 Listen to Herbert Marshall as the man called X. Wherever there is mystery, adventure, intrigue, in all the strange and dangerous places of the world, there you will find the man called X. It began in Denmark during the Nazi occupation in 1943. Later, Singapore provided one of the links in the chain, and then a ghost town in Wyoming. But the tragic climax was not reached until a dreaded scourge began in Canada, and the sharp staccato barking of military rifles started a savage and ruthless slaughter. I've seen the reports, Ken. Over 1,500 head of cattle already destroyed, and nobody knows how many thousands more will have to go before they get under control. There's nothing else they can do, Chief. I know. The minute foot and mouth disease gets a start, it spreads like wildfire. And the only answer is to destroy the infected cattle. It'll stop the thing what would happen if it hit the United States. Oh, major tragedy. Millions of dollars washed down the drain. A beef shortage that could last for years. But I guess we don't have to worry about that right now. Chief, you ever hear of a ghost town in Wyoming by the name of Morton? Morton? I know. Should I have? Better read this wire. Came in from Washington about 10 minutes ago. The partner of the interior reports Perford Steer found dying in Morton, Wyoming. Diagnosis confirmed as foot and mouth disease. Yeah, can. How's that possible? They've got it under control in Canada. This town of Morton must be a thousand miles south of the border. How could the virus have possibly gotten down there? Pretty interesting question, isn't it? You wondering about sabotage? I'm wondering what Dr. Carl Blomquist is doing these days. Blomquist? The Danish scientist? The expert on disease of cattle? Yeah, he was suspected of collaborating with the Nazis in biological warfare experiments. Sure, but it was never proved. Matter of fact, he's been living in the United States for some years now. Besides, I just checked on him. He's running a small cattle ranch about 15 miles outside of Morton, Wyoming. What's the nearest airport? Cheyenne? Oh, don't bother, Chief. I've already got my ticket. Any reason why not? Nobody's lived there for over 50 years, except maybe Jim Saunders. Saunders? That's him out there, gassing up that plane on the parking strip. He lives around there, or somewhere it's close by. Maybe he'll fly out there, but why not ask him? I think I will, thanks. Sure thing, Mr. Blomquist. Jim Saunders? So what if I am? Well, they tell me you're flying out toward Morton. Yeah, what's it to you, Mac? I'm looking for a lift out that way. Oh, sure. Another government snoop. One lousy cow gets foot in mouth disease and you think a Russian A-bomb fell on the joint. Go peddle your paper someplace else, Mac. I'm flying out there alone. Have it your own way, Saunders. I can get another plane. Yeah, but if you do, Mac, don't come anywhere near Morton. You get that? Don't come near Morton. Why not? What are you afraid of? I'm not afraid of anything. You hear, I'll kill any guy who calls me yellow. I'll kill him. Take it easy, Jim. I'll take it easy. It's knucklehead. He'll call me yellow. It's a laugh, huh, Bill? The guy who's thrown that from Busan to Heartbreak Ridge, he calls me yellow. Why, that dirty, low chance. Jim, stop it. Stop it right now. Okay. Get the plane ready. I've got the supplies. Better start loading them aboard. Okay, I'll load them. Just remember what I said, Mac. Stay away from Morton. I'm sorry. Jim's a little ill. He's had some pretty rough flooding in Korea. Yeah, I guess he had. How are you, Bill? All right, Ken. Wyoming's pretty strange territory for you, isn't it? What makes you say that? The last time we met was in Singapore, 1949. The bar at the Queen's Hotel. Yeah, I remember. We had martinis with an onion. Uh-huh. We also had a little discussion about some far East military secrets you were buying and selling. That was in 1949. There's still an open market in 1950, too. What would that have to do with Wyoming, Ken? That's what I was wondering. You can stop. My slate's clean. Bell Castino's gone legitimate. I'd like to believe that. All right, Bill. We're ready to go. Be right there, Jim. What about him, Bill? Jim Saunders? I told you. He's sick. What's your connection with him and the town of Morton? I live near there. He's a friend. Hello, Bill! I scrambled! Goodbye, Ken. It was nice seeing you again. Wyoming's a big place, but maybe we'll run into each other. Yeah, maybe we will. Don't look like you had any luck with Saunders, Mr. No, I didn't. Well, I reckon we can find you another plane. I knew it was a queer one, but I figured you might have had a chance. Maybe you would have, then, if it wasn't for all that scientific stuff he's loaded aboard. What scientific stuff? All him test tubes and glass bottles and laboratory stuff. That's what he's packing along the Morton with him. Sure is queer. Can't rightly figure what he'd want with junk like that in cattle country. Can't figure it at all. Well, NCX-327, request clearance for takeoff. Over. I knew you'd be glad to have my invaluable services. That's why Mr. Chief sent me up down here after you. You mean you conned him into it? Yes, and no... What do you know about what's going on here? What a question. Well? Nothing. That's what I thought. Wait, wait, wait! I know just what you're going to say. Mr. X, please, don't say it. Before I'm through I'll help you plenty with the sick cows with the hoops and the mouse and everything for his lead consideration, of course. I remember him. He was a big scientific shot in Denmark or something, always making good experimental stuff. Yeah. So what are we going to see him for? To learn what he can tell us about foot and mouth disease. We are, but... Watch it! The shots came from the top of that mesa. Must have a scope sight. If you move out of this grass, you'll have us. But if we stay here, you'll pick us off like a couple of sitting bulls. It'll be down to us. If we don't get it before then, we'll be in the clear. But, but... Don't we just get into that airplane and go back to Cheyenne? Maybe that character with the rifle is still hanging around. I came out here to ask Blumquist some questions about foot and mouth disease, Pagon. And I got a few more to add to the list. What kind of questions? We land a plane practically in this front yard. It was just for target practice. And nobody's come around to see what the fuss is all about. Hey, hey, that's right. Hey, maybe the joint's deserted and everybody took it in the lamp. That's one of the things I want to find out. Look in the bunk house and the outbuildings. I'll check the ranch house. Then come back here and let me know what you find. But, but there's dark out there, Mr. Rex. Oh, go on. Okay, okay. With the mishmash just because I'm crazy tall. That's black as pitch. It ought to be a light around somewhere. You better stop right there. Well, sounds like you've got something to back up that argument. I have a 30 out of 6 and it's pointed right at you. No, wait a minute. You're not Dr. Blumquist. That makes only one of us who's surprised. And you wouldn't be if you had a light on. Thanks. Nice rifle you've got there. Do you always use a scope sight for close work like this? I'll ask the questions, Mr. Who are you? My name's Ken Thurston. Thurston, sure. Sure it had to be. Why? Because I'm Matt Taylor. Is that supposed to mean something to me? It should. I'm the man who's going to kill you. Well, at least it's nice to know it. Had a time and a particular reason why? Yeah. For infecting my cattle with putt and mouth disease. Just like you did them up in Canada. I'll return to the man called X in just a moment. To almost everyone, the response to suffering or distress is the instinctive desire to do something helpful and to do it quickly. Your Red Cross is that same merciful impulse magnified many thousands of times. The Red Cross does roll up its sleeves and go to work for the helpless and wounded. Through the Red Cross, you help the injured and homeless in the desperate hours of emergency and later in the rebuilding of their lives and homes, you help to provide blood and blood plasma to our civilian hospitals. You are the Red Cross. And through the Red Cross, you assist your neighbors next door or across the nation every day of the year. Answer the call of humanity. Give and give generously through the 1952 Red Cross Fund Appeal. And now act two of the man called X starring Herbert Marshall with Leon Bellasco as Pagan Zeltschmidt. When a steer is discovered in the ghost town of Morton, Wyoming infected with a dreaded foot and mouth disease, Ken Thurston, suspecting possible sabotage, flies to the ranch of Dr. Carl Blumquist, a Danish expert in the diseases of cattle. But when Ken investigates the apparently deserted ranch house, he's stopped by an armed man who threatens to kill him for a most unexpected reason. That's right, Thurston. I'm going to kid you for infecting my cattle with foot and mouth disease, just like you did them up in Canada. Very interesting. I suppose you've got proof of that statement? Well, proof enough for me. Like what? Dirty head of my cattle quarantine this afternoon. A broken hypodermic needle I found out on the range. Blumquist's phone call. What phone call was that? When I heard him make on the party line saying you were coming out here about the virus. All adds up, Thurston. Yes, only I get a different answer. Yeah, but mine is the one that counts. You can't weasel out of it, Thurston. One squeeze on this trigger and you're... Mr Thurston! Mr Thurston! What's that, gentlemen? Who are you? Introductions later. David, up here! Hello! What? Sounds like a rose, Thurston. Who's the joker of the night? That can wait, big. I'm not bothering you. Me? I'm sure that anything be... Who? Oh, Mr. X. The Dr. Blumquist. What about him? He's out in the barn. Dead. Blood all over. Right, Mr. X. I wasn't looking around in the barns and things like you said. And when I turned the light on to this place... Yes. It's Blumquist all right. But who would want to do such a thing to him? And why? Take a look at those storage bins back there. Hey, look at all that junk, Mr. X. Tubes and glasses and jars and glasses and tubes. Yeah, look here. The stuff inside this vehicle looks like a culture soup. It does? Why should anybody cook soup in the barn? You'll get a concentrate. What? Pagan, I'd be willing to bet that Blumquist was developing the virus of foot and mouth disease in here. You collect your best, Ken. Yeah, a little, Bill. Thought you flew to the town of Morton with James Saunders. I did. Then what are you doing here? And how do you know about this culture? That's easy, Ken. My name isn't Bill Castino anymore. It's Mrs. Carl Blumquist. You're on your spin this straight, good person. I guess you got an apology coming. And I deserve that sock on the jaw. Now, let's say you jump to conclusions a little too fast, Taylor. It sure looks like it, all right. What would Doc Blumquist be in this skunk I was really after? Sorry, ma'am. It's all right, Mr. Taylor. You're still jumping too fast, Matt. I am. You just said that Mrs. Blumquist here admitted that stuff in the Doc's lab was foot and mouth virus. That's right. If Mr. Blumquist wasn't deliberately infecting cattle with it, he was trying to develop a vaccine that would wipe out the disease. Well, I don't know. Maybe that poke you give me rattled up my brain some, Thurston, but I still don't see foot and mouth jumping all the way down here from Canada by itself. And you can't get around that dead steer they found at Morton. With my 30-head, the inspector's getting quarantined. I think you're right, Taylor. Somebody deliberately infected those animals with the virus, but it wasn't Dr. Blumquist. Sure. The fact that he was murdered. Of course. It's obvious. Carl found out who was really responsible, and he was killed to make certain he wouldn't talk. Okay, then. Who was it? Care to answer that for him, Bill? I'd be happy to if I could, but I'm afraid that... Oh, still thinking about Singapore in 1949. I was thinking before a recently bereaved widow. You show a surprising lack of grief. How long were you married? Two weeks. Where were you married? Bill is brilliant as ever, aren't you, Kim? Where, Bill? Yes. You're right. In Canada. I don't get it, Mr. X. You practically put the finger on that luscious lullaby bell castino, and then you borrow this rattle-trump truck from here to go visit in Ghost Town. What do you want to learn of this Morton joint anyway? Oh, that steer got put in mouth disease. Why Jim Saunders wants laboratory equipment in cow country? Who killed Carl Blumquist? If that Jim Saunders sketches us monkeying around his laboratory, he's liable to blow our heads off a couple of times or two. Okay, Pagan, I've seen enough. Let's get out of here. You mean you found out something? Yeah. Why Saunders wanted all that lab equipment? I bet he's scooping up some, uh, some of that virus soup. No. His interest run more to rocks. What kind of rocks? Oh, you wouldn't know. Carboniferous dolomite. Huh? Hey, hey, there's Saunders' aeroplane up there. Yeah, that's why he wasn't around when we came calling just now. Believe me, I like it better that way. A bomb, Mr. X. He's starting to drop a bomb. That's no bomb attached to the body of the plane by a cable. But it looks like a bomb. If it's not, what is it? It's a magnetometer. A magnum? Let's get back to the ranch. I've got work to do. That's all important now, Chief. Any other reports of foot and mouth disease come in? You won't have to wait more than two. It's already happened. The sun's gone down in Wyoming. This ain't a fit night out even for cows. Look at them moving around out there and making funny noises. There's a storm coming up. Thunder and lightning always make cattle nervous. Taylor will be lucky if his stock don't stampede. Sure, just what I said. So why don't we stop hiding in these rocks and go back to the ranch house? We can wait there for whatever we're waiting for. This is the only part of Taylor's herd that's not under quarantine now. Whatever's going to happen tonight will happen right... Yeah, listen. Some what? Another cow coming up to get a little company. That's so awesome why do you want to get quiet now? Whoever it is, has stopped right in the middle of all those cows. Yeah. Hey, what's that spray gun thing there? A hypodermic for cattle. Loaded with the virus of foot and mouth disease. It is, but it's going to be used on those cows. It's going to... All right, hold it. All through, Saunders. Drop the hypo and get away from those cattle. So it was you I saw when I flew over Mork today. I suppose you've got it all figured out, eh? Sure, Saunders. Oil. Oil. But the foot and mouth and the soup. What's got to do with the oil? The dolomite samples from the megatometer said there was oil under Taylor's ranch. But Saunders wanted the door for himself. Wanted to drive Taylor out. Drom, Kristen, it's virus provided the answer. Sure. Your nose, then, they've been up infected cattle here by morning. They're clean off the entire range. They're still gonna be. Don't shoot, Saunders. The cattle's stampede. Shit! The cattle's Saunders. You've started a stampede. Get over behind these rocks before it's too late. He's trying to run away from them, Mr. X. Yeah. They're from all sides of him. He didn't make it. He learned his lesson, Taylor. He learned that there's a deadly of virus than foot and mouth disease. A thing called greed. Here is our star, Mr. Herbert Marshall. Thanks for being with us. And my thanks to Lucille Meredith, Will Wright, Herb Vigran, LeMont Johnson, and Bob Griffin. Next week, the jungles of Malaya and a search for the man who doesn't deserve to be called a man. Rather, a monster. And, no, I don't mean Leon Belastow, although he'll be along as usual as Pagan Zelchman. So join us, won't you, when next I return as the man called X. Good night. Richard Kennedy production with music by Milton Charles. The story is written by Sidney Marshall. This program is directed by Jack Johnstone. All characters and incidents on this program are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual characters or incidents is purely coincidental. And now, until next week, same time and station, this is Hal Gibney saying good night for The Man Called X. The National Broadcasting Company.