 From Hollywood it's time now for Edmond O'Brien as Johnny dollar Yes, Mrs. Tanker. He did. He thought maybe you and I could get together this afternoon Edmond O'Brien in another transcribed adventure of the man with the action-packed expense account America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator yours truly Johnny dollar Expense account submitted by a special investigator Johnny dollar to home office Corinthian life insurance company Hartford, Connecticut The following is an accounting of my expenditures during the able-tacket matter Expense account item one five dollars transportation costs from Hartford to the New York address of Mrs. Abel tack it The apartment door was standing open and I walked in it was dark inside Except for the dim glow from a blue light at the head of the stairway where the beat of drums came from a phonograph There was a crude native mask on the wall with an idiot's grin Something stale and heavy in the air There was no one downstairs, so I went up Walking up those stairs was like walking out of civilization She was sitting on the arm of a chair in front of the phonograph You're a half hour early. Well that gives us a half hour more to talk my plane leaves tonight What does the insurance company say I'm going to British North Borneo to look for it They do think he's alive. Do they not the company always operates on that premise. Yes rain That awful rain there was no getting out of it. He says Have you seen any of his letters? No, I haven't I want to read you this. I'm lost I've always been lost. I Don't know who I am or what I am or what I was intended to do I've played all the parts and been all the places and found nothing of myself The jungle is in nameless as I am It's nameless That was the last one from Borneo Vandercan five years ago next month six years since we were married in Paris. You must find him. It's a dollar Well, I'll tell you the truth. Mrs. Tacketer I'm afraid that I'll be looking for a dead man After all he's been gone a long time. Maybe he just stopped writing. Maybe he didn't That's why I'm going over there Maybe he just stopped writing Maybe Maybe he wants nothing to do with me anymore. I woke up in the morning and he was not there just a note He could be alive and not come back. Could he not you told me he's been gone for five years He has a paid-up policy If he's dead you receive over seven hundred thousand dollars if he's alive But then do you think he'll come back? No But he'll be alive How old are you Mrs. Tackett? 24 Look, I want you to promise me something If I come back with proof of his death You'll move out of here. I promise but you'll never prove that he's dead Expense account item two twelve hundred eighty dollars and forty five cents for the trip by air from New York to Chicago to San Francisco To Manila Expense account item three two hundred dollars on the first ship to Sandaka They called me super cargo. I ate with the captain in his cabin And edible birds nest are filthy please hold me ears in these waters, and I never set foot on Borneo Why would a white man go there not for diamonds? Malaria maybe or a new type of insanity You look sensible enough. Who is this man your brother? No never met him, and I've got to find him That's all second biggest island in the world three million souls doosons by howls mooroods dikes ugliest people in the world Took a young planter and his wife there six months ago It was carried the bodies back in the last trip. How did they die? Good jungle? Come on. I'm a close-mouthed man. Who you're looking for You wouldn't know him. His name is able tack it able tack it I never heard of able tack it You find me a hand-westered to wow who hasn't heard of him You knew him nobody knew him. He wasn't a man to know he was a man to talk about I Want to show you something look here. That's a nasty scar right across the chest Able tack it you find him give him me love. How did that happen in Manila? He did it slowly as if he was enjoying it. Had a picture of a girl. I said something Coffee. No, thanks. Was it his wife? His wife perhaps or somebody else Stuart hot coffee hot coffee hot Something happened to men out here men that might have been easy and calm any place else in the world Something happened to them his terrier wild anger madness In the weakening heat the sudden bursts of temper arose where men would kill over a matchbox Channel fever the crewman called it But perhaps there was another reason The name of able tack But some night I find him asleep that it is very dark But I sleep my knife into his throat that I feel his life going that I hear him to cry out. Oh I want to hear him cry out what they do to you I'm speakable. Oh, I look for him all find him Knife should kill hate. Oh Tuck it devil. Tuck it devil Sandicand we crawled around the point. There is no coast You never know where the land begins and the ocean stops the mangrove swamps melt into the muddy water The inevitable tin roofs of the tropics the breathless heat of the equator And again, I found the British North Borneo company office next to an exporter's shop The secretary to the assistant district manager pointed me into a rat-pan chair and handed me a fly swatter No, we're able to hack it. Oh, fabulous. Great strict drive. Hi, you know Why are you looking for it? Oh, we understand that he was dead. We hold a policy on him. Hack it dead Oh, that's improbable. Oh, he's quite a man. Um, I say you didn't happen to bring any cigarettes American cigarettes sure No, please please you spoil me What was he doing out here? Tacky. Oh, no one seems to know some say gold diamonds got a picture Escape perhaps just popped in one day from Manila got all the necessary papers and headed into the interior Residency not before he caused a bit of a ruckus in a native pub. However And I say you haven't been to London lately. I mean about a year ago. Oh, not since then Oh shame what I wouldn't give but some swept ginger beer Spend it for the tropics. What are the case that never came? I had to settle the gin Look, can't anybody tell me about this man tacky. What is this legend this myth? Well, I'd always it's a paradox mr. Dollar a man of great strength and great weakness Boy like us all in a way Looking for something always looking for something. We're looking for what? Now look you're you're trying to solve this thing in american terms This is the tropics mr. Dollar and here we admit the inexplicable, but I've got to have answers, mr. Kenyon Oh, no, you don't understand mr. Dollar here. Look at this You see here Sandakan, then you leave for the interior 200 miles inland is quamut. Now there's no trouble thus far and he was reported to be there eight months ago From quamut at the different world as fever reptiles of all sorts. It's not worth it really I mean, is it a large policy? 750 thousand dollars. Oh, but a man living in Borneo. That must be a tremendously high premium Well Million couldn't get me out there And a thousand could take me home. How do I get to quamut? Oh by lorry one of them goes up tomorrow with supplies for the garrison. We can fit you aboard, but Oh, this is absurd, darling. Yeah, I know Well, all right, then I'll send you to Hargrove's our representative there or what I say don't forget those cigarettes My husband's been going on like that for five days. He can't tell you anything I'm sorry to hear that, but can you tell me anything about Tuckett's wait till I close the door You're looking for able tack it The fever'd never get him. You know if he's alive alive. Sure. He's alive. How do you know? If you knew able tack it, you'd know he's alive We spent a lot of time together when I was on the coast Did you know tack it mistake? Nope Playboy told me said he wanted something, but never knew what I told him what he wanted was love But he wouldn't stay and when I tried to stop him from leaving it If you find him what happened depends how we find him and he's alive I suppose I'll try to talk him into going back home If he's dead, I want the proof You better go back to your husband. Nothing I can do It looked mr. Dollar if you find him alive, I'm gonna try to send him home Tack it'll never go back home I'm going with you. Not this trip. I'm going with you. I want to talk to you I told you and as I can't take you along. You better be getting back to your husband. He needs you He's dead. I'm free now I've got to find tack it mr. Dollar. Look, I can't I can help you I can get a good guide for you. I'll take you all the way to penonga I know the jungle mr. Dollar. Please hope to accomplish I don't know If I could talk to him I could get him to come back to me I know I could look in as I'm gonna be very frank with you I don't like you and I don't trust and you don't understand me But I'll tell you this you'll never find him without me I knew him better than anyone else and you have to have a good guide and I can get it for you I'll get my own guide Someone sent supplies to him a month ago I know who it was It's a bargain pack up She took me to a trading post and I met the owner who operated on the obviously false name of george brown To me he looked big and clumsy, but he'd been trading with the interior for 10 years So I decided to take the recommendation As if I could do anything else Sure, I know where he is at least I knew where he was a month ago. I've been trading with him for over three years Okay, when do we leave? You don't know what you're getting into. Mr. Did you have a year of long? Why? It's a village across the border in dutch territory. We'll need four porters and supplies for a month When do we leave the last porters I sent into him never came back upon and dykes got the most likely The headhunters, you know, which one of us are you trying to talk out of this you or me? I can always use 500 dollars That isn't all the pay I'm going to get. What do you mean? If I find able to attack it I'm going to kill him We will continue with yours truly johnny dollar in just a moment, but first Every Wednesday night cbs brings you groucho marks with his wonderful quiz. You bet your life It's one of the brightest most spontaneous most genuinely funny shows on the air So be listening this Wednesday night on most of these same cbs stations for you bet your life starring groucho marks Now with our star edmund o bryan, we return to the second act of yours truly johnny dollar Expense account item five eight hundred and thirty dollars safari to long why dutch borneo One of the first things I learned about jungle travel was not to waste breath talking Not until we made camp that night was their conversation A slow day the woman slows us down. Where is she in her hammock? It couldn't be helped. It was a bargain. I I didn't want her to come I wonder why he picked long why I wonder a lot of things the easiest travel here is on the rivers If he picked a river village, it would have been simple this way. We have to fight for every foot What are you going to do when we find him? What do you mean? About mark killing him. I'll decide when the time comes if it does Maybe I don't think you'll go through with it You know if you really wanted to you wouldn't have waited waited for me to come along I suppose it isn't the back of my mom before then I knew something had to be done, but I hadn't decided Now I had what did he do to you? What does he do to everything he spoils it when the pull and darks are peaceful my trade is good When they're not my trading on a look brown, you aren't going to tell me that this man is capable of stirring up a few thousand natives That's that's ridiculous. Is it? Well, how does he do it? Why? How by being there in their country they hate him They're afraid of him and when the dykes are trouble they're dangerous Why does he do it? I can't think of any reason he makes no profit from it He lives he works a plot of ground. He hunts I suppose it could be that he doesn't know he's doing it, but he is He's got to be moved out The only way to move able to attack it Is to kill him What I'm going to turn in I heard part of what brown was saying What are you going to do? Well, I'll have to protect tackle if I can protect him That sounds funny. I never thought he'd have to take that from anybody You know what I'll be protecting You better get some sleep wait What now why are you hating? You know You've never even met him I've talked to people who have The ship's captain with a with a knife scar across his chest And a little deckhand from an illa With a hurt so deep he couldn't talk about it. You and your husband a few others And I met his wife. He's never talked to me about her. Oh, that's the first thing I've heard in his favor Maybe he's human enough to be ashamed of what he's done to her Maybe he realizes what he meant to her and that she'd stop living when he left Because that's what he's done. It's not all his fault The trouble he had in manila and santa can He told me the men thought he was afraid of me wanted to show me wasn't He'd never known people like that He didn't know how to get along with him save it. It doesn't make any difference how I feel about him We'll get to him as quickly as we can I'll figure out some way to stop brown if he makes a try maybe that'll be too late But brown's going to be stopped mr. Dollar. I promise If you don't do it, I will go get some sleep We break camp at dawn Lying in my hammock looking up at the solid ceiling of foliage that hid the sky And with the unaccustomed language of the jungle bothering my ears I try to get a fair perspective of the situation But I couldn't I can't answer any of the questions I dropped off to sleep realizing that I was more than anxious to meet the amazing abel tackett There was no sign of real danger until the third day Only the painful monotony of slashing at vines with heavy knives fighting insects stumbling over half concealed ankle high branches of sweat-filled boots and soggy clothing and a hundred other arguments against borneo Mind the pimp that looks like a fern here got it and carries a brutal sting This is the warning as watch it Hold up Come on. What is it? I wondered about that What did he say? Head hunting They found a body on the trail coming along. Yeah, better stay here in as Oh, I wondered about that. It's been too quiet. We haven't spotted a diex since we started this section is usually swarming with them Well beggar How does that look to you dollar? You still think the natives aren't stirred up? Oh, it looks like they're stirred up for Oh beggar He can thank your man tack it for what he got Yeah, we don't have to look at him. It's the work of a punan You can tell by the clean wound their mandos are the sharpest ones in the island They know we're coming in this. Yeah How do you know that? I know them they hide the bodies. They don't leave them on trails unless they've got a reason to Like telling us to stop, huh? That's right Look at those boys of mine waiting to see what I'll do waiting the chance to flip into the brush and head for home Can you hold them? I can hold them. I'll shoot the first one that tries to leave and they know it Come on, but it's a house We'll have to make a camp here. They're great people for omens. I told them to start hooking for good ones Yeah, and I know them It'll take the rest of the day and half the night to find enough to move them towards long way again How do the omens look to you? I can't say yet the headhunters know we're coming but they don't know why They knew we were coming after tacky Each in our own fashions here to speak I I don't think there'd be any trouble from them or they don't know there's no way to tell them You're blaming tacky for this. I am You stupid really believe in this idiotic stand you've taken against me Or is it a convenient answer for some mistake you made with the natives? I can't be quiet. It is stop it Don't you believe you're lying make a shut up Oh, shut up after you've answered me stop it. We've had enough. We don't need hysteria and I'll be quiet. You won't answer me Will you? They've been headhunters from the beginning So tell me why tack it is to blame for what you found in the trail. Tell me why I will if you'll shut up long enough to hear it You've been in Borneo too long. I know what the tropics do to men like you I know that people for 10 years. I've learned to know them I understand about headhunting to the dyke ahead of the strongest magic in the world Strong enough to bring rain make things grow strong enough to protect the whole campong from plague or anything else Like enemies you should have been born in one of their filthy huts You think like one? Forget it Find out. I'm right Headhunting was almost stopped until tack it came here. Then it started again Because they hate him because they're afraid of him That's why they collect in heads again. That's the truth blame everything on able tack it If you can't find another reason for something blame it on able tack it Brown Brown what the devil's the matter with you? You heard her I've been in Borneo too long Hysteria everything out of proportion He distorted perspective of the jungle where emotions become sensitive his skin And he's wanted to love tack it. George wanted to kill tack it. I wanted nothing but proof of his existence Yet all of us were of one mind and one thought All our efforts were directed toward tack it and Borneo was keeping us from him We started to move again in the next morning that day and the next were easier physically at least The country cleared some and we started to climb out of the humid jungle into a section where there seemed to be more air The following day we stopped before dark and brown pulled me into the privacy of a shadow. We'll be there tomorrow Oh that close What then brown I was going to ask you the same thing I've learned to like you duller. Thanks, but I still can't let you kill him I'm not so sure you can stop me I would you get back to the coast without me. I've been asking myself the same thing I'd be stupid to take the gamble, but I'd have no choice. So that's the way it is. Yeah, that's the way it is All right, I can smell rain It'll be here before morning Our first site of the village of Longwai was from a low hill It was veiled by the slanting sheets of rain that floated across A welter of huts two larger buildings for gatherings But not a sign of life Abel Tackett's hut was barely visible a mile or so down the shallow valley We started down toward it. What are those drums mean brown? Do you know? Yes, I know Mama Tolloo A happy little ceremony when the head hunters come home It could turn sour if they knew we were there, but I think we can move across the clearing Let's go What are you going to do, darling? Aren't you even going to warn him? All right, if you won't I will Abel! Come on, take her! Keep her quiet Come on, darling. I'm going inside I'm going inside. Wait a minute, Brown. We'll go in together I'm here for nothing He's already dead. Is that Tackett? Must be. I stopped being afraid of him I wonder how long it'll take to undo the trouble he's caused here Abel Tackett And he's dead There was the body of a man lying on the floor dirty duck shorts and jacket, but no papers I couldn't positively identify him as Abel Tackett The natives who had killed him were head hunters Expense account item six and seven same as two and three transportation back to new york Item eight cab fare to the address of mrs. Abel Tackett She seemed neither sad nor happy to see me or to hear what I had to say He died mrs. Tackett of fever. He was in the interior. There was no time to get him to a doctor You saw him No, I didn't Then you can't be sure There's no proof but mrs. Tackett absolute proof has a Has a different meaning in Borneo. He wanted to lose himself, didn't he? He could have changed his name. He didn't have traded his identity with someone else Couldn't he he's dead mrs. Tackett Look, I want you to go to probate court even without absolute proof Without with what I brought back you can have him declared legally dead You're his sole heir. There are no other living relatives. His estate is fortune They're yours. They're yours to live with that's why he left them to you You can't go on struggling with a false hope Please mrs. Tackett Don't stop living just because he did You've got to believe me Abel Tackett is dead. He's not dead. He's alive. He's living somewhere And as long as he's alive I'm alive There was nothing to do I left her in the old house with her records and her dark walls and her old letters I left a young woman dying there And there was nothing I could do I walked out into the clean fresh air and went home Expense account total four thousand seventy five dollars and eighty cents and for what? The only constructive thing I can make out of it is that it made me an expert on pure unadulterated frustration Yours truly Johnny dollar Yours truly Johnny dollars stars Edmund O'Brien in the title role and is written by gill dowd and david ellis with music composed and Conducted by leith stevens Edmund O'Brien can currently be seen starring in the harry m popkin united artist production doa Featured in our cast were maria pummer tooter oan rowel chavez ben right chris craft and dano hurley Yours truly johnny dollar is produced and directed by heimey del vai Join us next week at this time when from hollywood edmund o'Brien returns in another transcribed adventure of yours truly johnny dollar