 Get this and get it straight crime is a suckers road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter the prison of the grave There was a gorgeous tapestry found under a tomb and they were all after it the worried importer the man with half a face The Englishman in an LA slum and the lady wearing a green veil But before it was over none of them had it and two of the four were dead From the pen of Raymond Chandler outstanding author of crime fiction comes his most famous character in the adventures of Philip Marlowe Now with Gerald Moore starred as Philip Marlowe. We bring you tonight's transcribe story the baton sinister I'd watch the blood-red Sun set behind an ugly purple storm out on the ocean And the weird afterglow that crept into the canyons of the Hollywood Hills made me uneasy Added emphasis to the disquieting phone call I received at my office from a man named Pollard Schindler My new is a very capable worldwide broker of bizarre odd objects In words that fell over each other in urgency. He asked me to meet him at my place at once As I drove to my apartment, I figured the trouble lay ahead But I didn't realize how close it was until I parked and started out of my car The bullet smashed the corner of my windshield my duck for cover then hugged the building and headed to the rear where I was sure I'd seen a gun flash I was halfway there when the side door flew open and Pollard Schindler himself stopped me It was white-faced and shaking his eyes ring by dark blue circles of fatigue That shot. Yeah, somebody throw a slug at me. She looked from back there. I was afraid of this We can't talk here. Not now come let's get in your car and drive hurry. Wait a minute. Wait a minute What's all this about who shot at me and why it must have been that lizard my run lost Oh, he's followed me all the way from England model because But I I tell you all about it when we're safe right now. We must get away from here. Okay, but watch yourself. Come on Well so far so good You see that hole in the windshield. It's lucky. It's not in my head. Are we being followed not yet anyway? Well Pollard last time it was a cloak of camea a man a trip to Honolulu. What is it this time? It's worse the tapestry Marlow 15th century and exquisite worth 20,000 as a museum piece alone. Hey, that's a lot of money for a chunk of cloth. It's nothing I'm getting better than 80,000 for it from a man named Arthur Merritt in Seattle 80 grand Yes, correct. You see this merit claims to be a direct descendant from Edward Second Duke of York who fell at Arjun cool really Yeah, he spent a fortune tracing his genealogy and collecting family treasures and regard this tapestry as his greatest prize It's a gorgeous team Marlow It takes to do kind of gold horse riding to battle beside the king one such colors reds blues Greens breath take a bed But I'm so tired. I don't think I've slept in weeks for 80,000 bucks You can afford to be tired Schindler, but how does the guy with the itchy trigger finger fit into all this loft that's come He was up to the tapestry too. He got wind of the fact that someone was willing to pay 80,000 for it But he doesn't know who I see you found it first. Yes It's in a sealed tomb under the ruins of a castle in Wales Just minutes ahead of loft. Where's the tapestry now at this moment It's in a cheap suitcase checked in a public locker at the Keringa Boulevard Bustipo Now I want you to pick it up and get it safely to Arthur Merritt here Here's the locker key you take it on a plane leaving in three hours and your money five $100 bills enough enough. Well, I find out the merit a 76 vestry Seattle He'd be expecting you and Marlow I feel better if you get the tapestry soon and keep it with you until plane down. You're really afraid of this guy Loft answer you stop at nothing. I warn you now. I get off here at the corner Marlowe Incidentally, when you get the tapestry don't go back to your apartment. Love may be reading gear I'm at the Hollywood crest hotel Hollywood crest. Yeah, call me when the job is done. Goodbye Marlowe and good luck. You'll need it The key Schindler left was numbered 410 so I drove the bus station and went in Casual walkthrough showed me that lock in number 410 was the last on the left Then I ambled over to the lunch counter ordered a sandwich and coffee and sat down to case the rest of the customers Finally, I spotted him a dark man in ragged clothes with a profile out of Western Asia who was also watching number 410 Profile glanced around nervously and looked away fast when he caught me watching him I ease the key to 410 out of my pocket and slipped it under my sandwich Follow waitress. I'd be right back and started taught him He saw me coming in mate for the back exit broke into a run when he got to the door We played follow the leader down the tunnel the alley behind the bus barn and around the corner They're the game's top Because a claw that belonged on a lobster reached out grabbed me by the shirt front and pulled me up against 18 inches of curved Damascus steel Shopping up the shave with I knew then why he'd show me only his profile After space was handsome the other half Well when he spoke he hissed through the flexible half of his mouth Stands to my friend or I slit your gizzard for you. Where is my run loft? I don't know. I never met the man up close that is my you are working for him Keep using that knife of punctuation pal. I'll admit anything. I followed the fat German I watched him put the tapestry in one of those lockers inside Therefore are you that loft or his hireling wouldn't be far behind you mean me you're off base What's my run loft to you what indeed? Only I know the true value of that tapestry for it was I who paid for it Half my face and half my mind but before I'm through lot will know too. Where is he? I don't know, but I wish I were with him Shall I choose you for being stupid go to loft and tell him that a car is not dead But has come back to teach him the price of treachery. This will surprise him no doubt He murdered me so I would not talk she left me for dead sent me hurtling unconscious off a bridge in a clock of blazing oil It made me like this claw for a hand a face to frighten demons But he did not kill me nice guy lost and the tapestry itself Tell him it will bring him nothing, but despair well I have put a curse of worthlessness on it From the alley the shot. Did you see who it was a car? No, but I didn't have to see to know He thinks he has finished it now, but he is wrong look Look for the button serious what what look for what a car in the Duke's shield the baton sinister Words back on sinister whatever that met on his twisted lips Twisted little man died. I Walked back carefully the way I'd come with life in the bus depot was going on as usual The waitress gave me a hard eye when I sat down at the lunch counter again in the mirror over the back bar told me why I Was pasty green from eyes to mouth The thought of death in an alley still did that to me was strangely gratifying I Got the key from under the sandwich dropped a buck on the counter and then went to lock up 410 and open it Shindler's tatted suitcase was there. I Picked it up took it over to a store phone and sat on it while I put in a call with tenant Matthews at Hummyside Yes, you did Matthews I said a man with half a face named that car was shot in the alley back of coeing a bus depot Probably because he knew too much about a tapestry Who did you got any ideas? Well, it could be a guy named Myron Loft. It's all I know about him. Just a name Hey, hey lieutenant. Yeah, you happen to know what a baton sinister is Never mind Matthews, I'll call you again before I leave When I left the bus depot, I drove to my office took the suitcase upstairs after I locked myself in I opened It under the lamp on my desk Holds of dazzling cloth spilled out. I remember Schindler saying Duke was riding a gold horse. I looked for that It was easy to spot And from there I located the shield was deep blue with three white roses on one side and a red line on the other in the center Pointy diagonally from upper right to lower left was a thin line of still deep of blue That was all I had a chance to see Because a hand In a rubber glove clamped a wet cloth over my face and The sickly sweet odor went through me like warm oil Throw a paper bag a hundred years later. I had a strange dream. I Saw a pair of high heeled green suede shoes men And then a woman in a green veil looking at an empty suitcase Because I couldn't move and my eyelids were leadin when the green veil and green shoes left Everything went black again Next time it was no dream I was face down on my office carpet alone and very sick to my stomach. I've been chloroform I crawled over to the desk pulled myself up the suitcase was open and empty Somehow I got the phone off the hook dialed information in a minute later had my client on the wire I am sick. You're gonna be too shinly a tapestry is gone. It was stolen What did you say? Well, I brought it up here to my office, but somebody was already in here laying for me I was chloroformed and out for about half an hour When I came to it was gone now. Listen, you know a man named a car horribly scarred from burns Yeah, not the way you think it was killed at the bus station. I don't know a car thought so and I'm getting tired of hearing that name lost Hey incidentally, what's a baton sinister? It might be important what is it actually What does that mean from up a right to lower left maybe I was told to look for the baton sinister by Wait a minute pollen. There's something on the floor here. It looks like an envelope Yeah There's nothing in it, but it's addressed to Holy smoke, this is addressed to Myron law 946 South Grand Avenue LA It runs through a slum called Bunker Hill any cab driver knows it. I'm going down there now Schindler Bunker Hill stuck up above downtown LA like a ward on a debutants hand The big street that a tunnel under it a bypassed years ago left it nothing more than a dingy isolated attic But the city's worn out cast-offs finally end up to die The big hotels that open on the swank street below it all carefully turned their backs on the hill I Parked near angels flight and walked on the odd number side of the street until I spotted 946 a crumbling yellow stucco rooming house Clung to the hill face from habit only I Gave the windows a lot of attention to be sure no one was watching. I Went out of the corner crossed and came back And me make the night light was on at the end of the hole So I pushed my way through the smells tore the door with a grimy card and set office Was about to knock when a voice heard from the landing on the stairs behind me when you turn round do it slowly Understand perfectly I Dare say your pilot Schindler's man could be which makes you my own law. Yes I've been up on the roof watching you expected you'd come before long I suppose you want the tapestry now. How'd you guess that and what price is Schindler decided to offer me price You're kidding hardly. I don't enjoy humor. Perhaps you don't know much about the tapestry. Not much I know more than I used to I'd quite a chat with our car a car That's impossible my ex assistant is dead. I know but he lived long enough to tell me about the baton sinister on the Duke shield Yeah, it's a lie my fine fellow. There's no baton sinister on that field and it's oh Of course That's sly idiot. I would try something like a baton sinister But what purpose I can't imagine just to make sure that you'd pay for his murder What's that must have been a shock to find out he survived that burning truck accident you tried So you finish him tonight with a bullet. Oh, that's strange How much more do you know along this line enough to make bargaining more than worth your while and I haven't kept it all in my head I see But my door is a second on the left and move along now quickly. I see no reason to hurry. I do See what you mean Although the accent was Oxford the gestures was strictly skid row So as I proceeded Myron Loft and gun into the Lord's sagging chamber. I watched carefully for the chance. I knew I'd have to take before long But a small step toward a dark corner Told me it wasn't gonna be easy The gentleman with the flexed voice was being very wary about now turn about and face me quickly So worry about being in fact that the quiet footstep behind him went out and noticed The footstep that had been made by a green suede pump that belonged to a lady with a veil also green And now I knew I'd actually seen earlier in my office When she took her next step the gun she clenched in her expensively glove hand was raised high Came down hard Girl of my dreams. I thank you that was neat and believe me not a moment too soon He's not dead, isn't he? No, he's just how cold isn't deep freeze But uh, aren't we being a little matter-of-fact about all this we are did you expect to use well from the veil? That's where I'm probably being misled. I Should concentrate on your green suede shoes. They seem to be more in character You seem to be quite ungrateful and gabby. So why don't we just move on some? Over there that bundle it could be the tapest the tap Hey lady, you're not after it too. Why you know I came here to save your life. I love you. That's charming. Come on, mister Are we warm hot? Yeah, this is it. All right Wait for me. Oh, no. Oh, yes way back and for safekeeping into that snug little closet there Without so much as a peak at the veil. I mean without so much as another word your mouth. I mean go on inside It won't hold you for long, but I don't need long anymore She was so right didn't hold me for long Because even a misplayed hiccup could y'all lose most any given segment of bunker hill construction However by the time I got to the street It was lady with bail and bundle tucked underneath her arm climbing into a cab and only a tear lights getting out of Sight around a corner, so I played the only bet left She departed in the camp. Maybe she'd arrived in one and maybe that one was still in line at the hack stand across the street at the back Of a hotel at number four. I connected. Yeah. Yeah sure the doll with a veil. I brought her here Why what's it mean to you everything? She's my long lost sister. Where'd you pick her up? Can't remember. Okay. Okay. Here's five now try it I Was a sunset gardens hotel villa 12 which is around on the side But you know what else? No, what else? I'll bet this five. She ain't really your sister at all. I'll bet she's really your wife Yeah, you're so wrong. She's really typhoid married Jackie, but a fumigate fast both inside and out. Good. Bye I was 30 anxious minutes weaving my way through the thick west brown traffic than any snail could have easily out sprinted Before I was finally parked away from villa 12 then out of my car and running toward the squat chunk of term I'd proof old Spain I hope that again meet up with both the lady who wore a mosquito net for a hat and my client's heart Come by drapery But the bungalow in front of me said no such luck because it was dark closed tightness quiet as snow falling all the way around Until I was in the back by each villa had its own junior picnic grounds complete with barbecue pit Then from somewhere behind me. I heard it First the rattle of paper Then a few footsteps high heels that I knew could be the green suede ones on flagstone After that over near the pit liquid poured on wooden and sudden flame It was the lady whose shoes I knew all right, but this time no veil Only a face that might have been pretty if it weren't for the prancing shadows the flames threw over an expression There was a little more than determination a little less than psycho and move close to a quietly And what she had the tapestry unwrapped and was ready to make a little offering to the fire guards I took my cue marshmallows would taste better baby honest you yeah a little me in 38 not so little The stand very still honey priceless heirloom included. No, I won't it's going to Go baby better we dirty it and sing it come on. Let's go Come on firebug who are you? Okay, that's how me where you fit in the tapestry or do we shake some more Tell you what you want to know Who are you names Philip Marlowe top no private detective hired to babysit with a tapestry. Let's not change the subject Okay, okay getting there I'm Arthur merits me and so there Guy in Seattle is waiting for me to deliver this item as your uncle My uncle's a jerk now wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let me get this straight You steal the tapestry risk your life play with guns and with people who only play for keeps So you can get a chance to burn 80,000 bucks with a fancy needle My uncle has been throwing away his money on antiques and all he's got left of a half a million is a hundred grand I don't want four-fifths of that used for this thinking substitute for wallpaper anything else. Yeah How long you've been working on this project this operation arson week Came down from Seattle when I learned that the man my uncle was dealing with his name Pollard Schindler You can fill it in from there How do you mind if I leave I'm looking forward to bed and a good cry $80,000 worth Do I go there on one condition your gun, baby? It stays I Watched her until she was around at the front of the bungalow and out of sight and I grabbed up the tapestries started to fold it when Sudden flare from the fire through a crazy spurt of light over the material on my arm And I saw that on the shield at the Duke of Kent carried. There was no better on sinister This was not the same tapestry. I'd examined in my office Right then just to make things all the merrier. I once again heard from Naomi March The even chance of this was a trap Naomi playing possum with healthy lungs I ditched the tapestry in the nearby clump of trees then gun and hand ran for the front door of billet's well I got there just as a great convertible lights outlawed off and Naomi was climbing back onto her feet What took you so long listen you the real tapestry. Where is it? Oh? No, you're kidding. Maybe that number you just tried to burn is not the one I started out with tonight It's minus baton sinister minus who what are you talking about just this maybe you still have the tapestry in the routine with The flames was done with a phony and strictly for my benefit and maybe you're nuts now You listen what I told you before with the truth nothing, but however if it happens to work out that I walked off with A phony and you did likewise. I'm sorry. I'll bet The time being I'll buy it that way now. Tell me what went on here I was about to unlock the door when it happened a hand with a rubber glove grab wait a minute wait a minute rubber glove Rubber glove do we say everything twice whoever it was obviously didn't want to leave fingerprints Oh, the smell of chloro foam on his hands. They come to think of it I just get a whiff of something funny. How do you know about that in my office when the tapestry was? Wait a minute you were there and you get a look at him No, there was only a single light on and you were already out cold when I got there. Yeah, but you must have seen something sure Stars after he took the tapestry then laid an envelope of some kind next to you I told him to reach way up got me piled into a heap on your office floor Hey, hey hold it back up Naomi. What you say he placed that envelope there next to me Cut it out baby. I've got an idea thought About a baton sinister and what's really going on Also, it just occurred to me that Myron love might not remain unconscious forever And that my client was gonna cover me at lofts place on Bunker Hill Once I pick up the tapestry I just hid which may not be a phony back to Bunker Hill. So long kid Thank goodness. You're here. I I Just shot my run love you did what Schindler? Yes gotten him Dead Marlowe Now then you can help sweetheart It was terrible Marlowe. I came to this place after I didn't hear from you and found out which room loft head When I bend in he was on the floor Unconscious so I started to look around for the tapestry in the meantime lot came to get hold of a gun and rushes at it Yes, we struggled and then the gun went off. Oh Marlowe. What should we do now called the police? Yeah, I'll take care of it You go back into the room there and don't touch anything and see that nobody else does all right Marlowe But you have to tapestry. Yeah, I got it Schindler safe and sound your worries are over Hello Matthews. I'm at 946 South Grand Avenue and so is another body At Myron loft I mentioned my client Paula Schindler just shot him in self-defense Which also clears up that that the back are out behind a bus people I mean love got him and then tried for your client but missed. Yeah Yeah, if you believe my client Few very tasty but hard to swallow facts one my clients are liars who my client killed both icon Myron lawton three I've been set up and used as neat as chump patsy soccer fall guy. They all fit Even shot through my windshield for realism College Schindler never had the real tapestry Matthews He had only a phony gave it to me to deliver and then swiped it from me after which he put me on the trail of the Real one. So while swiping it back for him like the good private detective you are you come up with a real one That's tidy. I'll be right down. Okay You you told the police what happened Marlowe. Yeah, I told him mr. Schindler. I Told them everything now There's nothing for us to do but wait That doesn't look at it seven full pages a confession from mr. Paula Schindler our very crafty bird. Yeah Yeah, thanks money. Oh bring that girl in the couple of minutes. We all right Well Phil Here it is the whole story. Yeah. Yeah, look followed Schindler one after the tapestry in England But Myron law got there first However, Schindler was the one who knew where he could sell it way above museum price So law had a duplicate made up and saw to it that Schindler stole it from and it was a car Where did the baton sinister the mark of fraudulence in heraldry to the fake tapestry? Yeah But I still don't clearly follow the rest of it Phil. I mean here in LA Oh, well, it wasn't much of a change another verse same song Love stayed close to Schindler all the way back to England Yeah, and he watched and he waited until he figured that Schindler was ready to close his deal You see yeah, and he stepped forward announced that the tapestry Schindler had was a phony Oh, and that he'd give him the real one for a healthy cut of the sale price I love couldn't go to merit director because he didn't know who Merit was sure And from there it was me the patsy with the best of references that do it for you just about Schindler kill that car We didn't expect in the scene in the law through he did so neither one could spill to you. That's right now Yeah, come in now. When did you know just a minute miss March and please? When did all this come across to you Phil when I got mixed up with the lovely lady here? She told me that the man who had chlorophyll me and my opposite carefully placed an envelope on the floor next to me an Envelope I later took as a clue from that switch. I started to look around for others Oh, great. You're ready for campfire girl me. What kind of a metal do I get? You get a pretty nice one miss March and thanks to Marla get freedom You know we could refer charges against you like what like what like a salt and battery for slugging love grand last Me for the theft of the tapestry from lofts place attempted destruction of private property. Okay. I I got about those things. Yeah, thanks Marla. Thanks Marla that your official statement no more not even I'm sorry before you go Well, yeah I'm sorry all right real. Sorry that I missed goodbye There's another hour and my signature was on another dozen official papers before I was free to leave Matthews Who kept the real tapestry but gave me the one we got back from Pollard Schindler the one with a baton sinister on it as a souvenir So by the time I got back to my apartment it was pushing four o'clock in the morning and I was tired Tired of a night that have been jammed full of crooked people who had taken crooked paths half across the world chasing a buck So tired in fact that I didn't notice Naomi Marchant leaning across the door opposite mine until she spoke We could take that tapestry you have there even if it's a pony one and I to see Alan It's not go out there before you know anything about what happened here No Marlo Marlo There was only one thing to do put both hands firm on our shoulders Spin the girl around and across my knees. Don't shoot. Oh, well I was too tired for even that The adventures of Philip Marlo bringing you Raymond Chandler's most famous character and crimes most deadly enemy Star Gerald Moore and are produced and transcribed by Norman McDonnell Script is by Mel Dinella Robert Mitchell and Gene Levitt. The special music is composed and conducted by Richard Orant Be sure and be with us next week when Philip Marlo says Rain slashing a glass roof an old man's curiosity and an imaginary imp out of place They all became important when two people died violently so a third could make a killing Master some speaking this is CBS the Columbia broadcasting system