 This is Harry McQueen, Johnny, up here in Gloucester, Mass. McQueen? That's right. Four state mutuals. Oh, sure, Harry. How are you? What's on your mind? Johnny, I have a real funny one for you. Okay, so I'm laughing. Oh, I mean funny peculiar, you know. Don't worry. Why don't you tell me about it? We'll see. Well, it appears that somebody is threatening the life of one of our clients. Do you call that funny? Oh, I told you, Johnny. Yeah, you told me. What's the name of that client? Hamasar Weatherby, an all-retired sea captain. He lives in a little town in Antisquam, up on Cape Ann. How much insurance does he carry? 50,000, straight life. And who's the beneficiary? His pretty young niece, Thelma Jane Weatherby. Oh? She lives with him, sort of takes care of him. But she just can't wait for him to die a natural death. Oh, wrong, Johnny. She's the one who called me about a few minutes ago. Asked that you be sent up there. Well, now, Harry, you know as well as I do that if she's smart. And she is. And if she has got any intentions, it's the best way to keep suspicion from herself. You're wrong again, Johnny. I'm sure of it. Yeah. Just wait till you see and talk to her. Young, did you say? In her late 20s. And pretty? Very. The most gorgeous girl I think I've ever seen. Okay, then, Harry, give me the address and telephone her that I'm on my way. The S-Radio brings you Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-tact expense account. America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator. There is truly. Johnny Dullard. Act one of yours truly, Johnny Dullard. Special investigator Johnny Dullard. To the four state mutual insurance company Gloucester, Massachusetts office. Following his account of expenses incurred during my investigation of the boat out of the blue matter. Knowing the Cape Man country pretty well, I decided to use my own car on this one. So, expense account item 11470 mile-age at the rate of 10 cents a mile. And a bargain for the company at half the price. Anise Guam on the northwestern end of the Cape is a pleasant little settlement unspoiled by the vacation crowds. A kind of quiet summer haven for writers, poets, and painters with a few large and very old homes. The address that Harry McQueen gave me turned out to be one of them. Set on a high sandy knoll, it was a big frame house with hippo, shingled turrets, and cupolas. Half a dozen gables and dormal windows. All of it, dripping with gingerbread and covered with bostonite. It looked out over the sparkling blue waters of Ennisquam Bay. On one corner was a big tower with a platform on top surrounded by a heavy, well-polished brass railing. A flagpole carried not only the national ensign, but a couple of signal flags. On separate lines below a sort of yard arm, I guess you'd call it. Another shorter pole supported a weather vane and one of those revolving things to measure wind velocity. The whole place, in spite of its weather reason age, was in good condition. Well, that's what the owner, according to Harry's description, of wooden propeller, all ship shaped. All very interesting and colorful. What interested me most, though, was the vision that greeted me at the front door. And I mean vision. Yeah? Oh, who must be Johnny Darlin? Any description of Thelma Jean Weatherby could only end up in the Department of Understatement. She was tall, well-tanned, and beautiful. A sort of honey blonde with clear, exciting blue eyes. The sort of figure that you dream of on it. She was wearing a well-cut pair of blue silk capris. Johnny? And a blouse of lighter blue chiffon. The freshening breeze caught a whisper of her hair and gently flicked it across that beautiful face and a sort of caress. I caught the faint scent of our page. Johnny, what's the matter with you? You are Johnny Darlin, aren't you? Oh, yes, sure, I'm sorry, Ms. Weatherby. Ms. Weatherby? Uh, Thelma? Thelma Jean. But come in, Johnny. Yeah, sure. The captain has just gone up to the bridge to look for the weather so we can talk safely. The captain? My uncle, Captain Amos Weatherby. Oh, boy. And the bridge is on that tower on the corner of the house. I see. He spends most of his time up here. It was about Captain Amos that I called the insurance company. So, McQueen told me. Sit down, Johnny. And would you like a nice food or something after your long drive? Well, I take it you'd like to tell me what this is all about while the captain isn't here so why don't we save me a minute of these for later, huh? All right. I can tell you all about it in two minutes. All right. I was engaged to a fellow. That I can believe. His name is Roger Burton. Until a couple of weeks ago when the captain, he didn't like Roger from the start. Well, he found out some rather unforgivable things about it. Like what, Thelma Jean? Roger never told me, Johnny, but he'd been married. Twice, as a matter of fact. And both of his wives died under very funny circumstances. Oh, sure. Also, they both had considerable money. Which, I will, if anything ever happens to Captain Amos. So I understand, his insurance. I not only broke off with him, but Captain Amos literally threw him out of the house. And believe me, in spite of his age, he could do it. And now? Before he left, Roger told Captain Amos he'd get even with him. He said that he'd kill him. You mean just like that? He even boasted that he could do it and get away with it. The same as he did with a couple of nosy wives. Those were his very words. Oh, you have no idea what a horrible person he became after the captain showed him us. It was like a manor act. Well, then you're lucky to be free of him. You bet I am. It'll be a long time before I fall for any sweet talk again. Oh, what a terrible waste, Thelma Jean. What? I like you. Oh, Johnny, not you. No, I'm just kidding. You better be. And yet, if all the stories I've heard about you are true... Oh, I don't believe it. One of them, and the proof that I didn't come up here, is because Harry McQueen said you're the most beautiful, the most gorgeous girl... Is McQueen told you that? I'm sure I'm a thousand percent. But now... Then I'd known that, and if you hadn't come, I'd never forgiven you. But now let's get down to what... Especially after what he said over the phone about you. Like what? That you're an old, dull, soggy pedantic... Well, I'll sue him. And I'll certainly try to prove otherwise. But right now... No, Johnny. No, let's get down to business. Well... Well, after the captain threw him out, we thought that was the last we'd see of Roger. In spite of what he said. In spite of his threats. But... Johnny, somebody has been prowling around outside this house at night. I've only caught glimpses of him. Of a shadow, really. But I'm sure it's Roger Burton. It can only mean one thing, Johnny. He's here to carry out his threat against Captain Amos. It's Roger Burton you've seen prowling around the place. Yes, Johnny, and only at night. And he's supposed to have not done it some, to have gone out west or something. Don't you see what that means? That he's going to carry out his threat to kill Captain Amos. He's got to stop him somehow. If you're right about all this. Tell me you knew what a terrible person he is. And yet you were engaged to be married to him. That was before the captain showed him up for what he really is, a life killer. Well, you admit yourself it's never been pinned on. Because he's clever. That's why he boasted that he could kill my uncle and get away with it. And now that I've seen him here... Johnny? He hasn't made his presence around here known to anyone else on the change of mind. I'm sure he doesn't know that I've seen him. But knowledge... Well, just, just what has he done? All I know is that I've seen him, or his shadow poking around outside in the yard between hearing the cells and last night. The cell? What's that? Look, you can see it from this window. There. That concrete building, whatever it is, at the edge of poverty? It used to be a kind of jail in the days of the failing ships. Now the power company uses it for transformers or whatever you call them. Yeah, I see the power cables leading down from the pole. I've looked for a footprint out there in the morning, but there's always a wind at night, so... Maybe I'd better take a look in that little left cell, as you call it. Oh, it's all locked up, Johnny. And the tiny windows with the bars over them are so dirty you can't see a thing inside. Have you any reason to think he's somehow got into it? Hey, that storm's really coming this way. Yes, the captain Amos will love it. Well, hadn't you better get him down off that tower before it hits? Do him a storm while you couldn't drag him down with a tiny new routine. Oh. Take him back to the old days when he used to ride out a storm on the open bridge of a sailing ship. Don't with Gene, does he know about Rodgers showing up again? No, Johnny, I haven't told him. But listen, I've been trying to tell you... Tell me what? That I not only heard him crawling around last night, but this morning I found some ladder marks in the ground. Where? Out beside the tower. As though he'd used those long ladders to get up to it from the outside. Not him. I don't know what else they could do. This plur, and for the moment we'll assume that it is Rodger Berger. Oh, I'm sure of it. He's made no attempt to enter the house. He's smart for that. And don't forget, Johnny, he doesn't know that I've seen him around again. Well, before this storm really breaks, Tom and Gene, I'm going to take a look at that transformer building out there and see if... And you better hurry, Johnny, before the... Oh, Gene! Yeah, Captain. Where are you? In here. Well, in combination with your foot in the southwestern. It's up in the cabin, just below the bridge where it always is. I told you the storm was making up. It's going to be a big one. Now you've got to get me back on the bridge. Well, now who's this thermal gene? Captain, this is Johnny Darla. Darla, huh? Hi, Captain Amos. Another crooked landlubber come here to trouble you? Oh, no, Captain. Johnny, just an old fan who dropped in. Yeah? There's a storm coming up. I... Big one, I tell you. Been in all the papers. With me, I told you it was on the way five, six days ago. The way the barometer on the bridge has been behaving. Yes, I know. So I've asked Johnny to stay for the night. Uh-huh. Well, whatever me little girl wants, tell them again, you know that. But, Johnny? Yes, sir. If you do anything to hurt me, little girl, I'd buy you a cup of rice. He'll hurt you. Don't worry yet. All right. Are Westerns in the cabin up there? Aye, sir. Then I'll see you below here when the storm's over. I'll bring your dinner up to you. Please. Can I write another song? Ha! Don't be silly, woman. Aye, sir. Johnny, if you're going out to look at that cell... First, I want you to show me where you found the ladder marks, okay? Aye. The marks in the ground were still quite plain at the base of the Ivy Covered Tower. The ladder must have been a tall one. I had to reach the platform that the captain called the bridge. Rather a couple things. A heavy lightning rod extended up the side of the tower, well hidden by the Ivy. But the bottom of it had been sawed off, making it useless. Also hidden by the Ivy was a wire, an insulated copper wire, too heavy to cut without tools, but certainly not big enough to take a lightning bolt. The wire was matched to the upper section of the lightning rod. The other end disappeared in the ground of my feet and it led away towards the cell, a little transformer station. It was dark now and the storm was pulling up fast. I dashed back into the house up to the second floor and up the winding stairway to the captain's bridge. You better light yourself under the rail, Johnny. This wind will blow your feet off of the deck into the sea. Looks like you're right, sir. I told her it's not easy. There's going to be a big one in the deep, Johnny. There might be a one night off the 8 o'clock. That was fast. What are you doing there, Johnny? This upper end of the lightning rod was six or eight feet from the side of the tower, held there by big insulators. But again, the heavy copper wire again hidden by the Ivy. It connected the rod with the brass rating where the captain was holding on and it meant that the raining was the cleverest, most diabolical instrument for murder than I had ever seen. Mr. Storm, like this? It's about a mile to the front end, like a stereo. Listen to me. Keep away from that rail. Don't blow this rail or it'll blow us into the sea. I bet you could get away from that rail. Keep your hands off me. You're a blubber and you'll come back. Drag him off his so-called bridge and down into the little room below. Then hoisting him onto my shoulder and started down the circular stairway. I'm afraid I... I'm going to knock him out. What? To get him off that platform up there. No, Johnny, you shouldn't have. You'll never forgive you for preventing him from getting electrocuted. Better... better give him some brandy or something. Johnny, don't you understand the rod up there? You bet I did. Right next to the platform. While you're at it, you can bring a slug of that for me. Don't you understand lightning wouldn't hit a rod like that not once in a hundred years in a hundred years, Johnny, here. Thanks. What it does to the electricity all around the place. To the lightning last like nearby. Yeah, that's what you think. And don't you see what you've done to him? I'll never forgive you for this. Here, Johnny. Oh, excuse me. Now, listen, Palma Jean. Oh, Johnny, you heard him. Well, I'm sorry, but now listen. Yeah, you're going to be a lot more sorry. Palma Jean. There's nothing you can say, Johnny. Listen to me. You keep him here. Keep him away from the bridge until I get back here. Come back here, Johnny. I found my way to the concrete transform house. There, I found out how Roger Burton in spite of the heavy padlock on the door had gone into it. With a simple device of pulling the pin out of the hinges. And who was sitting there waiting for me with a dirty aid in his hand? Close the door, mister. And back up against it. Go ahead. What's your choice, do you? I can only tell you that if you make one move toward me, I'll pull this trigger. Your body will be found until the annual inspection of the little transform. I can only tell you that if you make one move toward me, I'll pull this trigger. Your body will be found until the annual inspection of the little transformer station. That'll be four months from now, and I'll be a long way away from here. I see. I'll probably have to kill you anyway, mister. As I get rid of that meddling old man up in the tower, the old fool calls the bridge. Up on the tower, Burton? Yeah, I saw you drag him away from there through this window. Just before a good flash of lightning that could have been my cover-up. But don't worry. He'll be back hanging on to that railing, riding out the rest of the storm. He is. The rest of this madman's murder weapon was all too obvious now. Up in the tower, the brass rating was wired to the disconnected lightning rod. On the lower end it was the copper wire I discovered. And this end of the wire here in the blockhouse was connected to a 22,000-volt transformer. You see how it works, mister? He goes back up there and grabs hold of the rail. I throw the switch. And the power in this line will not only kill him, but meld away the copper wire. Destroy the evidence. Only nobody will look for evidence because they'll all think a bolt of lightning killed him. All right, Britain, listen to me. No. Look. I can see him. In the room where you carried him. Hey, look through the window beside you. You can see him, too. I can see him all right, starting back up the circular stairway, back up to the bridge. Do you think that that machine can stop him? Never! He ever got there. He touched the railing. But Britain would throw the switch with electric heating. That's miracle. Once in a hundred years, the bolt of lightning out of the heavens had straight down the wire into the blockhouse. It fairly exploded inside of it. The force had blown me out through the door and it was a couple of hours later inside the house before I was able to move. Britain, holding the switch, had been killed instantly. I'm glad I hadn't tried again to be closer to him. It was a bolt out of the blue. It was justice in its own strange fashion. Expense account total, including a checkup by one of the local medicals. A new clothes, mine were in shreds. Incidentals from the trip back to Hartford. 171.50. Yours truly? Johnny Dahlert. To tell you about next week's story. Next week, a vicious racket that a lot of respectable people fall for. But you ought to know about. Join us, won't you? Yours truly? Johnny Dahlert. Johnny Dahlert, starring Bob Bailey, originates in Hollywood and is written, produced, and directed by Jack Johnstone. Third in our cast were Virginia Gregg, Carlton G. Young, Ralph Moody, and James McCallion. Be sure to join us next week. Same time and station for another exciting story of Yours truly, Johnny Dahlert. This is Jim Matthews speaking.