 Box 13, with the style of Paramount Pictures, Alan Ladd as Dan Holliday. William? William? Yes, Mr. Mallory? We're ready to leave at a moment's notice, aren't we? Yes, sir. Very well. Please put this in the mail for me. Very well. Oh, you'd better take it ashore and post it there. I'm rather anxious to see who this Box 13 is. The letter I received was short and to the point. Enclosed with it was a plane ticket and another ticket. First class on the biggest luxury liner of float. And the letter read, be at the end of Pier 9 tomorrow night at 8. Please be prompt. That was all. A command. Not a request. When I received it, I wondered who'd written it. Well, I found out. And now back to Box 13 and Dan Holliday's newest adventure, one of these four. But Mr. Holliday, do you want to go on another trip? Oh, not if I can help it, Susie. But someone paid for these tickets. First class on the biggest liner of float. And no name or address. You can't send it back. But I can bring it back. You mean you're going to Pier 9 tonight? Like it says here, Susie, I'm going to Pier 9 tonight. I got to Pier 9 promptly at 8 o'clock. There was no liner there. There was nothing but a cold fog that penetrated to my skin and made me shiver in the dim, hazy light from my half-hearted street lamp a block away. I looked at my watch. It was exactly 8. Are you Mr. Holliday? Yes, I'm Dan Holliday. Do you have the letter that's sent to you? Who are you? My name is William, sir. I'm a steward. On what ship? If you'll be so good as to show me the letter, Mr. Holliday, we can talk later, if you please. I, uh, okay. Here you are. Very good, sir. If you'll come with me. Where? There's a boat waiting, sir, to take you out for yacht. Yacht? What yacht? Look, what about this ticket? That will be explained later, Mr. Holliday. Now, would you come with me, sir? He stood there waiting for me to follow him. I wanted whether to or not. Well, I'd advertised for adventures and who blames whom in a case like this. Then... You coming, sir? I think you've talked me into it. Okay, William. Lead the way. Ten minutes later, I was aboard a yacht. But what a yacht. It was sea-going, and from what I could see in the bad light, ready to go anywhere and do anything, William led the way along the deck. You go down this companionway, Mr. Holliday. And it's nice to know we're going somewhere. Your cabin, Mr. Holliday. Mine? Yes, sir. I think you'll find everything in order, pajamas, toothbrush, everything that you need for the night. Oh, now, wait a minute. If you're hungry, sandwiches and coffee. Good night, sir. Hey, now, just a minute. Hey, open up. Come on, open the door. William? William? And that, as they say, was that. I was locked in. I thought of breaking in the door, but one could look with that idea out of my head. The door was iron. There was one porthole in the cabin. I couldn't have crawled through it if I'd been dehydrated. Well, I sat down to figure this out. Then it was figured out for me. The yacht was moving around to the porthole. The lights of the city had already been swallowed up by the darkness. Mr. Dan Holliday was going on a trip. But where? And why? Mr. Holliday. Mr. Surprise, funny man. I always hide behind doors of people locked on me. Now, talk. My arm, sir. It breaks easily. I'm glad to hear that. Now, come on, talk. This will do you no good, Mr. Holliday. We've been under way all night. Maybe you're right. Thank you, sir. I hope you slept well. Oh, sure. Now, what's all this about? Breakfast is being served in the main dining room. I get great answers to my questions. You'll soon find out, sir. Now, if you please. Go ahead. I'll follow. As you wish, sir. Down to Swames to Holliday. I followed him down the passage, then into the dining salon. And there, seated around a table, were two men and a woman. They looked up as I entered and one of the men spoke. Look here. What's the big idea? You talking to me? I certainly am. If I may have a word. Go ahead. All four of you are in the same position. You mean each of us was kidnapped? No, sir. Invited. Invited my foot. I was locked up in the cabin. So was I. And me, too. Well, well, well. And when do we learn why, William? As soon as Mr. Mallory wishes to tell you, sir. Now, breakfast is served. I shall lock the salon door. Well, I'll be... I wonder what the gag is. If it is a gag. We may as well get acquainted. My name is Holliday, Dan Holliday. I'm Stanley Warring. How do you do? I'm Philip Clayton. Hello. My name's Lansing. Catherine Lansing. Well, so we know as much as we did before. We've got to get out of here. Obviously, this is some sort of insane joke. I wonder if it is Warring. What person in his right mind would kidnap four people like this? What do you say, Clayton? Well, I don't know. Well, take a look out the porthole. Obviously far at sea. How well can you swim? Well, maybe we could get to one of the lifeboats. I don't think so. What? Something tells me the rest of the crew are like William, Mr. Warring. I don't think we'd be able to get to a boat even if we got out of this salon. I guess you're right, Holliday. Well, what do we do? Mr. Warring, I suggest we have breakfast. I think better on a full stomach. One hour later, William came and unlocked the salon door and took us back to our cabins. I caught sight of some of the crew. They paid no attention to us, but went on with their work. We had to say, locked in the salon, then back to the cabins. But at dinner time... Good evening, Mr. Holliday. Hello, William. I see the dinner jacket fits you, sir. Very thoughtful of someone to provide the correct size. Dinner is being served, sir. Thank you. And will we be honored by Mr. Mallory's presence this evening? I can't say, Mr. Holliday. Perhaps. Say, William, where are we? I'm not a navigator, sir. I have no idea. There's still a notion under us, isn't there? When I last looked, it was there, sir. I'll lead on, William. Thank you, sir. Good evening, Holliday. Hello, Warring. Miss Lancy. Good evening. Say, look, we've got to do something about this. We've got to. What do you suggest, Clayton? Well, I don't know, but we've got to think. What are they going to do with this, sir? Why did they bring us here? Dinner is served. Why, you... Well, I'll choke it. How have you... Let him go, Clayton. Come on. Come on, let him go. I'll choke something off of you. Come on. Let him out. What good will that do you, Mr. Clayton? Mr. Mallory, sir. That will be all, William. You may go. And turn that thing off, will you? Very good, sir. You're an impetuous man, Mr. Clayton. So you're Mallory. Sit down, please. We'll have dinner. Just a minute. Before we have anything else, we'll have an explanation, Mallory. You're, uh, Holliday, aren't you? That's right. Fix it right around you. What's I got to do with this routine? Please, sit down. Miss Lancy, on my right, please. Mr. Warring, that chair. Mr. Clayton, on my left. Mr. Holliday, sit at the other end, facing me. Please, you want an explanation. I promise you'll get one after dinner. Or would you rather wait another night and another day? I'll sit down. Thank you, Miss Lancy. All right. The explanation, it better be good. Oh, it will be, Mr. Clayton. And, uh, Mr. Holliday. Yes? I'll wager you've never written anything to match it. Well, we sit down. Mr. Mallory enjoyed his dinner. We didn't. I watched him. He was a big man. His huge head was covered with a shock of iron gray hair that matched the mustache under his sharp, thin nose. And he was charming and cultured. In spite of the fantastic situation, we found ourselves listening to him after dinner as we sat in the salon. The 18th Dynasty was Egypt's greatest. Its pharaohs conquered and reconquered. Its art reached a beauty and subtlety never before or since reached. Ah, yes. Great people. But, uh, maybe I'm boring, you. Not at all, Mr. Mallory. You're very kind. And now, Mallory, the explanation. Of course, Mr. Waring. Well, Mallory. I'm choosing my words carefully, Mr. Clayton. They'd better be good. They will be. Miss Lansing, gentlemen, I investigated each of you before inviting you aboard my yacht. Mr. Waring. What? You advertised in the paper for a job, preferably in a foreign country, that you have no family. Is that correct? Yes, that's right. You answered my ad. Correct. Miss Lansing. Yes. You advertised for a companion position. You, too, have no family. I... No, I... And, Mr. Clayton, you ran an ad offering your services in any capacity. You're, uh, sort of a soldier of fortune. If you want to call it that. I shall. Lastly, Mr. Holliday. Box 13. Adventure wanted. We'll go anyplace. Do anything. Yes. That's my ad. Now, does any one of you see a striking similarity? Oh, please. You must have. You mean the prolonged absence of any one of us would go... Well, we'll go unnoticed. Exactly. All right, you're clever, Mr. Mallory. We'll admit that. You've got us in a spot where you could do anything. Now, would you mind telling us why? Mr. Holliday, you're a fiction writer. Have you ever written a story about a perfect crime? Crime? Don't be alarmist, Lansing. Well, Holliday? No, I've never written one. But there have been perfect crimes, murders in which the killer has never been caught. Yes, I suppose so. Yet suppose someone knows the killer in such a murder, then, uh, it would no longer be perfect. What are you driving at? Just this. One of the four of you is a murderer. A murderer? A murderer? I use the word murderer in the sense that it can be either masculine or feminine. You know that? I do. One of you here is a killer. Twelve years ago, a man was killed. Uh, friend of mine. A killer was never caught. I worked on it. I now have proof who that person is. Why didn't you go to the police? Ten years ago, I would have. But now I'm in a position to enjoy myself, to watch the murderers squirm and wriggle. You're insane. What's to prevent us from jumping on me? My crew is well-paid, loyal. They've been with me for years. Money is an effective silencer. You're a beast, perhaps. Look, Valerie, the killer knows you've learned who he is. Or she. I'm not. Perhaps not, Miss Lansing, but you were saying holiday. The killer knows you know his or her identity. What's to prevent him from killing you? My attorneys in the city have an envelope. In that envelope is the name of the person and all details. I do not return within a certain time. That envelope will be opened. What's the time limit? Wouldn't you like to know, Mr. Waring? Oh, just a minute. I have a question, holiday. Yes, I don't think you've finished your explanation. I haven't. Here it is. In three days, we will dock at Havana. If by that time the killer's identity is not known to the other three of you, I will release all four of you. And the killer will go free? Yes. What if we do learn? I'm sure the killer will do all in his or her power to prevent that. How can we find that out? I will give clues. You will have to recognize them. I see. And if the killer realizes he's being trapped? Then he or she may kill to prevent that knowledge from getting out. And, Miss Lansing, gentlemen, I shall not lift a finger to prevent it. Do you think you can get away with this? Why, of course he can. You're very wrong, gentlemen. No one can prove you came aboard this yacht. No one knows. You'll stand by and see three people kill? Cleverest will survive. Now, here's your first clue. Are you ready? The Roman God, Janus. Janus? The Roman God? Yes. And now, good night. And may the cleverest among you live to see Havana. And now, back to one of these four, another Box 13 adventure starring Alan Ladd as Dan Holliday. There we were, the four of us. And one of us a murderer, or so Mallory said. Was he lying? If he wasn't, then he'd cooked up a fantastic situation. After dinner that same night, I went to my cabin and sat down trying to figure out what the Roman God, Janus, had to do with a killer when... Come in. May I come in, Mr. Holliday? Please do, Mr. Mallory. It's your yacht. Mind if I sit down? Oh, your chair. I like your sense of humor. I like yours. It's just like an open grave. Don't you think you could get a story out of this, Mr. Holliday? What else will I get out of it, Mallory? Do you believe my explanation? I don't know. Here, take this. Here, take it. It's loaded, too. Why the gun? To protect yourself. Guess what? A whom? Against the murderer. It is loaded, isn't it? Yes. Yes, and it's pointed right at you. So I see. But strangely enough, I'm not worried. What's to prevent me from forcing you to order this yacht back to land? Your sense of adventure, your own willingness to see this through, your desire for a good story. Aren't you placing too high a value on your ability to judge people? I've made no mistake in you, Holliday. That's why I gave you the gun. You mean you're actually going through with this incredible thing? Miss Lancy, Mr. Waring, or Mr. Clayton? Suppose none of us learns who the killer is. I intend to keep my yacht in the high seas until you do. But you said we'd be in a van in three days. We don't have to be. You would better be. Holliday, I have my own reasons for this incredible thing. I've come to you because I've watched you and listened to you. Of the four, you are the one who seems the most resourceful. You alone acted with calm and sense at dinner. Thank you, Mr. Mallory. Not at all, Mr. Holliday. Now I'll leave you alone. And, Mr. Holliday, the cabin doors are no longer locked. They cannot be locked because the keys are gone. Good night. And that was that. Mallory's statement that the cabin doors were no longer locked meant that the killer, if there was one, could go and come freely. And whoever it was would be watching, waiting. Oh, Mallory was clever. He was safe because of that envelope with his attorneys. And the rest of us? Well, we'd have to do something to protect ourselves. It was midnight when I got up from the bed. I hadn't undressed. I kept my eyes on the door. Then I thought again about Janus. Janus, the Roman god. What kind of a clue was that? Well, I decided to find out if there were books in the main salon. Maybe I could learn something from them. I stepped into the passageway. It was dark. Not a light showing. I groped my way along the passage toward the main salon. I opened the door. Who's that? Mr. Holliday, is that you? Yes, what are you doing in here? I was afraid. I was in my cabin. I was afraid. I had to get out. It was so small, I felt as though I'd smother. Why did you come in here? I don't know. Why didn't you turn on the lights? Well, I tried to. I couldn't find the switch. Did you see anyone else? No. No one. You'd better get back to your cabin. No, I can't. I won't go back there. Mr. Mallory said the door couldn't be locked. Oh. Mr. Holliday, I didn't kill anybody. I'm innocent. Please. Please get me off this yacht. In the middle of an ocean? We can get a boat. We've got to. You wouldn't have a chance in the world. We'll all be killed. Come on, come on. I'd better get you back to your cabin. No, I won't go. I won't go. Now, don't get hysterical. That won't help. Please, please help. What makes you think I can? You mean you won't help? I didn't say that. Oh, you. You're the murderer. You're the one. Oh. Be quiet. That's good advice for slashing. Be quiet. Mallory. The lights will go out in a moment. Turn them on now. I can't. The main switch is off. I had it turned off because... Ah, there we are. All right, turn off the main switch, Mallory. Added protection and... What's the matter? Who's not screaming? Ah, Mr. Waring, did Mr. Clayton come with you? Yes. Yes, I'm here. What happened? It seems that Mr. Holliday and Miss Lance... Holliday? What about Warring? What were you doing in here? Yes. What were you doing in here? Perhaps he couldn't sleep. Just a moment. I walked to the bookshelves. I looked for a moment while they all watched. It's still there, Mr. Holliday. What's still there? A book of mythology. Mythology? What are you talking about? Mr. Mallory gave the Roman god Janus as a clue. Now Janus would appear in a book of mythology. Here it is. You're very clever, Mr. Holliday. Would you mind looking in the index for Janus, J-A-N-U-S? I can smell. Here you are. Age 86. Turn to it. There's no page 86. That's right. Someone tore it out of here. Exactly. And that's the only book of mythology on board. It's obvious the killer took it out to prevent the others from finding the clue. In other words, the killer knew that reading that page would give him away. Yes, provided the reader was sufficiently acute. But the killer forgot one thing. Yes, forgot what? He or she is the biggest clue of all. What do you mean by that? I mean, Mr. Waring, there's something about him or her that gives away the show and ties in with Janus. What is it, Mallory? Find that out and you'll have the person, Mr. Clayton. Look at one another and remember what I said. Good night. Which one of us took that page from the book? He did. Mallory did. Deliberately. So we could go on with this preposterous game. I wonder. There was someone in here when I came in. You don't know who it was? No. I left the door open when I came in. I couldn't find the light switch. I think someone slipped out when I came in. And you, Holliday, you were here? Yes. Yes, I was. What of it? What do you think? What were you going to do here, Holliday? I came here to turn off the lights again. I don't think that anyone should move. We'd better get back to our cabins. I don't like being in the dark with a killer. The next morning on deck I saw Waring standing at the after rail. I stopped because he looked around as though seeing if anyone were near. Then he raised his arm and threw something into the sea. I wondered what it might be. Then he turned quickly and came toward me. Well, hello, Holliday. Hello, Waring. Nice day, isn't it? I hadn't noticed. Has anything happened? I don't know, has it? What's the matter with you? What did you throw overboard, Waring? Throw overboard? Me? Nothing. Look, Waring, we're all in this together. We've got to cooperate. One of us is a killer. I won't cooperate with anyone. Oh, let me get past. All right. All right, go ahead. He left me standing there. I walked toward my cabin down the passageway and opened the door. Clayton. Holliday. Well, I thought you were on deck. Well, I'm not. What are you doing in here? I just wanted to see you. You can't find me in that drawer. Well, it was open when I came in. It was not? All right, it wasn't. So what? That's my question. What were you looking for? The missing page from that book. Stop lying. Where did you get that gun? What are you going to do now? Please, don't. Get out of here. Go on, get out. I'm going to tell Mallory that you have a gun. Sit down. Things were moving fast. I thought about Catherine Lansing. She'd been in the salon. I thought about wearing who had thrown something overboard. And what he'd thrown hadn't been paper. So it wasn't the page from the book. And I thought about Clayton searching my cabin. Which of the three was the killer? By now, I believe Mallory's story. Then I remembered something, something about Janus. And it tied in with what Mallory had said. The killer and something I'd seen. I left my cabin and hurried down the passage. I was almost to the end when... Feeling better, sir? Who hit me? We don't know, Halliday. Well, whoever hit me took the gun you gave me, Mallory. You, Mallory? You gave him the gun. What was the idea? Well, where is it now? That's what I'd like to know. Obviously, Mr. Halliday, the killer has it. That's right. This is going to be an interesting lunch. You may serve, William. Very good, sir. Uh, Mallory, I... I know who has that gun. Of course you do, Mr. Halliday. Who is it? Miss Lansing, when were you born? What month? Month. Go ahead, Halliday, go on. Well, Miss Lansing? July, why? Is that right, Mallory? That's right. Clayton, what is this? That's the same question. December. He's telling the truth, Halliday. And Warring. When were you born? September. Is that right, Halliday? No, I don't think so. Warring, you were born in January, the month named after the Roman god Janus. Be careful, Halliday. What you threw overboard was a ring. A ring with a dark red stone. Your birthstone. A garnet. That's perfectly true, Halliday. Keep your hands on the table, Halliday. All of you. And thank you for this gun, Mr. Halliday. You are not welcome. What do you intend to do, Warring? Kill all of us? I'm not that stupid. You killed my brother? Yes. But I'm not going to have Fanno or any place else on this yacht. Now stay where you are. I'll shoot the first person who gets up from that table. And I'll shoot to kill. Clayton, William. No, sit still. Let him go. Let him go? Yes, the crew has instructions to let anyone go. They won't see him take the lifeboat. They'll let him go. But he'll get away. I think so. He'll be picked up. You see, Miss Lansing, we haven't been many miles from shore. Now, shall we go on with our lunch? Miss Lansing, Mr. Clayton, you've been put to a lot of trouble. I hope these checks will make you feel happier. I think they will. Mr. Halliday, you got a story, I hope. Oh, yes, I did. You see, Mr. Halliday, I had to do it this way. I had no proof that Warring was the murderer. I spent 10 years getting evidence, but no proof. I had to hope that he would break, put him under tension. But I'd envelope with your attorneys. Mr. Halliday, there was no envelope. They picked up that Warring, huh? Yes. Mallory radioed the police. If he'd kept quiet, no one would have known. Yes, I know. But Mr. Mallory is a very clever man. So are you. Well, thank you, Susie. What about that ticket on the liner? Oh, I never thought about that. Hey, Susie, maybe I can still use it. Here it is. Uh-oh, Mr. Halliday. What's the matter? Look, the date. The boat sailed yesterday. Oh, fine. Good night, Susie. Next week, same time, through the courtesy of Paramount Pictures, Alan Lad stars as Dan Halliday in Box 13. Box 13 is directed by Richard Sandville, with this week's original story by Russell Hughes. Original music is composed and conducted by Rudy Schrager. Part of Susie is played by Sylvia Picker, and production is supervised by Vern Carstensen. Box 13 is a Mayfair production from Hollywood. Watch for Alan Lad in his latest Paramount Picture.