be sorry. You'll be sorry. You'll be sorry. I'll put rabbits in your hat. You can cut it out. Cut it out. I'm the sheriff around here. Now beat it all of ya. Magicians, private cops. Go on. Get out. Get out of my hair. Well, there's your teletype, Mr. Valentine. I guess I'd better run the little guy out of town for him. But I kinda hate to. Landlady says he's real nice. Depends on who you talk to, doesn't it? You don't suppose Mr. Renwick and his guards are trying to frame him for something, do you? They're all crazy out there from my money. Yeah, Chicago says he served a sentence once small-time theft. He didn't steal a day, I'm sure of that. They say he worked carnivals in the Midwest for a while. Why is he here? Oh, George, it's getting late. Yeah, come on. You want me to go back out to the house with ya? Well, if he wouldn't just shrug his shoulders and walk off like that, it's Marlino I'd like to talk to. Shed it. Mr. Valentine, shed it. Mr. Renwick. He got it. He got every bit. It's gone. What's gone? Hey, stop shaking. What are you talking about? The gem collection, the bracelets, jewelry. Marlino's taken everything. Oh, brother. I thought that place was impregnable. So did I. But not against a man like him. I told you. Take it easy, will ya? There's nothing supernatural about it. It all works. Yeah, the gems were off in that crazy stone place you called a keep, weren't they? He said I owned too many things in the past. He warned me I should've... All right, all right. Get back in the car. Come on, let's go. We'll find out what happened and it won't be magic either. Won't it? Mr. Valentine, I know how he managed it. My wife saw from her room upstairs over the wall in the moonlight. Yes, I think we found that dagger again, too. What? She saw it and came running and screaming. Joe's body up there in the moonlight with the medieval dagger in it. In just a moment, we'll return to tonight's adventure of George Valentine. New RPM motor oil doubles engine life. That's right. Doubles engine life in the toughest test a motor gets. What is this toughest test? Here's another first-hand report on new RPM to tell you. We take you now by transcription to California Research Corporations Laboratories at Richmond, California. The next voice you hear will be Research Engineer Primo Pinotti. After an intensive study of engines brought into repair garages for overhaul, we were able to determine the causes of engine wear. The next step was to decide on the conditions under which new motor oil formulas were to be tested. We wanted to develop our new oil under conditions simulating the toughest test an engine gets. Tonight, we are going to show you how we arrived at that decision. Ed Walshmeyer, Senior Engine Operator, and Link Merz Engine Mechanic are ready with the test engine. Now here is Research Engineer Mark Savage who will take over the story. The engine you hear is equipped with a fist and ring which we had specially treated at the Oak Ridge Atomic Plant. Soon you'll hear a Geiger counter clicking as it measures the amount of treated metal worn from the ring. The greater the wear, the faster that Geiger counter clicks. I see Mr. Pinotti signaling the hot engine test is ready. Hot operation is the kind you get on long trips, highway motoring, and hill climbing. The kind most motorists believe to cause the greatest wear. But let's let that Geiger counter give us the facts. Hear those slow-major clicks? Not much wear taking place there. You are listening to the popular belief about hot operation being exploded. Alright, now let's switch to a cold engine operation. This is the condition you have in your engine under normal, everyday short hops. Stop and go driving motoring through traffic. Hear that faster clicking? Yes, that's what we found. When it comes to engine wear, cold operation is the toughest test a motor gets. And in the toughest test a motor gets, new RPM cuts in half the wear rate of critical engine parts. Doubles engine life between major overhauls due to lubrication. Stop in for the new RPM at independent chevron gas stations and standard stations, where they say and mean we take better care of your car. Now back to tonight's adventure of George Valentine. A man named Merlino, just a small-time magician, a smiling, limping little man who says he doesn't want to cause anyone any trouble. But he warned Mr. Renwick that the millionaire had collected too many valuable mementos of the past. Now the most valuable ones have disappeared. And he warned the hot-headed guard named Joe not to try anything rough with him. But Joe did, and now the method of theft has been explained for Mrs. Renwick to see Joe's body. Joe has been stabbed. It was just as plain as daylight. I went up to my room, I looked out. He was there on the roof. What good does a guard do up on a roof, Mr. Renwick? The iron door down there has always kept locked. I came running to find you as fast as I could. George, how could Merlino get through the door and up here to stab the guard? Well, how does Merlin do anything? The name's Merlino, Buster. Calm down. Will you just show me where this body is? It's right out there. You can see it. All right, all right, Mrs. Renwick. Get out of the way, please. Let me get through. There! It's right! Oh! Yeah. I don't see a body. What? I'm not lying! And the knife and the morn line! Disappeared. I'm not surprised. Merlin could easily... Don't stay where you are, all of you, will you? Yeah. Joe's body's disappeared, all right. But it must have been a hasty job. A good sorcerer would have wiped up the blood. He is Valentine. The blood's Joe's all right. Doctor says he's sure. There was a record of Joe's type in the files. Okay, come on. Where, George? Why would anyone move a body? Get rid of the evidence, Miss Brooks. But the knife was left behind. No fingerprints, no numbers. Mr. Renwick, come here, will you? What is it? My men are gonna start searching your whole place. They won't find me. They won't find anything. Yeah, that fog coming in off the ocean. Look, Mr. Renwick, I think it's about time you and I stopped this silly superstitious... It's Valentine. I don't want to sound like a fool. I don't want to believe such things. I don't. But you think we'll never find the body and we'll never find Merlino again? I know you won't. I can't help knowing it. He disappears, he makes things disappear. I know how it sounds, but he got what he came for. He carried out his threats. I've been in the Middle Ages too long for... Look out, Angel. Hello, I'll be... Hello, there. Did someone call me? Call Merlino? I said answer my questions. Please, please, gentlemen. I don't know anything about bodies out of my life. For Pete's sake, you admitted you were around here, didn't you? Of course, of course. There are things here I'd like to steal, but not tonight. No, really, I haven't done anything. You've searched me, haven't you? No keys, no jewels. Ask my landlady. I was with her at the time this poor man was killed. I'm afraid if I did it, I've committed a perfect crime. Hey, Sheriff! Sheriff, come here! Well, a spot of blood in the garage floor. Yeah, entire tracks. Renwick says this is where they kept that farm truck. Tony, now it's gone. Where's Merlino, Sheriff? He's taken care of, don't worry. Perfect crime, step one. Come on, let's go. Just ditched it in the woods, huh? Not so far from the house, either, in a straight line. Now, this is the truck, all right. Use the flashlight, George. Okay, let me do this. All right. What? Couple of little spots. Yeah, only no body. No, but there's room for it to have been carried there, right? Sure, sure. So from here, we move on foot, backwards, back the way this truck came. Perfect, all right. Oh, yeah, sure. There were the tracks on the road. Again, I can't prove they're Merlino's. Of course not. But they're deep. He was carrying something. They don't come back. So he probably walked back on the rocks. That's the first way. And this is the only place you can get down to the beach easily from the road, too. To this cove. Deep. Heavy tides. The perfect place, all right. To carry a body, to throw it in the ocean. Yeah. It's a hard job to convict a man of murder without a body. Well, you'll find other evidence. Merlino can't just... Oh, yes, he can, Angel. Because what other evidence? He even hinted at an alibi. Didn't you catch that? Everything he's done is practically a confession. But you don't think we'll find fingerprints in that truck, do you? But if he hid the things he stole somewhere around there, then... You don't think we'll ever find them, either, do you? He's not supernatural. I don't know what he is. Oh, come on, it's practically done. Let's go back. Maybe we can shake it out of him. A little better than my jail, huh? Part of the original old Spanish place. Regular dungeon for the Inquisition. You have to climb down here now. I gave the sheriff my key when he locked him up, Mr. Valentine. Damn birth floors. And I hope he's got pneumonia by this time. Here, I'll reach that. You seem a little calmer, Mr. Runwick. I've been with the sheriff's men all night. Yes, yes, I've about decided your perfect crime theory is correct. A solid iron door. Oh, will you see the walls? Solid rock all the way around the cell. Sixty thick and no windows. Merlino, he... Yeah, he's done it again. He's gone. It's impossible. Everything he's done is impossible. A human being couldn't get out of there. Yeah, I had the only key myself. He's a cripple. He couldn't run very fast. Come on, let's get down to the beach before Merlin climbs back into the Middle Ages. There he is, George. Yeah, yeah, he's running. Some cripple fakes everything, doesn't he? At least got a big head start turning down the sand there. In this fog... George. Lord, where is he? He was at the end of the cove there. He appeared right into the fog and the water. Come on, run. No, along the road this way. But Merlin... Sure, Merlin's a ghost all right. What's beyond this cove? Another one, isn't it? Oh, sure. You can't see it from above. Just a couple of hundred yards. Better load your gun, then. This is no ghost we're after now. Hey, there's a boat there on the beach. Yeah, a little tiny one. I think one man could carry that, Sheriff. Sure, easy. The back of the other place, those heavy tracks could be made by a man carrying a boat instead of a body, huh? George, what on earth are you driving at? Look, see, there hasn't been a single bit of magic performed tonight. It's all been illusion. See, I believe it. They are impossible. They just turn the checkerboard around, look at the black squares instead of white. Watch it, this is rock. You might slip. George, now you're crazy. Almost, but not quite. Now, think back, Brooks. See, everything Merlin has done. Steel a dagger, plant a salt cell around Joe, break loose from J.O. Get at Joe on the roof, spill his blood, then let Joe's body be seen and then make it disappear. Hey, wait. Wait, there he is. Coming out of the water. Sure. Sure, of course. He swam around those rocks, that's all. Stand still. He can't see us. They'll come this way to the boat. No, that's right. You better warn both of you. Don't be too surprised when you see it's Joe himself. What? Here he comes. Hey! Grab him! Look out for that gun! Let go of that! Oh, no, you don't! Every bit of the loot right there in the boat. Enough crowns for a whole chest. Sure, sure. For the big king here. Shut up. The bright boy who figured it all out, how to rob his boss without having all the bloodhounds in the world after him. Okay, you got me. So what? So I want some more. You hired Merlin, didn't you? To put the scare act into your boss. To set himself up as the man of mystery. To brag that he was out to rob him. But George, the murder, or what Mrs. Ranwick thought was one, and the blood in the blood. Oh, sure, sure, Bruxy. That was the neat part. Joe knew her habits. One, she'd be likely to look out and see him lying there, playing dead. And he cut his fingers. Spill some blood, maybe. Too bad I didn't use yours and stuff. Nice little trail of blood. Yeah, Joe. So there'd be no doubt in anybody's mind that Joe the guard was dead. Nobody looked further for the man with the loot. You and Merlino working together. And then he let himself look like the suspect. But I'll bet in the final pinch, Merlino's alibi would have been perfect, Sheriff. He would have got off the hook, joined up with bright eyes here, and Ranwick would have thought it was all magic. I almost did myself. George, if Joe did all that, well, he could have let Merlino out of that dungeon thing, too. I mean, Chief Guard, he'd still have a key. The biggest impossible of all, yeah, sure. Only where's Merlino now? And why let out a guy whose story is all fixed, alibi and everything? And why do you suppose Joe here didn't leave hours ago in his little boat? That must have been the plan. I don't know where Merlino is. I don't care. Well, I do. It's a difference between a grand lass and a rap and a bigger rap for murder. What? Now look, French. The only reason I can think of Joe sticking around is he liked the jewels all for himself. After all, he was dead. And Merlino could always disappear by magic. I didn't touch him. I didn't. It was risky getting down to that dungeon, Joe. But it would have been riskier bringing Merlino outside to kill him. Oh, no, that's not cold. And of course, that was a quiet place. And nobody would ever think of looking under... nice dirt floor, wasn't it, Joe? No, no, I didn't. Sheriff, I told you Merlino was a ghost. Maybe we'd better do some digging there before he puts a horn on King Arthur's castle. And there he was. Merlin. Buried in the loose dirt in the floor of the castle. Merlin, Merlin. The name's Merlino, Bruxy. And anyway, the story's all over. Oh, I don't blame you, though. I was always a sucker for that stuff, too. The knights and the charges. I bet Mr. Renwick isn't not any more, I mean. But he takes up stamp collecting after this. I sell out to the British Museum. Yeah, King Arthur himself. You know, I always imagined myself as more of the Sir Gwane type. What? Yeah, well, there's a kid. You know how kids are. But George, he was romantic. Gwane was the one who was always rescuing a damsel or making love to some maiden. Oh, no, no, no. Not always. He slew dragons. He sat at the round table and... Oh, what's the matter? What do you like? Oh, round table. Oh, I was just thinking, when it comes to romance, darling, you're more of a square. Oh, great. Earlier in the broadcast, you heard California Research Corporation scientists explain the conditions under which engines show the greatest wear, cold operation, the kind you have in your car during short hops, stop and go driving in traffic. In tests that simulate these conditions, new RPM motor oil was compared against the best conventional premium type motor oils as designated by the American Petroleum Institute. The results were amazing. New RPM cuts in half the wear rate of critical engine parts. It maintains the low oil consumption of average engines twice as long. It's sold with a money-back guarantee of satisfaction. Ask for new RPM at standard stations and independent Chevron gas stations where they say and mean, we take better care of your car. Tonight's adventure of George Valentine has been brought to you by Standard Oil Company of California on behalf of independent Chevron gas stations and standard stations throughout the West. Robert Bailey is starred as George with Virginia Gregg as Bruxy. Let George Do It is written by David Victor and Jackson Gillis and directed by Don Clark. Ted Osborne was heard as Renwick. Howard McNeer as Merlino. Florence Ravineau, Mrs. Renwick. Ed Max as Joe and Joe Duvall as the sheriff. The music is composed and presented by Eddie Dunstetter, your announcer, John Heaston. Listen again next week, same time, same station to Let George Do It. It costs less to keep a boy out of trouble than to pay for his stay in reform school. It costs less to help a family now than to pay for a family breakup later. It costs less to prevent trouble. And that's what your community chest does. Community chest gifts make a big difference in dozens of ways. Give generously. This is the Mutual Don Lee Broadcasting System.