 Mutual presents the Mysterious Traveller. This is the Mysterious Traveller, inviting you to join me on another journey into the realm of the strange and the terrifying. I hope you will enjoy the trip, that it will thrill you a little and chill you a little. So settle back, get a good grip on your nerves and be comfortable, if you can. As you hear the story I call, they struck it rich. Our story tonight begins behind the high gray walls of a state penitentiary. It is early Monday morning and Dr. Richard Worth has just taken up his duties as a newly appointed staff psychiatrist at the prison. As he sits in his office studying the medical records that have been turned over to him, there's a knock on his door. Come in. Sorry to bother you, Doctor, but they just brought a prisoner from the warden's office for you to examine. Case of hysteria. Hysteria? That's what they said. Very well, Cook. Show them in. OK, hang here for them. That's a hot one, really, a hot one. Me, Frankie Williams, I'd stop and laugh if I'm a big shot. Here's his medical record, Doctor. Thanks, Cook. That'll be all. Now, sit down, Williams. Williams, sit down. That's better. Here, drink this. Drink this. Now, let me see. Frank Williams, 834. How do you feel now, Williams? I'm OK now, Doc. I guess the news was too much for me. Everything is going to be all right now. You know what I mean. You take care of me, Doc, and I'll take care of you. I see. Williams, tell me about yourself. What do you want to know? Well, anything you feel like talking about. Tell me about your childhood. How you happened to be in prison. Well, when I was 14, I was sent to reform school for knife and a guy. When I was 18, I got a four to six-year stretch for a stick up. Why are you in prison now? You mean you don't know? I'm afraid not. Doc, six years ago my picture was in every paper in the country. I was famous. About six years ago I was in a Japanese prison of war camp. So I'm not familiar with your exploits. Why don't you tell me about it? Sure, Doc. It all began back in 41, about a month before Pearl Harbor. I just got out of the big house on parole and I managed to land a job as a sandhog in a tunnel that was building under the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan. But one day I'm knocking off a work when I hear my name being called back. Hey Frank, Frank Williams. What's the matter? Don't you recognize an old pal? Marty! Marty Davis, how are you, pal? I swear. When did you get out, kid? Two weeks ago. Pearl, huh? Yeah, you working on his tunnel too? Yeah, six months now. Frank, you're just a boy I'm looking for. What's up? Ever since I got out I've been working on a little idea, mine. It'll take two guys and the haul will be at least 100 grand. Oh, nothing doing, Marty. What do you think I took this job for? I'm a three-time loser. One more rapid and they'll send me up for life. Look, kid, ain't I in the same boat? I'm a three-time loser too. Then you ought to have more sense. Now on, I'm going straight. I'm not gonna risk getting a life sentence. But Frank, this idea, mine, it ain't any cheap stick up. It's something big. And there's enough dough in it so that we can retire for the rest of our lives. Not in doing. Are you even interested? No. They sure got you scared of that life sentence, ain't they? Yeah. So long, Marty. See you around. I left Marty standing there, Doc, and walked away. There's one thing you got to say for Marty. He don't discourage easy. The day after day, he'd be waiting for me when I knocked off work. We'd have a few drinks together and Marty would go to work on me, trying to suck me into this big job he kept hinting about. Got so I took to avoid them. And one night while I was in a bar on the east side, Marty comes in and sees me sitting alone at the table. He pulls up a chair and sits down. Hello, kid. Did you hear the news? What news? Now that this country's in the war, they're gonna stop working on the tunnel. You and me are gonna be out of work in a couple of days. It's okay with me. I was getting sick of that job anyway. What are you gonna do now? I don't know. Why don't you play it smart? Throw in with me. I tell you, kid, this job I got lined up can't miss. That's what you keep saying. Frank, I feel so sure that if you knew what the job was, you're going with me. So I'm gonna tell you about it. I ain't asking you to. I'll take a chance. While we was in Stur, you remember me telling you about where I grew up? Yeah, on East River, around 160. Yeah, at Hellgate. I also told you about the way I was a sewage pipe inspector for the city when I was a kid. Yeah, I remember. Frank, not many people know what the island of Manhattan is like underground. It's more than just a couple of subways. Why, underneath the streets are big gas mains, water pipes, electric lines, phone cables and tunnels. The sewage pipes are big enough to drive a car through. What are you getting at? Kid, there's hardly a square foot underground this island that ain't honeycombed with pipes and sewers. And when it comes to sewage systems up in my old neighborhood, I'm what you might call an expert. Okay, so what? Come on over to my room. I want to show you something. Yeah, why? You'll see. Come on. Let's go. Give me your hand, unrolling this map, will you? It's pretty big. Okay. There. You recognize it? Well, this is the East River, ain't it? And this is a section of Manhattan from 86th Street up to 125th Street. That's right. What are all these red, yellow, green and blue lines on it? The red lines are electric cables. The blue lines are gas mains. The green are water pipes and the blue are phone cables. And the black lines are sewage pipes. This is an official city map that I lifted. You wish you were right when you said this island is honeycombed. Yeah. You see this place I got my finger on? Yeah, 106th Street and East River. That's right. But what this map doesn't show is that this is where the Hellgate Bank and Trust Company is. Hellgate Bank? Yeah. Oh, now I'm beginning to get your idea. Look at this black line that runs into the East River. That's a big 10-foot sewage pipe and it runs past the bank only 60 feet away. Uh-huh. You and me, we ought to be able to dig a tunnel from the sewer to under the vault of the bank in 10 nights. Oh, that's one thing you're forgetting. What's that? This island is all sandstone. How are we going to tunnel through stone? That calls for drills. Kid, the island of Manhattan may be all sandstone, but at this point, where the bank is, it's all dirt. Dirt? Yeah. You see, the riverbed has been shifting these past hundreds of years and during all that time, mud's been accumulating along this stretch at 106th Street. Today, all that mud is part of the island with buildings on it. And one of the buildings on it is the Hellgate Bank. Yeah, I sure got a hander to you, Marty. You got all the answers. I spent enough time casing this job to make me an expert. Wouldn't be too tough to tunnel through 60-foot of dirt? Of course it wouldn't. And think of what the jackpot would be, kid. I'll guarantee you, there'll be at least 100 grand in the vault. What do you say? 100 geese. And a two-way split. Okay, Marty, you can count me in. A few days later, Marty and me moved into a basement cold water flat a block away from the bank. Every night for a week, we kept bringing to the flat things we would need for the job. A two-man rubber raft, shovels, big axes, flashlights, tape measures, small boards for shoring up the tunnel. No college engineer ever cased the job better. Couple of weeks later, Marty and me figured we was ready. We waited until a dark night, then we took the rubber raft, shoveled in the pickaxe, and left the flat. We went to the rear of the old tenement house where there was a manhole that led down into the sewage pipe. We eased the manhole cover off and Marty started down the ladder. I handed in the stuff and then I followed after pulling the cover back on the manhole. Fifteen foot down, Marty was standing on a small ledge. The water swirled past a little below the ledge. Frank, hold the raft while I fill it with air. Okay, Marty. Now where'd I put that tube? Ah, here it is. It shouldn't take more than a minute to fill it up. Hey, is there any danger of gas down here, Marty? Not in winter. Boy, that water shield running fast. Yeah, we'll have to be careful or we'll have to be swept out to the river. Okay, Frank, she's all filled up. Now drop the raft into the water and hold on to it. Right. Ah, just wait until I tie the end of this rope to the ladder. There. Now get in, kid. Yeah. That's it. Now hold the raft steady while I get in. Easy does it, Marty. There. Now play this rope out nice and slow. And we'll float down to the right spot. Here's the first knot on the rope, and that's 50 feet. 150. 200. This is it, kid. Right here. Okay, Marty. I'll try to hold the raft as steady as you can while I break into the wall with this big axe. Is this gonna be a tough job? Yeah. I feel so my arms are being pulled off. Trying to hold this raft steady in its current. I only hope that this rope I'm hanging on to don't give. We shoot out to the river. If it did. Now you're coming. Again there. That night we broke through the concrete wall and reached dirt. The second night we tunneled through five feet, slamming it upwards so that if the water in the sewer rose, our tunnel wouldn't be flooded. The third night we dug another six feet, shoring up every other foot so there wouldn't be any cave-in. Night after night we worked. And soon the tunnel was slanting down sharply so as to end up under the floor of the vault. While one of us dug, the other would get rid of the dirt. On a Wednesday night, exactly two weeks from the time we'd started, we figured we were under the vault of the bank. Marty and me rested up a couple of days. Then on Saturday afternoon we went over our plans for the last time. Well, this is it, Frank. Tonight's the payoff. At about nine o'clock we'll leave. Yeah, it shouldn't take us more than an hour to burn through the floor of the vault. You know what those old bank vaults are like? Besides, on top of a couple of feet thick, the floors are always thin. Sure. We won't have much trouble. We should have the vault cleaned out by midnight. We'll spend the rest of the night getting rid of the equipment. The river, huh? Yeah. And we'll go over this flat with a fine tooth comb. Make sure we ain't leaving anything behind. And we'll wipe down the whole place so the cops won't find any prints. Right tomorrow morning we should be ready to travel. That's right. When the bank opens Monday morning, we'll be in the hideout upstate. A few months there, the heat will be off. And then you and me, Ken, are going to have ourselves a time. We sure are, Marty. Okay. We'd better try to grab a couple of hours shut-eye. We get a tough night ahead of us. I hit the sack and tried to get some shut-eye, but I was too keyed up to fall asleep. The hours dragged by, and soon it got down. At nine o'clock we left the flat. A few minutes later we were going down the ladder into the sewer. We filled the raft with air, loaded our equipment on it, then floated down the sewer through the tunnel we built. Each of us grabbed the suitcase and started snaking our way through the tunnel. First there was a gradual climb of 15 feet. Then the tunnel sloped sharply for 50 feet, with us ending up under the vault. Marty got out the tools and scraped away the last foot of dirt, exposing the floor of the vault. Then I got to work with the acetylene torch. It was tough working in a three-by-four hole. A half hour passed and I was still burning my way through. How's it coming, Frank? Oh, it'll be long now, Marty. Yeah, it sure will fall in here. Yeah, it's hard to breathe. I think that does it. Hand me the pickaxe, Marty. Here you are, Ken. Just a couple of taps and this piece of floor should give... Here it comes. Help me ease it down. It's a pleasure. Come here. Okay, kid. Up you go. You got your flinch? Yeah, I got it. Marty, I'm in the vault. I came up dead sander. You sure had it figured out to the end. Not bad for a guy who never finished the fifth grade. Come on, kid. Let's take a look at the case drawer. Hey, Marty. Look at it. The whole drawer is full of bundles of bills. There must be 100 G's here. That's only part of it. Now remember, no new bills and nothing smaller than 20's. Okay, Marty. I'll get the suitcases. Well, kid, that does it. 120 G's. We couldn't cram another bill into these suitcases if we tried. Gee, Marty, look at all this dough we're leaving behind. Yeah, I know how you feel, but this is as much as we can carry. Come on, Frank. Grab one of the suitcases and half the equipment. Okay, Marty. We're gonna have a tough time hauling all this stuff back through the tunnel. You all set? Yeah. I'll lead the way. Make sure nothing's left behind. Don't worry. I've double checked. Okay, Frank. Come on. I'm coming. The best way is to push the suitcase ahead of you. With the equipment piled on top of it. Yeah, that's what I'm doing. You okay, Frank? Yeah, I'm right behind you. That's funny. I feel as though I'm slowly sinking. Yeah. Marty, the floors came in. We're falling. We're falling! Marty, where are you? I'm over here. You okay? Yeah, I think so. What about you? I just had the wind knocked out of me. Sure is dark. What happened? The floor of our tunnel came down. Yeah. I wonder where we are. You got your flashlight? No, I dropped it when I fell. Yeah. So did I. Feel around, Frank. I should be near you. Okay, Marty. This would happen to us just when we hit the jackpot. Yeah. What lousy luck. You'll find it yet? No, the ground here is just mud. Soft mud and puddles of water. Frank, I found my flashlight. It's awake? Wait a minute. Yeah. Now let's have a look at this place. It's a small cave. Yeah, you're right. Where did I shine the beam on the ceiling? Marty, look. There's the hole in the ceiling where we fell through. Yeah, that was a 30-foot fall. If we hadn't landed on mud, we'd really been banged up. Without a ladder, we'll never be able to reach that opening in the ceiling. Yeah, I know. Now, let's see what the rest of this place looks like. Ain't very big, is it? There's nothing but mud walls. Marty, which rat? Take it easy, kid. It ain't that bad. We still got our tools, the torch, and most important of all, the dough. A lot of good that'll do us if we don't get out of here. We'll get out. Give me that pickaxe. What are you going to do? I want to see what this wall is like. This is the river end, all right? Nothing but mud. Now, this is what we're going to do, Frank. We'll dig in about five feet or so, and then we'll start tunneling our way up. 60 feet? That'll take us a week. Well, I'm hoping we'll run into a shaft or something. It's our only chance, kid. Yeah, I guess you're right. Now, hold the flash for me. That's it. Now, shine it against the wall while I start digging. I guess you dug about three feet, Marty. Yeah. Just about. Want me to take over? All right, kid. Frank, I struck wood. Heavy wood. What do you think it is? I don't know. Maybe it's a wall of an old cellar. A cellar? This thing? Could be. Hold the flash closer while I scrape away the mud from the wood. Look, it's a solid wall of heavy timber. It must be at least 100 years old. See how rotten that wood is? Sounds hollow. I'll bet it's a cellar. You think it might lead up to some old building? Could be. Get the torch, Frank. Let's burn our way through. Okay, Marty. It feels about eight or nine inches thick. Well, here's the torch, but it ain't gonna last long, Marty. It's almost all used up. Yeah, I figured as much. Well, go ahead, kid. See what you can do. Yeah, just about got it, Marty. Good. There goes the torch. I will have to break in the rest of the way. Yeah, hold the flash, kid, while I use the pickaxe. That's it. A couple more and it should give. We got an opening. Give me the flash, Frank. Yeah. What do you see, Marty? There's a room or something, sir. The floor is about three feet down, covered with mud. I'm gonna climb in. Come on in, Frank. I'm coming. Hold the flash this way. The air in here is sure musty. I'll shoot the beam around so we can see what this place looks like. What's the matter with you? Marty, didn't you see it over there in the corner? Something white. It looked like a skeleton. A skeleton? Yeah. You're right. Let's take a look at it. Marty, I want to get out of here. I don't like this. Get out of here yourself, will you? A sword. A sword? Yeah, and an old one, too. And the skeleton. It has the remains of a uniform on it. Frank, this ain't no cellar. We're on a ship. A ship? Yeah. This is a cabin we're in. But what would a ship be doing here? Back in the old times, the East River at this point was dangerous to sailing ships. That's how it became known as Hellgate. So many ships used to sink at this part of the river. And this is one of the ships? The sank at Hellgate? Yeah. It probably sank over a hundred years ago. And the tide swept it along the bottom of the river to this bank. As the years passed, the wreck became covered with mud. The riverbed changed, leaving it behind. You mean this wreck is buried under the East River shore? Yeah, that's what I figure. There ought to be a door somewhere in this cabin, leading to a passageway. You see it? No. But then the walls are so covered with mud, it's hard to tell. Yeah. Wait a minute. There may be a door here. Hand me the pickaxe. Here you are. It's a door, all right. And here's the handle. Is it a passageway, Marty? No. No, it's a small room. Look, there's a half a dozen chests in here. Chests? They have locks on them, too. Wait till I break the lock on this one. That does it. The lid seems stuck. Help me lift it. Okay. Now lift. Hey, look. It's full of copper coins. Frank, these ain't copper coins. Look, scratch one. These coins are gold. Gold? Frank, this is a treasure ship. A treasure ship, do you hear? Well, there's ten times as much dough here as there was in the bank. We're rich, kid. We're rich. How much do you think there is in here? Well, there must be millions. Think of it. And it's all ours. How are we going to get it out of here? How are we going to get out of here, Marty? Yeah. That's fine. This wreck is probably buried 60 feet under the East River Bank. Yeah. We'll have to go back to the cave and find another spot where we can start digging our way out. But what about all this gold? Don't worry, kid. We'll be back for it. But first we've got to get out ourselves. Come on. Let's go back to the cave. Yeah, it is sure better in the cave. Yeah. Now, let's try one of these other walls. You start digging, Frank. Okay, Marty. You just... The beam is flickering. The batteries are shot. There it goes. Marty, we can't dig our way out in the dark. Don't you think I know it? It looks like the game is over, kid. You may as well sit down and take it easy. But we just can't stay here in the dark. You got any better ideas? No. I guess not. What's going to happen to us, Marty? Come Monday morning, the cops will be swarming all over the bank. They'll find the tunnel we dug under the vault. Then they'll find us. Probably some fat sergeant will fall through the tunnel and land in our laps. And the 120 Gs and... and all the gold we found? Well, the bank will get back to 120 Gs for the gold we found. Your guess is as good as mine. That's a hard one. We hit the jackpot twice in one night to the tune of millions that we end up behind the aid ball. This is really a hard one. All that has to happen now is for that fat sergeant to fall through the tunnel and land in our laps. That's just what happens. The bank cop fell through the floor of the tunnel and landed right in our laps. It's a hard one. Williams, Williams, get hold of yourself. Get hold of yourself. I'm okay, Doc. I'm okay. What happened after the police found you in the cave? Well, Marty and me led the cops to the wreck. You should have seen their faces, Doc, when they saw the gold there. And the wreck you discovered, what ship was it? You mean you didn't read about it in the papers, Doc? Back in January of 42, I was in all the headlines. I told you that at the time I was in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Well, Doc, that wreck that Marty and me found buried in the mud was the British Treasureship Pizarre, which sank at the East River at Hellgate on September 13, 1780. British Treasureship, huh? How much gold was it carrying? Million pounds in gold, Doc. That's over four million bucks. Four million? Yeah. The gold was sent over here to pay off the British soldiers who was fighting the Americans during the revolution. I see. Marty and me heard all about it while we were waiting to go on trial for robbing the Hellgate Bank. Oh. I see by your racket here you were found guilty and received a life sentence. Yeah, me and Marty both. The Hellgate Bank robbery made us four-time losers. Yeah. It's been six years, Doc, since we found the wreck. Six years. Tell me, uh, who got the four million dollars in gold that you found? Ain't you heard, Doc? Heard what? Well, I just come from the warden's office. The warden, he tells me that after five years of legal scrapping by my mouthpiece, Marty and me are going to get two million bucks for that gold. Think of it, Doc. A million bucks a piece. A million dollars? Yeah. Ain't that a hot one, Doc? The court gives me a million bucks. You know what that means? I'm a millionaire. The richest guy in this prison. Only, Doc, how am I going to spend it? This is the mysterious traveler again. Did you enjoy our little trip? What happened to Frank Williams? Oh, the rich fellow is still serving his life sentence. All of his fellow prisoners have nicknamed him the millionaire. But the problem of spending the money is driving Frank crazy. However, he hasn't given up yet. Right now, he's figuring out how he can take it with him. Now, I recall another young man once who decided that money was the root of all evil. So he... Oh, you have to get off here. I'm sorry. I'm sure we'll meet again. I take this same train every week at this same time. You've just heard the mysterious traveler, a series of dramas of the strange and terrifying. All characters in tonight's story were fictitious and any resemblance to the names of actual persons was purely coincidental. In tonight's cast were Maurice Toplin, Joe DeSantis, and Frank Thomas. Original music by Paul Taubman. Mysterious Traveler is written, produced, and directed by Bob Arthur and David Cogan. Listen next week to a tale titled... Seven Years to Wait. Another strange and suspenseful tale of the mysterious traveler. This program has come to you from our New York studios. Another program of tense and dramatic action will follow in just a minute. Stay tuned to the station for official detectives. Carl Caruso speaking. This is the Mutual Broadcasting System.