 And now, another tale well calculated to keep you in. The Target, a solidly built two-story brick building on the edge of the industrial section of the city. The Obstacle, three locked iron doors and 12 armed guards. The Prize, three million dollars in cash. The problem? To penetrate past the three locked doors and the armed guards and emerge safely with the money. The answer? Just for the record, the name is Pete Wilson. Job, night superintendent of the Lakeside Municipal Crematorium. Time midnight about a year ago with the thunderstorm bowling duck pins in the sky. I was reading the western in my little office by the front door. My job was a nice quiet one. We hardly ever had any customers at night. My entire staff, Danny Maxwell, was mopping the reception room. When I held the door open and someone come in, then the daddy of all thunderbolts lifted me out of my chair. And whoever had come in spoke to Danny. Hey, did you see that flash? Riding up to be judgment day. I guess it was judgment day, all right. For some people that is. Did you know two people died just since you come in the door? They did, huh? Died where? Some place in this country. Now one more has died. That makes three. Now it's four. That's the mortality rate for this country for a minute. For the city, it's one every 30 minutes. Two an hour. Forty-eight every day. And you'll be one of them if you keep up this line of chatter. I want to see your boss. Get him out here. Al Thomas' voice and of all the people in the world, I didn't want to see Al was all of them. But I got outside fast. Al, Al Thomas. Well, long time no see. Al, pity boy. You're looking good. Real good. Excuse me, Mr. Peep, but this gentleman... He's an old friend of mine, Danny. Go on, I'll back and clean up. I want to talk to him. Danny went off with his mop and I took Al into my office. I got out the bottle of bourbon. I used to help the, uh, proud car boys warm up with on cold nights. Al took off his wet $90 Gabbardine top coat and smiled at me with big shot teeth. Ah, nice setup you got here, Peep. Your own boss. Lots of time to yourself. Everything nice and quiet. I like it quiet, Al. Yeah, you always did, didn't you? Remember how noisy our cell used to be? Always somebody in a cell block coughing or snoring or choking or screaming? Yeah, yeah, I remember. Look, what are we talking about cells? Let's talk about something interesting. Like money. Uh, money, Al. Money. I got a little job in mind, Peep, and I need some help. You. Al, I'd certainly like to help out. The doc told me to avoid any excitement. You're the old ticker, you know. Excitement? This will be like wheeling the baby to church. Tell me, Peety, can you drive a horse? Well, sure I can drive a horse. Then you're in. I'm giving you a 20% piece. The total take should be $3 million. So you'll be the first guy in history to earn $600 grand for driving a horse. Any questions, Peety? Oh, what kind of a horse, Al? Horse. Who said anything about a horse? I asked if you could drive a horse. A horse, boy, a horse! The last thing I wanted was to get back into the business. The last person I wanted to get back into it with was my old cellmate Al. But if he wanted me, I was stuck. Being a three-time loser, all he had to do was plant some hot goods on me and call the cops, and I was up for life. I had to play along. So I was next afternoon, and I went to see him in his room in that crummy lodging house, and he took me to the window and pointed. You see that steam shovel across the street? Well, sure I see it. Excavating for a new building. Yeah, and you see the solid old brick building right next to it? Uh-huh. The main headquarters is a dollar delivery, the big armored car outside. Right. That's when he'd load the armored cars with the money. Every Thursday night, there's better than $3 million in that building, Peety. Being packaged for payrolls in this area. Next Thursday night, we're cutting ourselves in on that $3 million. Just, uh, you and me? Just the two of us knocking over 12 armed guards and three locked doors? Oh, Peety, relax. Of course we're not trying anything like that. I was afraid for a minute. Now use brains, Peety. Brains, not muscles. You know who's operating that steam shovel? The... Marty Brennan. Marty Brennan? That's right, the whole construction gang is part of his mob. They have the foundation of a dollar delivery building weakened in one spot, so it's all ready to cave. And next Thursday, it will cave. They'll just walk in and pick up the dough. But then, uh, where do we come in, huh? Oh, that's simple, Pete. We take it away from them. So that's how the dollar delivery holdup started. Anyway, how my part in it started. Yeah, Al didn't explain any more, and I didn't ask no questions. Al didn't like questions. But next night, he dropped into the crematorium, and I showed him how we take care of our, uh, customers. Now back here, Al, as they're receiving door. Mm-hmm. From the outside of boxes rolled through on these steel rollers, one man can handle it. Yeah, I'll show you how the whole deal works. It's practically automatic. Hey, Danny. Yes, Mr. Pete? Come out here a minute. What do we need him for? Dad, Danny always does the honors. Can you trust him? If he starts talking? No, Danny never talks. He's punchy. He used to be in the ring. As fast as a thing happens, he forgets it. Here, here, Mr. Pete. Yeah, well, show my friend, Al, how we handle this, eh? Oh, sure, Mr. Pete. Well, first, I push this button. That turns on the furnace, Al. Mm-hmm. And then I push the box down to steel rollers like this. Now watch. The, uh, the furnace door opens automatically. Right into the flames. All automatic. Now the door is shut down. That's all there is to it. Okay, Danny. Go on back up front. Yes, Mr. Pete. Very neat. What's down these stairs? Well, that's the storage room. We keep cleaning supplies down there, and stuff like that. Mm-hmm, good. We'll hide the money down there. Hide the money here? You heard me. We gotta hide it someplace, Pete. This is one spot it won't be looked for. That's all until Thursday night. Oh, uh, except I'll need an official form. Well, what kind of official form, Al? A regular kind. Authorizing a cremation. I wished I knew what Al was figuring on. But like I say, Al didn't like questions. When I thought about the job, taking three million bucks away from Marty Branigan's mob, I went hot and then cold. I wanted to bow out, but not Al. Al wanted me to help for some reason, and what Al wanted he got. So I sweated it out, and finally Thursday night came in. Long about midnight, I found myself in Al's room watching the dollar delivery building across the street. Truck drove up to it and inside. There goes one of the armored cars inside, and I'll pick up a payroll delivery. Any minute, Marty Branigan will make his move. Everything seems so quiet. The brass band keep quiet and listen. There's Marty Branigan getting inside. His boys are in there now. If we don't hear any shooting or an alarm by the time I count to ten, they pull it off. One, two, three, four, five. They've done it. Now it's time for us, Pete. Come on. Well, where to Al? To buy a quart of milk, chum. It's been signed that Branigan and his boys are a long way from the dollar delivery building by now. He's going to be stopped and searched. All right, here we are. See that milk wagon at the curb? Here comes the driver delivering the milk. Now act drunk and try to buy a quart from him. Go ahead, go ahead. Buddy. Hey, hey, buddy. What is it? I'm going to buy a quart of milk. I just deliver, Mac. I don't sell. My old lady sent me out of a quart of milk. Just one quart? Now let me have one little quart. Oh, I said, OK, take this. Just as the milk man slugged me, Al stepped in from behind and laid a sap over his ear. We caught him and dragged him into the milk wagon and tossed him in back on top of the cases of milk. Then I found myself standing there with the reins in my hand. All right, Pete, you said you could drive a horse and drive. Come on, boy. In the next block, there's an alley. Turn into it. Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. I'm proud, cause stop it. Who's going to stop a milk wagon? Well, they might notice we aren't delivering any milk. Don't worry, they won't. They're all heading for the dollar delivery building. And that's one place they won't find anything. Branigan and his mob have had 17 minutes to make a getaway. Then they got away with the dollars, too. Where does that leave us? With all the cream, chum. That milk man in back there is one of a mob. One of Branigan's mob? Sure, he's been in a job for six months. That's how long Branigan's been planning this. Marty wasn't taking any chance of being stopped and searched. The worst thing he did was stop and transfer all the loot to this milk wagon. The money is back there, P.D. Under the milk. Like I said, who's going to stop a milk wagon? Okay, here's the alley. Turn in here. I turned the horse into the alley. It was lined with garages. I maneuvered the horse and wagoned at one of them. And Al slammed the door shut. Well, I took time to mop my brow. Al was already opening the door into the next garage. Hey, sheet, come here and look. Yeah, sure, sure. At what? All parked and ready. Holy cow. That's right, a nice respectable looking horse. And in that horse is a plain pine coffin. P.D., we're going to fill that coffin with three million bucks. Then we'll drive it to the crematorium. We'll unload the box and hide the money in the storage room and put the coffin through the furnace just as if it was a legitimate customer. I got all the documents made out for Albert G. Cash. Albert G. Cash of Dortchmont. In about a week, we'll load the dough into the horse again and I'll drive it right out of the state. Nobody's going to suspect a horse, P.D. Okay, let's get busy. We got to put Mr. Cash in his coffin. The money sacks in the milk wagon and started with the empty coffin. When we finished, Al went back to check on the unconscious driver and I heard him yell, Hey, Pete, come here. This guy is... Got there. Al Thomas was stretched down the garage floor and the milkman was gone running. I didn't have time to wonder about him. I had to look at the rail. He had an ugly gash in his head. The blood was pouring down his face. I mopped off the blood and lugged into the horse where I stretched him out of the front seat. Oh, he shook his head groggy and tried to sit up. Oh, he slugged me, Pete. He waited for me. He slugged me. Now, take it easy. Don't try to talk. We got to get the dough hit. You got to get me back to my room. You need a doc. You hurt the hell. No, no, no, no, doc. Get the dough in the crematorium and hide it. Oh, come on. Get going. I got the motor started and drove the hearse out of there. I just hoped no cops would wonder what a hearse was doing on the street so late. If anybody asked, we were from out of town. One plow car went by without stopping and we were turned into the parking space back as the municipality was quiet. I stood the pine box holding Mr. Cash onto the loading platform and threw the door on the conveyor. Then I helped out inside. All right, Al. Another couple of steps. That's it. Okay. Okay, we're inside. Now, we'll hide the dough and then we'll get you back to your room and get the hearse back in his garage. I'll get rid of the milk wagon and we'll set it. I feel pretty bad, Peter. I got to lie down. Mr. Pete, is that you, Mr. Pete? And you got to hide. Stand behind this pillar. Mr. Pete, oh, there you are. Yeah, yeah. Well, what is it, Fanny? I got the front all cleaned up. You want me to clean up back here now? No, no, not yet. Later. Later. Hey, is that a customer coming in that box? Yeah, it's Mr. A. G. Cash, a Dutchman. Ain't it pretty late to be receiving customers? Well, it's a rushed job with the families leaving town in the morning. Then I'll go sweep out the chapel and stay there until I call you, huh? Well, sure, Mr. Pete. Do I do the honors? Later, later, and then I'll beat it. All right, Hal, you can come on now. Danny's gone. Hey, Hal, what's the matter? You look so funny. Hal! I'll hit the floor like a sandbag and just lay there. I've been over him, feeling for his pulse, and then I knew... Hal Thomas was dead. In just a moment, we will return for the concluding act of suspense. Confidentially, before I got the happy habit, I never could have talked to strangers this way, mumbled maybe, but talked? And my happy habit is catching. One listen does it. Arthur Godfrey, Art Linkletters House Party, Gary Moore, and the new Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney show, CBS Radio has them all. It's live show biz sound. Every Fundy Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, catch? Hal was dead, all right. Sometimes the skull fracture has a delayed effect like that. I turned hot and then cold. I was a buzzin' in my ears. Now I had a cold corpse, three million in hot cash, and an unexplained hearse on my hands. If I could juggle them all fast enough, I was a millionaire. But if I fumbled, well, whoever believed I hadn't killed Al for the loot, I would have killed my face. Should I? Shouldn't I? Could I? Couldn't I? I began to think I could do it. I could hide Al and the money in the storeroom, burn the coffin, get rid of the hearse, and then... Mr. Beat! Mr. Beat! Yeah, yeah, what is it, Danny? There's two cops out front askin' for you. Two cops? Officer Hunt and Officer Connell. They want to ask you some questions. Okay, okay, I'll... Tell them I'll be right in. No choice. I got Al's body out of sight as fast as I could, no time to lug him down to the storeroom. And inside 60 seconds, I was out front talkin' to Hunt and Connell, the proud car team who patrolled our neighborhood. Pete, we want to ask you, did you hear anything unusual tonight? Oh, just sirens, lots of them. Some big happen? She counts two and a half million bucks, big. Two and a half million? Somebody knocked over a dollar delivery and got away with two and a half million. Missed half a million in their herd. Yeah, we've been searchin' every car and truck in the streets. No sign of the doe. Headquarters thinks the gang hit it and broke up. Hit it, huh? Now we're searchin' block by block. You hear any unusual noises, trucks or car stopping, anything like that? No, not me. You don't mind if we search the place? Search the crematorium? Of course not. Oh, but first, I got some embalmin' fluid I'd like you to test. Embalmin' fluid, huh? Sounds interesting. What do you say, Hunt? I say let's try it. Okay, right over here in my office. Step in, be comfortable. I keep it in here, filed under E. The best Kentucky bourbon embalmin' fluid. See what you think, huh? Man, that'll put life in the money. Here, Connell. Thanks, huh? That'll make the dead ones happy and the live ones happy. We'll have another. It'll be a long night. You can say that twice. The captain is really gonna write us to find that doe. Well, happy days. Now each had another drink and then went out to look around. I sat there and held my breath, prayin' they wouldn't find Al and notice the hearse on bank. They looked around for a minute and I heard him go out. I kept on sittin' there until my heart stopped poundin'. Finally, I went out to finish the job of hidin' my doe. I was a millionand. Two-and-a-half times a millionand. And all of it tax-free. I even had a couple of nasty thoughts from Marty Brannigan still pedidin' and missin' the other five hundred grand. As I stood in the reception and listenin', I heard something. And all of a sudden, I had a horrible thought. And I began to run toward the back. Danny! Danny! Yeah, Mr. Peake? Danny, did you... did you... Did I what, Mr. Peake? Danny, wh-where's the box for Mr. Cashew? You said it was a rest job, so I braced it. Oh, no, no. Let me look. Let me see. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Oh, you better that's in there! It's... it's burnin'! I figured you'd be glad to have a time, Mr. Peake. Say, uh, uh, tell me. What did his initial stand for? I mean, A.G. Cash. Stand for his initial... I'll tell ya. All gone, Danny. All gone, Cash. It was all gone, all right. The whole two-and-a-half million. Remated! Well, I was passin' our drinks to Hunt and Connell. Well, the dollar delivery boys in the feds finally caught Marty Brannigan and his mom. But they never would buy the story that Marty didn't have any idea where the money went to. Tell them to look in the urn on the top shelf of the storage room of the lakeside municipal crematorium. There's the name A.G. Cash on it. I don't suppose they'll be able to do much with the nice, wide ashes in the urn, but ask them to be gentle with them. They're not only the most expensive ashes in the world, but they're also all that's left of Al Thomas. Because the only place I could hide Al in a hurry was the one to do the trick, litter the coffin and put Al in on top of the money and then latch it shut again. So Al and the doll went in the furnace together. Anyway, he died rich. And I like the thinking that a liar out of those jerks who go around saying you can't take it with you. If anybody ever took it with him, it was that. New coffin for Mr. Cash, written for suspense by Robert Arthur. In a moment the names of our players and the word about next week's story of suspense. Are you all out of tune because you're irregular? Then help yourself get back in tune with Kellogg's All Brand. You'll feel right on pitch when Kellogg's All Brand goes gently to work. Relieves constipation due to lack of bulk by supplying your system with bulk forming whole brand. Yes, a daily bowl full of Kellogg's All Brand with milk helps put you right back in tune. The natural way, the good tasting way too. Fact is, Kellogg's All Brand is the one brand cereal that combines proved effectiveness with appetizing taste and Christmas. It never gets mushy in milk. So remember, if constipation's a problem, gentle it away as millions do with Kellogg's All Brand. The good food way to keep regular as clockwork. A-L-B-R-A-N. Kellogg's All Brand. At your grocers. Third in tonight's story were Leon Janney as Pete Wilson and Vandell Cramer as Al Thomas. Others in the cast included Sam Raskin, Sam Gray, Joseph Boland, and Bob Donnelly. Listen again next week when we return with A Shipment of Mute Fate by Martin Storm. Another tale well calculated to keep you in.