 Adventures by Morse. Crowton E. Morse presents The City of the Dead, featuring Captain Friday. If you like high adventure, come with me. If you like the stealth of intrigue, come with me. If you like blood and thunder, come with me. Two o'clock on the afternoon of the third day in The City of the Dead. A drenching wet blanket of fog still lays upon this old abandoned cemetery. In our last episode, Jimmy Parker and Dr. Tuner had gone down into The City of the Dead in search of the Phantom Church bell, leaving Phyllis Carroll alone with Mayor Friday. Jimmy tried to prevent this arrangement, but was unsuccessful. And so at the last minute, he slipped Phyllis the knife, with which she had been stabbed two days previously and a police whistle. If in danger, she was to blow the whistle. Jimmy and Doc then went down to the old church ruins accidentally discovered the bell in the basement of the ruins. But that wasn't all we found. There was a man down there. He was bound and gagged and near death from a blow on the head and from starvation. He was the one who had been ringing the bell. Dr. Tuner and I unbound the now unconscious fellow and started back to the cottage with him. Halfway there, suddenly out of the murk and gloom came the piercing squeal of a police whistle. I knew that meant Phyllis was in danger. I dropped the unconscious man and ran through the fog for the cottage, leaving Doc Tuner to follow with a stranger as best he could. I'm coming! I'm coming, Phil! Oh, I was a fool at evil with Mayor Friday. Here's the house. Phyllis, what's the matter? Jimmy, you're so white. What's the matter with you? Well, isn't anything wrong? You blew the whistle. Oh, I know I didn't, Jimmy. You mean that police whistle, Parker? Captain Friday! Where did you come from? He's back, Jimmy. Nothing happened to him at all. Never mind that now. Were you talking about the police whistle? Yes. There's one of my men outside. I've got a whole crew down from the city hunting for that phantom church bell. Well, you don't need them. Dr. Tuner and I found it. You found it? You say you found the phantom church bell? Where? Yeah, Mayor Friday. Found it in the basement of the old church. Basement? Basement? And now, ain't that the beatenest thing? Why didn't I take that right off? But who in Sam here would think of looking in the basement for a ringing bell? Oh, but look here, Parker. What made the bell ring? Well, there was a man in it. Say, we've got to go help Dr. Tuner. He's got a dying man down there in the city of the dead. I left him alone when I heard the whistle. A man? Who was it? I never saw him before. Neither had the doctor. Say, he's dying? Well, that's what Dr. Tuner said. Well, come on, Parker. I want to see that man. Well, listen. Here he comes now. Captain Friday now. Never mind that now, Doc. What'd you do with the man? I reckon you won't need him any longer. Of course I do. I want to question him. Can't question him, Captain. He died back yonder while I was fetching him up. Died? Without saying a word? Died for a few seconds, gave his name, told me who he was, and how come he was tied up, and then he died. Oh, the poor fellow. Oh, who was he? Said his name was William Rogers. Said he was an employee of Cartwright Hobson and Cartwright, the attorneys who sent Miss Carol here her letter about the black... where the black pearls were hidden. There! That's the key to the whole story. That's what I've been looking for. Doc, did he say what he was doing down here in the city of the dead? I'm sure he was looking for the black pearl. Was a dirty double cross and son of a thief. He got what was coming to him. His own last words, Captain, said he deserved what he got. Did he say how he got information about the pearls? Yes, he said that two days before the letter was sent to Miss Carol, it was taken out of the company vault and put in a special file. He had access to this file and made a practice of stealing information that he could sell. What a fine piece of jail bait he was. Cartwright will be tickled pink to hear about this. Well, it just about gives me a line on this whole affair. You mean you can explain everything now? Yes, Miss Carol. It's a deuce of a mess, but I got it straight, I think. And you don't think Jimmy or I killed my cousin Bert Arnold? No, wait. Let's go back to the beginning of the whole thing. Here, sit down, Parker. You too, Doctor. It's a long and intricate story, and it's going to take a while telling it. Sit here on the bed beside me, Jimmy. Oh, you mind putting another log on the fire first, Parker? Oh, sure thing. So you got the whole thing straightened out, Captain? Yeah, but with you and Dad acting like a couple of clams, I might be near slipped up. Oh, you think you got the thing straightened out now, huh, son? I certainly have, Dad. No fooling. Oh, you all set, Parker? Yeah. Go ahead. Comfortable, Phil? Oh, yes, Jimmy. Well, as I said, to get the thing straight, we'll have to start way back at the beginning. You mean the night we caught these two youngsters sneaking out of the city of the dead, the night somebody shouted to Mayor? No much further back than that, Doc. We'll have to go way back to the San Francisco fire in 1906. Oh. That's Miss Carol. Back to the time when your grandfather, Theodore Beverly, and your uncle, Robert Beverly, lost everything in the blaze. Robert Beverly? You mean my uncle who disappeared? That's right. Is he mixed up in this, too? Well, rather. Well, this is the way things happen. On the night the fire got such a hold on San Francisco that it was apparent most of the business and residential district was going to burn, old Theodore Beverly and his son, Robert, took that precious collection of pearls, drove down here to the city of the dead, and buried them in one of the graves. Their clue to the place where the pearls were buried was the name on the tombstone. The name was Ernest Morton. Well, that explains all the activity in the vicinity of Ernie Morton's grave. Yes. Now then, after the fire had been subdued in San Francisco, and everything was put more or less to rights, old man Beverly and Robert came down here to recover their hidden treasure. It wasn't there. What? No, not there. Oh, but I don't understand. What about the letter he left with the Cartwright lawyers for me? Well, the old man lost a good deal of his reason in the fire. He saw his business burn up before his eyes. He saw his great fortune vanish overnight. He saw his beautiful home burn, everything go. His mind went with it. So even before they returned for the pearls, Theodore Beverly was a broken man. Then he might have forgotten where he hid the pearls. Yeah, but Robert should have remembered. That's true, and yet Robert wasn't all that he might have been. I'll have to say a little about him to explain. He was an unhealthy young man. Pampered, not too brilliant. In every way, a minus quantity. Almost subnormal, wouldn't you say, Dr. Tuner? No, I wouldn't say that. Just a fellow who'd never have to lift a hand to help himself. Absolutely achieved when thrown on his own. Well, there he is. Certainly he was thrown on his own after his father's fortune disappeared. And he was twice as helpless when his father lost his reason. Then the pearls may still be buried somewhere down here in the city of the dead? You're getting ahead of the story, Miss Carol. Well, it was sometime during this period that old man Beverly made out those elaborate papers giving the pearls to you. He was obsessed with the idea that the pearls were buried in Ernie Morton's grave. That's the excuse for the papers. You see, Cartwright didn't know what the letter contained. They just filed it away to give to you on your 20th birthday as auditor. Now then, Doc Tuner didn't quite tell the truth when he said all his patients were buried in the city of the dead. Well, perhaps for general knowledge, yes, Doc. But as a matter of fact, he had one patient left. It was Theodore Beverly. Oh, my grandfather. You were his doctor. One of my best friends before he lost his mind, Miss Carol. Now then, for the next three or four years after the fire, Theodore Beverly and Robert used to make trips down here to the city of the dead to dig around for the pearls. It wasn't only the old man who was becoming obsessed with the idea that the pearls were still in the cemetery. Robert grew more and more peculiar. At first, the mayor here, who knew them both well, too, tried to curb them, but it was useless. Yeah, we'd have had to lock them up. Yes. Soon became apparent that either they'd have to be allowed to run of the cemetery or else they'd have to be locked up in an asylum. Doc and Dad here talked it over quite a long time. To put them away would have meant a tremendous scandal. So finally, after much thought, Dad built a little cabin back there on the woods and moved both of them in. Say, look here, Captain Friday. You mean to tell us one of them was masquerading as Lammy Fink? Exactly what I'm saying. Robert Beverly and Lammy Fink are one and the same person. Yeah, but if you knew... I didn't know it, Parker, until I got on this case. I grew up as a kid down here thinking that Lammy Fink was no one else but Lammy Fink, an adult-pated grave digger, and that the old man who lived with him was his crazy father, Old Fink. So Mother's suspicions were right. Grandfather wasn't drowned. No, not drowned. They just faded out of the world. There was no one near shadows in the city of the dead. Their obsession concerning the pearls took a peculiar form. They set up a sort of guardianship over the city of the dead. They watched everyone who approached the cemetery like hawks. Everyone who came down here, they believed were here to dig for their pearls. They never heard no one. Just watched them until they left. That's right. Well, it got so they didn't do much digging themselves. The old man would grow uneasy about once a month and go out and dig like fury for a few hours. Dad here got so he could tell when a spell was coming on. After Old Man Beverly had worn himself out and had left, Dad would go down and fill up the hole and replace the turf. So that's how all those graves have been refilled so mysteriously. Remember, Captain, I told you the place where Phil and I had dug had been covered up, and the grave was refilled after we opened Ernie Morton's grave and found Bert Arnold. Yes, Dad was responsible for all that. Well, now, that brings us down to the night that the Phantom Bell started ringing. An old claw foot put in his appearance, and you, Miss Carol, and Parker here were captured. Yes. Well, who was old claw foot, Captain Fryer? Ah, just a minute. At least two days before you and Parker came to the city of the dead, Dad here discovered that the cemetery was receiving night marauders other than Robert or Old Man Beverly. They called Dr. Tuna down the second day and things just about reached some sort of a mysterious climax when you two kids walked down to the scene. Dad and Doc naturally thought they'd finally caught the guilty parties and they locked you up. They didn't call the police because they feared giving away the Beverly secret, which they dreaded doing after all these years. So they just locked us up. That's it. But they were curious about this Phantom Bell. They went down to the old church and found that new rope hanging from the ceiling. As you know, Dad pulled the rope, thinking it would ring the bell, and he was creased by a bullet. Yes. Who did that? That was a booby trap. That rope wasn't fastened to a bell, it was fastened to the trigger of a revolver on the opposite side of the room. A thread fastened to the rope, ran across the ceiling and down the opposite wall to the gun, which was pointed directly at the rope. Anyone pulling the rope would be in a direct line with the bullet. But who would rig up a trap like that? That's what took me the longest to figure out. You see, it wasn't the sort of thing a person of old cloth would do. This was underworld stuff. Somebody was trying to bump somebody off. I began to check up on Bert Arnold's recent friends, discovered that he'd hired three men to work with him on some kind of a hidden treasure hunt. He didn't know it, but they were some of the Morelli mob, bad boys to tangle with. The moment he mentioned half a million in buried treasure, they were with him all the way. The police in San Francisco picked up two of these fellas. That's where I got this information. Bert Arnold wasn't bad Captain Friday. I know he wasn't. But where did Bert find out about the pearls? Well, that's where this chap from Cartwright's office comes in, the Phantom Bell Ringer. He opened your letter, got the information about the pearls, sealed up the letters again, and then took his information to Bert Arnold. And that's the man we found bound and gagged in the old church? That's it. He sold his information to young Arnold for $1,000, but he evidently didn't know what square shooting was. As soon as he got the thousand, he organized his own searching party to hunt for the pearls himself. Seems funny, he gave Bert the information. Yeah, it does seem funny, Doc. On the other hand, his game was to give out stolen information. Probably the idea of hunting for the pearls himself was an afterthought. Anyway, Bert and his three friends came down to the city of the dead, and right after them came what was his name, Rogers and his men. Neither party could locate Ernie Morton's grave the first night. Eventually they clashed, and Bert Arnold and his men caught this Rogers fella, but his men got away. They tied him up in the basement of the church, intending to leave him there until they found the pearls. Real gangsta. And that's not the half of it. Yeah, throw another stick of wood on the fire and we'll get to the second night. That's when murder really came to the city of the dead. Slowly the skein of intrigue and desperate action is beginning to unwind. When Jimmy and Phyllis came down to dig in the grave of Ernie Morton, they sent into motion a train of events which shook the whole graveyard. Death was breathing down their very necks. But wait. The second night, Bert's gang had no better luck in looking for the Morton grave. But the third night brought you two kids down here. You went directly to the grave. How did you find it? Well, there's a map from the city of the dead with all the plots named on it in the recorder's office in the city hall up in San Francisco. We found it on that before we came down. You don't say. Well, you're not so dumb. Well, now to get back to the gun trap in the church. Bert's men were using the church for a hangout in the daytime doing their searching at night. One evening, while Bert and his men were out, Roger's men slipped into the back room and rigged up the booby trap for revenge hoping that one of the other gang would be shot. Evidently, however, Doc, Tuna and Dad were the first to run across it. Yeah, just my kind of luck. What a horrible cowardly thing to do. Well, now to get back to the night you came down. You went to Ernie Morton's grave and began to dig. It wasn't any time until Bert and his men heard you and crept up to see who it was. Bert recognized you in the moonlight, Miss Carroll, and kept his men back. You see, Jimmy, I knew someone was watching. Yeah. But they weren't the only ones watching. Really? Who else? There were two other groups. Two? Yes. There were the men of Roger's gang, and back watching you and the Roger's gang were old man Beverly and Robert. Well, now, if that wasn't a setup... Finally, Miss Carroll, you became frightened and you made Parker quit digging before he'd really had a chance to get deep enough to find anything. I couldn't stand it any longer. The minute you two left, Bert and his men sneaked up, saw that it was Ernie Morton's grave you were digging in and took up the work where you two left off. You see, they saw that you hadn't found the pearls. I'm glad we didn't find them now. Just think what might have happened. Well, the Roger's gang waited until you were out of hearing and then they jumped Bert and his men and in the fight, Bert was strangled and his men driven off. Oh. Then they, in turn, took up the job of digging. Then the Roger's gang got the pearls after all? Now, wait a minute, wait a minute. After they dug to their satisfaction, they threw Bert's body in the grave and partly covered it up. Later, Dad came along and saw the half-open grave and thinking that old man Beverly had been up to his tricks again, filled it in, not knowing that he was helping to cover up a murder. But what about the sobbing we heard on the road? And who stole Jimmy's car? The car was stolen by Bert's three friends. They wanted to make a quick getaway after Bert was killed. You thought there were only two, but the third one got into the car further down the road. And what about the person we heard sobbing? It was Robert, or Lamy Fink, whichever you wished to call him. But where was old man Beverly? In Lamy's arms. In his arms? Yes. The old man's terror at seeing a man murdered was so great that it killed him. Lamy, or Robert, grabbed his father's body up in his arms and fled sobbing through the tombstones and down the road. That's who you two youngsters hurt. Now, but look here, Captain. I thought you told me it was Lamy Fink who was scared to death. I thought it was at first. You see, I hadn't seen either Lamy or his father for 10 years or more. Besides, they only had a few moments when three bodies down in the cellar of Lamy's cabin before the place was set on fire. Light was bad and added to that, Lamy and the old man always did look a great deal alike. But Dr. Tuna and the mayor should have recognized the old man. They would have, except that they had even less time to look over the bodies than I had. I thought Lamy's face looked awfully old, but the captain said it was Lamy and I never thought to check up. Light was so bad I didn't even get a good look at his face. So my grandfather has just died. It seems so strange. I can't realize it. You see, I've thought of him as dead for more than 10 years. But that means Lamy Fink isn't dead. Yes, Parker. That means Lamy Fink isn't dead. Oh, where is he, then? In custody. You mean Lamy Fink is in jail? Robert Beverly, alias Lamy Fink is under observation. But we'll get to that presently. The next question in line is who burned Lamy's cabin? Yeah. I'd like to know about that myself. Well, it was one of Bert's gang, Dad. They made their getaway in Parker's car, but they'd left so many clues behind them that it was necessary for them to return and sort of clean up. I got this from one of the men we caught. According to him, they returned the next night after Bert was killed and saw us dig up Bert's body. We left him at the grave while I went after a stretcher, and you, Dad, and Doc here, dashed off after old Clawfoot. Parker was still out from that clip I gave him on the jaw. They sneaked in and got the body. Parker woke up just in time to see someone carrying the body away in the fog. Why'd they bother about the body? Because they knew that as long as we didn't know who was murdered, we wouldn't be able to get a line on their gang. That likewise was the reason for the burning of the cabin. Now, the next incident was the murder of the stranger who tried to saw his way into Parker's room. The man we saw, Clawfoot, murdered? Yes, that was another member of Bert's gang. Remember, I was clipped on the head and his body also stolen for the same reason that Bert's was stolen. To hide the identity of those still remaining alive. But how did the bodies get in the cellar of Lambie's cabin? Well, according to the men we have in custody, they put the bodies in the cabin thinking it was a deserted shack. Lambie must have come along and lugged them down into the basement and arranged them alongside the body of old man Beverly. Lambie by this time was completely out of his head. Say, Captain Friday just when did you capture Lambie King? Later, later. But why did Clawfoot kill him? To protect you and Miss Carol. Say, who is Clawfoot anyway? Oh, Jimmy, don't you know by this time? It was Lambie Fink, of course. Yes, Lambie Fink. Or if you prefer your Uncle Robert, Miss Carol. Well, then he must have known me. Yes, he knew you all right. That was why he patrolled about the house. That's why he brought you the black pearl. The black pearl? Uh, Clawfoot or Lambie Fink brought me that? Yeah, the night he broke into the cottage. He put it under your pillow when you fainted. He threw the knife through the window that stabbed you too, Miss Carol. He did? Well, but why if he was protecting me? Well, he didn't mean to hit you. That was an accident. By the way, where is that knife? What? Well, but tell me, Captain Friday, why did he throw it? Well, where's the knife? I'll show you. Well, give it to him, Phyllis. Well, I... Well, what's it doing there in bed with you? I gave it to her for protection when I had to leave her. Oh, you did, did you? Thought I was going to murder her, I suppose. I'm sorry, Mayor Friday. Honestly, honest I am. I shouldn't have suspected you, but... Well, I had to do everything I could to protect Phyll. Uh, I think I understand, boy. Forget it. Well, look here at the knife. See here how the handle screws off the blade? Oh, what's inside? There. The black pearl. Not the black pearl, Miss Carol. A black pearl. But I don't understand. Well, it's simple. Old man Beverly kept two of the pearls out of the collection for some unaccountable reason. And the old man died, Lambie fell heir to them, and he was trying to give them to you. He was highly unsuccessful both times he tried. The first time he almost stabbed you to death, the second time he nearly frightened you into fits. Hey, I reckon while we're on the subject of that visit, I want to know how the mayor here got out of that bedroom when he was locked in. Oh, that? Yeah, yeah. Well, the mayor had slipped out of the house hours before. I didn't know where he was or what he was up to, but I didn't want the rest of you to know he was out and increase your suspicion. So I pretended he was asleep, and I locked the door. And I would be dead burned. So it was you, mayor, who was digging in Ernie Morton's grave at the end of the trail of bones. No, Parker, dad wasn't digging in the grave. He was just filling up the grave that Robert Beverly, alias Lambie Fink, alias Clawfoot, had opened. It was getting baddier and baddier. The opening of the cottage door and dropping that skeleton inside was one instance. The scattering of his bones through the city of the dead was another. And finally, he gathered them up again in a sack and left them on the porch. But I want to know what became of you, Captain Friday while I was lying behind that tombstone. Well, you haven't got an explanation coming. I saw it was dad in the grave. I didn't want you to see him. So I made you lie flat, and then I sneaked out and took him away. After you'd gone back to the cottage, dad finished filling up the grave and then returned to the cottage. So that's how it was. And about that gold pencil you had, mayor? Go ahead and explain it, son. When I caught dad in the grave, I had him in a tight place. So I made him sit down and write out the whole story, most of the story I've told you. He'd been trying to cover up for the Beverly's, but I made him give me the load down then and there. Anyway, he borrowed my gold pencil and then stuck it in his pocket. That's how that happened. I hear you tried to lie out of it, got caught that. Doesn't pay to lie if you aren't good at it. Now that. But who jerked the mayor in my bedroom and robbed him of the other black pearl? I hear just a minute. Now, here it is. Here's your other black pearl. Then it was you in there. Yes, I needed that pearl. But I didn't choke dad to get it, and I didn't take it away from him and he gave it to me. Well, I had to tell some story. You didn't want him to know the truth. That's right. You see, folks, I wasn't getting anywhere working in the open, so I decided to disappear and keep my eyes on things from cover. It didn't take long to get to the bottom of things that way. Was it you that kidnapped Clawfoot out in front? Yes. Do you see that? No, partly. It was still so dark we couldn't see who it was. It was I. See, what made him make those horrible noises? Why didn't he talk? I rushed into the city and an examination was made. His throat became paralyzed evidently. He saw Bert Arnold murdered. It was a condition paralleling his mental state. All he could do was wail. But why did he wear that funny robe? And what about his Clawfeet? Oh, yes, his Clawfeet. Haven't you ever seen these Indian moccasins made out of the foot skins of animals with the claws left in to make them ornamental? Bragg gum, of course. Oh, then his feet weren't clawed at all. No, Lambie had a pair of those moccasins. He lost all of his claws. When the cabin was burned, he didn't even have a coat. It was awfully cool. Dad had some sheets out on the line airing, and Lambie stole one of them to wrap himself in. Oh, the poor thing was just trying to keep warm. That's all. He wasn't the least bit interested in being ghostly. Well, isn't that the limit? Bert explains everything, do I guess? Well, there'll be points coming up from now on, but that covers the most important phases of the case. But look here, you haven't even touched in the most important thing of all. Yeah? Yes. What's become a Theodore Beverly's collection of black pearls? Oh, the black pearls. My dear Parker, the pearls are waiting for Miss Carol up in a strong box in the Civic Center National Bank where they have been ever since the fire of 1906. What's that? You mean to say those pearls never were buried down here in the city of the dead? Yes, they were. When the fire started, the pearls were buried here. But after it had been checked, Old Man Beverly came down here alone, dug them up, and deposited them in the bank. Right after that, he lost his memory. He remembered burying them originally in the city of the dead, but he forgot all about coming back here for them and putting them in the bank. Hmm. You don't say. Come on, how did you find that out? Well, at dawn this morning, I rushed Lammy to the city, and the whole story came out in the first editions of the paper, about me having two of the collection of the Beverly pearls and all that. Well, the bank saw the story and called me. They had the rest of the pearls. They had in order to deliver the pearls to Miss Carol on her 20th birthday. I did. Well, why didn't they do it then? Because the Old Man had made a mistake of a month in her age. The bank would have automatically delivered the pearls to you, Miss Carol, next month. You mean to say that I'm worth a half a million dollars? Exactly that. Oh, golly. Well, Jimmy, now you've just got to marry me. Hey. Yes, you do. A girl with that much money needs protection. Well, if you insist. Oh, darling. And you're all invited to the wedding. Yeah, and we'll be there, don't you think we won't? And you, Captain Friday? Well, I don't know. I've got some business that's going to take me out of town if I get back. What kind of business, son? Military intelligence, Dad. The government's put a finger on Skip Turner and me to do a job for them up off the coast of Canada. Who, Skip Turner? One of my operatives in my agency. Off the coast of Canada? That sounds like smugglers. I can't talk about it, but I can guarantee you there's libel to be plenty of death and destruction before we get through. There's some pretty lonely, wide-open spaces up in that country. And not all the animals go around on four legs. Smugglers? Death and destruction? A country where all the animals don't go around on four legs? Next week you will find Captain Friday and his sidekick, Skip Turner, fighting for their lives. And for a very beautiful young woman when Adventures by Morse brings you the first episode of A Coffin for the Lady, a new cartony morse production.