 Family Theater presents Rita Johnson and J. Carol Nash. From Hollywood, the Mutual Network and Cooperation with Family Theater presents Enough Rope, starring J. Carol Nash. And now here is your hostess, Rita Johnson. Thank you, Tony LaFranco. Family Theater's only purpose is to bring to everyone's attention a practice that must become an important part of our lives. If we are to win peace for ourselves, peace for our families, and peace for the world. Family Theater urges you to pray. Pray together as a family. And now to our transcribed drama, Enough Rope, starring J. Carol Nash as judge. I'm gonna fall down at the last minute and hurt him. This joke has gone far enough. If you think it's a joke, how come? Now listen to y'all crazy. You can't take the law into your own hands. You didn't seem to mind taking our money into yours. You think I'm guilty under the law? There ain't no way it wasn't this part of the country, a hundred, okay George? But don't you try to stop us. This shotgun says I can stop you. I've got the legal right to use it too. We go from who? This gentleman with me here. Judge Arthur? Jim Crabb. Now Mr. Crabb. We don't need no judge here. They were going to murder me. Climb down from them, Mr. Crabb. Look at here. Somebody take that robe off his neck. Who? They were going to kill me, judge. Is that right? He was going to get justice. A lot more justice than he gave any of us. Well, he'll get it, ma'am. He'll get it, I promise you that. What do you mean, judge? I mean, sir, that you're going to stand trial for robbing these people. Right here tonight. Now you have no authority. I have all the authority that's necessary. But you can't hold a trial in a place like this. It's just a uranium can. It's not even on the map. It's a de facto community within my legal jurisdiction. And under the law, you're charged with a capital offense. Capital offense? Grand theft. But you can't hang a man for theft? According to territorial precedent in law, hear about embezzlement, armed robbery, horse stealing. They're all the same thing. Hanging offenses. That's right. Now, say just a moment, if we're going to have a trial, we'd better pick us a courtroom. Well, how about this store of yours, Mr. Mayfield? Looks roomy enough. What is this intercession? Circuit Judge Tom Arthur. That's me presiding. Case of the people of the youth folks got a name for this place? No, Judge, we just call it the time. The other day, when the temperature got up to 106, my husband suggested a good name for it. Well, what was that, ma'am? Sunstroke. Ah! Well, sun, sunstroke, eh? Well, I guess that's a fairly accurate appraisal of what these surroundings have to offer. Your honor, Mr. Mayfield. I see nothing amusing in this situation. And I object to the note of levity that you've allowed to creep into these proceedings. Order, order, order. Now, it seems to me that Mr. Mayfield's got a point. Now, let's get on with the trial. The people of Sunstroke, eh? Sun, well, now, say, is this, uh, is this Nevada or Utah? It's Nevada. It's Nevada. Oh, awesome. Come on, man. Well, now, look, look, now, wait, wait, wait, wait. Just the moment we've got to make up our mind. Your honor, I don't mean to start anything, but I always thought we was in Arizona. Oh, yeah. Just, just quiet down. Your honor. Yes, Mr. Mayfield. I demand that this be declared a mistrial and that I be granted change of venue. He spent a lot of time in court. Order, order, ladies and gentlemen, let's have some order here. On what basis, Mr. Mayfield, do you move that this be declared a mistrial? Because we don't even know where it's being held. Say, judge. Yes, ma'am. What's that other thing he wants, a change of what? A change of venue, ma'am. And that means he wants the case to be tried someplace else. Oh, I just bet he does. Oh, it made me honored. Now, you can see for yourself, your honor. It would be impossible to select a fair and unprejudiced jury from this community. Well, yes, Mr. Mayfield, I expect that you're right. It would. But that being the case, you can wave a joy trial if you care to. And I personally will sit in judgment on the evidence. Oh, no, no, no, just a minute. Is that agreeable to you, folks? Yes, ma'am, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, judge, but it's not agreeable with me. I've asked for a change of venue. I realize that. I realize that, sir, that Mr. Mayfield and I certainly like to oblige you. But under the circumstances, I'm afraid it's impossible. Well, I'd like to know why. Well, you've heard the folks here. Since nobody seems to agree on the precise location of Son of Stroke, I can't very well order a change of venue. If I don't know where I'm moving from in the first place, well, a motion for a change of venue is denied. And the trial will proceed. Now, who'd like to be the first witness? So then, Judge, this crook may feel. Judge, judge, judge. Oh, wait, I must caution you again, Mrs. Haglund. I think that's your name. Haglund. I must caution you, Ms. Haglund, that such references to the accused are inadmissible. Well, you've seen that phony stock, it's over me. A stock has been taken in evidence. Do you think it's worth a red cent? Mrs. Haglund. Well, don't that make him a crook? Ma'am, the agreement was that I would ask the question. I just wish you'd ask me if he's a crook. I'd tell you the answer to that one faster. Oh, my God. You know that one. Settle down. Settle down, kind folks. Settle down. I'm still trying to find out why all of a sudden, the whole town decided that Mr. Mayfield here was a crook and ought to be hanged. Well, dear. It's what I told you, Judge. That stock is phony. How do you mean phony, Mrs. Haglund? Just that. It's not worth a thin dime. You mean, Mr. Mayfield, misrepresentative value to you? Yes, sir. And everyone else here, too, Judge. Now, just a moment, one at a time, please. Now, let's see. This is one of the stock certificates in question. Worthless piece of paper. Mr. Mayfield, do you identify this as one of the stock certificates you sold to Mrs. Haglund? I do. And this. Is this a copy of your corporation shutter? That's correct. Yes. When was it you bought your stock from Mr. Mayfield, ma'am? Five or six months ago. First of it. Then you continue to buy more subsequently? Yeah, yeah, a few more shares. How about you, sir? Those are about the same way, Judge. Does that go for most of you folks? Oh, that goes for most of you. Mr. Mayfield. Yes, Your Honor. The value of the stock of this company of yours. The big, big bonanza mining. Yes. Has it increased in value at all during the last six months? Oh, yes, sir. About how much? Better than four times the original par value. No, he says. Yeah, the dirty crook. It's not worth a sale. No, it ain't not a sale. Now, hold on, hold on. You mean to say, Mr. Mayfield, that the people in this community are paying you four times more per share for this stock than they did six months ago? I do, sir. Mr. Kiser. Yes, Your Honor. You're the government man in these parts. Would you be good enough to look over this chart and tell us where most of this claim property is located? I'd be glad to, Judge. Leave the gun, George. I've already told you it's empty. Well, then you won't need it. Just set it down and forget it. All right. All of this plus. Now, here's the chart, Mr. Kiser. Those section numbers right there, do they mean anything to you? I see here. Yeah, 149 to 320. Yes. Most of that's quite a waste out there along the face of the Morrison range. Any uranium been mined out of there yet? First I know, just a few samples. But they've showed great promise. Great promise. In a pig's eye. Yes, like you may feel great promise and no pale. That Morrison claim ain't got enough uranium in it to set off a firecracker. Now, this is becoming more confusing to me every minute. Now, this charter is in good order. It says right here in black and white, the stock is issued on a claim extending from section 149 to 320. Yeah, well, that's not the whole story. Well, it sure has to be a part of it. Now, I hope nobody present is going to tell me he bought shares in a company without looking up where his holdings were. Well. Mrs. Haigland. Mrs. Haigland, you mean you didn't know this was the Morrison claim you were buying stock in? Of course I knew it. We all knew it. Well, you all knew you were buying into the Morrison claim. And you all knew it wasn't producing or being work. And yet, you still went ahead and bid this stock up to four times what you first started paying. Well, well, well, now, Judge, there's more to this than meets thou. Well, there had better be. You all say you've been lied to, robbed, and swindled by these mans. Yes, we have. Well, would any of you be good enough to tell me exactly how? Well, I think any of us would be good enough. All right, I'll tell you, Judge. Your Honor, what you're about to hear is a tissue of false. Well, how do you know? He hasn't even started yet. All right, now settle down. Please, go right ahead, sir. Well, I've been minding here about you, see, oh, maybe five or six weeks when this Mayfield first come along. Driving these big, blue convertibles. Please, Mrs. Haglin, please. I haven't asked anybody. Well, Mr. Coghill has testified. Well, like I say, this Mayfield fellow come around with his stock on that Morrison claim. And I said no thanks, because anybody with a brain in his head knows that strip ain't worth nothing. You say that you knew the claim was worthless, yet you bought stock in it anyway. You asked me to tell you how it happened, Judge, and I'm trying to. Excuse me, Mr. Coghill. Go ahead. I said no thanks. I wasn't interested. So then, old Mayfield here, he gets a real wise look on his face and says, when you buy shares in the big Bonanza mining company, you get a choice of any one of 25 other claims that the company is holding on to secretly, because they don't want to give out the information until the time is right. What did I tell you, Judge? I don't suppose, Mr. Coghill, that you have any written evidence attesting to this other agreement you say might have existed between you and Mr. Mayfield. What? No, sir, Judge, he said that give the game away. Lies. That's the same thing he told me. All lies. Give what game away, Mr. Coghill? Well, Mayfield said that at the same time his company filed the Morrison claim about two years ago, they also filed a lot of other claims right up here in this territory, except that there wasn't any record of him in Mr. Kaiser's office here on account of some kind of registration mixup. I see. Now, did Mr. Mayfield offer any proof of this contention? Well, yeah, he had some kind of photo stats of legal-looking papers. Oh, it was fantastic. The most fantastic thing I've ever heard. I saw those photo stats myself. Judge, he kept them right there in that safe. That's just where he kept them right in there in the safe. He's looking there. You'll see him. All right, all right, all right, quiet down. Quiet down. And what was it these photo stats were intended to prove, Mr. Coghill? Well, some of the claims up here wasn't really owned by the folks who thought they owned them at all. But by the big bonanza mining company? Yes, sir. Hmm. I'm beginning to get the picture. And Mayfield told you that when the time was right, the individual shareholders in his company would step forward with their original claims and take title to mining property that someone else had been working all the time. Is that about it? Your honor. I'll get to you in just a moment, Mr. Mayfield. Was that the plan, Mr. Coghill? Well, there wasn't nothing illegal about it. I'm not questioning the legalities. Well, after all, judges, if a man out here is fool enough to go ahead and develop land without even making sure it's his. There's figures to take a beating. This is a rough business. You bet you've got to make it while you can. Well, that's one point on which I'm sure Mr. Mayfield could agree with you. Your honor, I deny all knowledge of this preposterous fabrication. I rather had a feeling that you would, Mr. Mayfield. And I would call to your attention, sir, that in support of their slanderous allegations, these people have produced not one jot, not one tittle of evidence. Oh, yeah. What about those photos, then? Yeah, judge. Get them to show you that. They'll prove what a dirty crook he is. You're right there, and he's safe. Yeah. What do you know about the sack, then? Order, order, order. I'm getting tired of pounding this gavel. This is like holding caught in a monkey cage. Order, sir. Well, now what about, Mr. Mayfield, do such photo stats exist? Yes, I have some photo stats. Of claims, registration? Well, I shouldn't be at all surprised. I have photo stat numerous documents. I think you'll agree it's a commonly accepted business practice. Yes, I'll agree. Would you have any objection to letting the court examine them? Very well, Your Honor. I'll open the safe. Well, now we're getting somewhere. This'll show you, judge. You wish to see all of them? Well, as many as you've got, Mr. Mayfield, as many as you've got. Oh, by the way, Mr. Kaiser. Yes, judge? I can use your help again. Yes, sir. Here you are, judge. Now, thank you. Now, what do these look like to you, Mr. Kaiser? Well, their photo stats and claims registration's all right, except that they've been tampered with. What did we tell you? Tampered with, huh? That's just another word before. Settle down, now, settle down. I don't know what you find in there. What do you mean, tampered with, Mr. Kaiser? Well, like here, where it lists the name of the person who has filed the claim, the owner. That's been rubbed out, and this other name, the Big Bonanza Mining Company, has been written in. Maybe you do dirty crook. Does that prove it, judge? That's how he robbed us. That's just how he did it. That's what I said all along. Well, Mr. Mayfield, what have you got to say for yourself now? Very well, Your Honor. I plead guilty to tampering with the photo stat. What did we tell you? What did we tell you, Your Honor? The biggest crook I ever did see. But the photo stat was my personal property, Your Honor. I have in no way mutilated the original, which is unfile in Washington, I believe. You tried to rob me. You'll find proving that difficult, Mr. Coghill. Oh, I will. Well, I'll simmer, simmer down, simmer down, Mr. Coghill. You first said you took on everyone in this town. I sold you stuck. The certificates of which are the only written agreements which exist between us. Judge, just let me show you something. Let me just look through them photos. Now, now, just you get hold of yourself, Mr. Coghill. Well, what I'm saying, judge, I wrote the number of the claim on a piece of paper right off the photo stat. Just let me look through it. What claim is that? The one this crook said I'd be able to take over when the time was right. Yeah, here it is. Number 36285. That's the one he said I'd get. I didn't I ever making such a statement. 36285. All he said I'd have to do was wait. Hey, that number sounds familiar. I never said any such thing. That's what I was thinking, Ms. Hagley. 36285. Now, Mrs. Hagley. That's my claim. He, my old man, been working that claim for the last three months, Mrs. Hagley, easy enough. Well, he just not set me. This is a rough business. Now, Coghill, you're a worse bandit than may feel I ever thought of being. Mrs. Hagley. Coming over every afternoon to see how much we'd mind, and I thought you was being neighborly. I was just protecting my investment. Oh, you're rather. Mrs. Hagley. My dear Mrs. Hagley, just to keep the record straight, what number was the claim you've been promised? 12489. But that don't excuse my claim. 12489. Well, that's my claim. You money-grubbin' old way. Now, just a minute. And I was so attached to the way you and your old man kept turning up after dark with coffee and telling me not to get discouraged. All right. Well, what claim were you waitin' to jump? 28932. And don't tell me that was yours. Oh, is he sure? Better not. Now, Mike, now, Mike, now, take it easy. Easy. 28932. That's me. Well, well, well, my mother don't look like I was doing anything the rest of us weren't doing. I never thought I'd wind up at no such an answer. Now, Mike, this is the last time I'm going to bang this gal. Now, if you're not all shut up in five seconds, I'll declare the entire assemblage in contempt of court. All right. All right, that's better. Well, now, it seems we've heard all the evidence against Mr. Mayfield and everybody else in town. Mr. Kaiser? Yes, Your Honor? You say these photo stats have been tampered with so I assume the people in this courtroom hold exactly the claims they filed in your office and nothing else. That's right, sir. All their claims are in order. Good. Now, wait. I'm not through. I'm not through with you folks yet. Just a moment. Thank you very much, Mr. Kaiser. Now, you can go back and sit down. Yes, sir. Now, Mr. Mayfield. I am entirely innocent, Your Honor. I think the evidence is conclusive. Mr. Mayfield, do you realize that as judge in this trial of both law and evidence, I can legally sentence you to be hanged? I can't believe that you'd lend yourself to such a gross miscarriage of justice, certainly any other court. That's exactly what I was going to say, Mr. Mayfield. Any higher court would doubtless reduce such a sentence. Only thing is by the time they got around to it, you might not be present to enjoy the fruits of your legal victory. I see, whereas if you were to make restitution to these people, perhaps in the form of a check made out to the court so that you wouldn't be tempted to stop payment on it. Very well, Judge. You can start doing that right now in the few moments before we adjourn. Yes, Your Honor. Now, as to the rest of you crooks, don't look so injured, because that's what you all are, crooks. And I guess you know it. Well, just be grateful that it didn't go any further. You found yourselves out in time. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Now, just resolve that you're going back to your jobs and do the best you can. And there won't be any more of this kind of shenanigans or crookedness in the future. Courts a job. I don't think you need to have a husband. Do you have that check, Mr. Mayfield? It's right here, Your Honor. Well, thank you. Mr. Kaiser, will you be good enough to drive me or give me a ride back into town? Oh, it's a pleasure, sir. Excellent. And just to be certain, Mr. Mayfield here doesn't try anything. Judge, you've got my check. That's right. And I intend to make sure it won't be dishonored. That's a spirit, Judge. So I'm taking him right along with me. Well, if you're as concerned as all that, we might as well take my car. It's just out front there. Well, that should do very, very well. Well, good night, all. I'm sure you'll be all right, Judge. Oh, I'll be all right perfectly, Mr. Kaiser. Good night, and thank you again. Is that your car over there, Mr. Mayfield? That's it. You know, you were right, Judge. They were all crooks. No better than we are. Well, a little better. What took you so long getting here? Well, you said that fellow Kaiser's in the wrong hotel in Mercerville. I practically had to find him. Well, it worked out. Having me write that check to you was a good touch. Well, I thought so. Instead of me here waiting, you'd better let me have it banged. Well, no, I miss Mayfield. I don't think I will. What? Well, I just got to remembering, Mayfield. I got to remembering doing that trial. Brought me back to the time I got disbarred. Judge, what's going on here? When we get to Mercerville, I'm turning us in. Us and this check of yours. You're not turning me in. No. I'm not serving any time just because you have had an attack of conscience. Well, if it's time or serving time that's bothering you, Mayfield, I suppose there is a quicker way. You could swing the car around and go right back to Sunstroke, you know. That bunch you'd probably see to it that you were hanged in less than 10 minutes. Oh, come on now, Mayfield, it ain't going to be so bad. And I'll make you a promise. Yeah? If we get sent to the same prison, I'll help you draw up your appeal. This is Rita Johnson again. You know we all like to feel we can be useful and helpful. And one of the great joys in life is knowing that we're useful and helpful in an undertaking that's worthwhile. None of us can be happy if we live only for ourselves, because the joy of living comes from giving. Yes, giving ourselves to something we know is bigger and better, worthier and more enduring than we are. That's why the greatest joy in living is giving ourselves to God. When a family joins together to give themselves to God in family prayer, they are united in a joy and happiness that only family prayer can bring. I guess we all know from experience that it's true whatever we give to others comes back to us some way or another. And whatever we give to God comes back a hundredfold. So let's give God a little time in our homes each day. Let's take a little time out to join together with our family for family prayer. Then we'll really know how true it is that the family that prays together stays together. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Hollywood Family Theater has brought you transcribed enough rope starring J. Carol Nash. Rita Johnson was your hostess. Others in our cast were Herb Vigran, Harley Bear, John Daener, Virginia Gregg, and Bill Bochum. The script was written and directed for Family Theater by John T. Kelly with music composed and conducted by Harry Zimmerman. This series of Family Theater broadcasts is made possible by the thousands of you who feel the need for this type of program, by the mutual network which has responded to this need, and by the hundreds of stars of stage screen and radio who give so unselfishly of their time and talent to appear on our Family Theater stage. To them and to you, our humble thanks. This is Tony Lafano expressing the wish of Family Theater that the blessing of God may be upon you and your home and inviting you to join us next week when Family Theater will present on a golden afternoon. Moreno Sullivan will be your hostess. Join us, won't you? Family Theater has broadcast throughout the world and originates in the Hollywood studios of the world's largest network. This is Mutual, the radio network for all America.