Yours Truly Johnny Dollar Show

Johnny Dollar - The SS Malay Trader

https://www.solgoodmedia.com - Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad free! Step into the shoes of America's favorite freelance insurance investigator with Yours Truly Johnny Dollar Show. This series captures the essence of the golden age of radio, featuring Johnny Dollar as he tackles deceptive insurance cases with charisma and intelligence. A must-listen for lovers of detective stories and classic radio dramas.

Duration:: 31m
Broadcast on:: 13 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

The Takono Music and Spirits Festival returns to Centennial Park, Saturday, August 3rd from 2 to 10 p.m. And it's free! Live music from The Warren Treaty! [music] Chris Daniels and the Kings is Cally and More! Enjoy a Spirits Competition, Kid Zone and Fireworks presented by Oxy and the City of Dakota! Admission and parking are free! The Takono Music and Spirits Festival, brought to you by Breckenridge Brewery and City of Dakota! Go to thecityofdakono.com for more information! Looking for a financial institution that has fewer fees, better rates, and gives back to the local community? As one of Colorado's largest credit unions, Belco offers great rates on products like our free-boost interest checking and lower rates on loans, including our home equity choice line. Bank virtually anytime, anywhere, through online banking and our mobile app. Becoming a member has never been easier. Visit belco.org or stop by any Belco branch, membership eligibility required, equal housing opportunity, all-own subject to approval, insured by NCUA. Belco, thank you for everyone! Time now for Edmund O'Brien as your truly Johnny Dollar. [music] Edmund O'Brien and another of the adventures of the man with an action-packed expense account. America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator, Johnny Dollar. [music] Expense account, submitted by special investigator Johnny Dollar, to Home Office, Intercontinental Marine Insurance Company, Partford, Connecticut. The following is an accounting of my expenditures during my assignment aboard the SS melee straighter, the ship with no sort of cause. [music] Expense account, item 1, $80, transportation from hospice to Savannah, Georgia, where, after pausing only to draw a beard and deck myself out in Siemens' garbs, I proceeded to the local hiring hall of the Siemens Union. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] All right, we'll put the call right through, right away. What is it? The name is Dallas. I'm signing on the melee trade-out, ordinary Siemens special permit. Very cool, huh? Let me see now. Oh, yeah, here it is. Insurance deck, huh? Well, I'm glad to cooperate, darling. Thanks. What do I find this ship? Fury. The directions will all be on your assignment slip. Uh, what's the beef, hot cargo? Well, maybe. When I find out, you can read about it in the paper. Okay, so you're not talking. That's your business. There you slip. Now, uh, the best way to get there is to follow the railroad tracks by the warehouse. [music] My new home, when I found her, looked neither pretentious, comfortable, or even seaworthy. She was a rusty old liberty ship that probably had a war record but hadn't had a coat of paint in months. [music] Her winches, foreign apps, were busy feeding heavy, rat hand-covered bales into her gaping holes. [music] A deck to rely would launch on and set against all that activity. A bulky gent wearing an outfit was cast lulled on a stool near the head of the gangway, idling time with fingernails and a pen knife. [music] Yeah, what's your business? I'm signing on. Where do I find the chief out of it? You found him. I'm half-staffed. Let me see you slip. [music] Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Okay, darling. You're on the 48-watch, quarters of 3A. That's faster than I ever started, son. Go up here, dear. You can sign later. All right. [music] So far, the fine story method seemed to be working. I was aboard the ship as a seamen, and a few seconds later, I was shaking hands with a man who shared my quarters. Our rotor on a salary for four years has been to continental as marine investigated. [music] Hi. It's been a long time. How are you? I'm fine. Fine. It's got to be working the case with you again. Is it all right to talk in here? Yeah, yeah. Let's keep it down. I've been on this substance that left Singapore, and nobody's onto me yet, but play it cagey on deck. How much did they tell you in jolly old Hartford? Well, they gave me just the basic situation that, uh, that intercontinental insured a bunch of crude rubber from British Maylays before the devaluation of the British pound sterling. Half of it, I understand, burned in a warehouse in Singapore. And that, to the tune of over a hundred thousand insurance bucks. I flew out there, signs of arson, but no proof. I followed the other half of the crop here at Savannah. They, uh, accompanied their owners, Maylays traders, kind of an outsider. They are angels, been up against British customs a few times, never nailed. They own their ships, and the branch here, headed by a Mr. Pila, imports basic commodities, like the rubber and minerals. Mm-hmm. Well, the point is that since this crude was insured before the British pound dropped, they can bring in more loot destroying it than they can selling it. Yeah, I guess that's over. And I take it to policy covers until they do so, huh? That's it. I thought we were getting rid of it here. They packed it away in their warehouse, but then three days ago, they started loading it aboard again. That's why you were sent down. What's the matter, Al? Don't you think the company trusts you? Uh, I guess they figure I need help. And they're right. What do you think we're buying, Johnny? Well, my pay isn't called as crispy, and the scuttle butt is that Corpus is just a stop. That we clear there for Mexico, Veracruz, where arson investigation isn't what it could be. After that operation in Singapore, what else would they do? Hold it. Hold it. (knocking on door) Fall up. Are you in there? Yeah? Oh, stop. Hip nautical's during the company office, corner of the warehouse. Go ahead and sign them. Yeah, okay, right away. Oh, sir. (chuckles) Nice try, Taylor. Oh, and, uh, if you'll take a word of bodily advice. Well, practically anything you say, go ahead. That, uh, that girl in the office, the Malayan half-cast, she's a boss's daughter. Ah, my. Ah, my. Is that for appreciation, or is it her name? Both. But, save your dreams. The chief, our friend, hall staff, is as possessive as he's big. And you know something? I don't blame him. I didn't blame Hall staff either, after I saw her mind. You could tell she had enough accidental know-how to be proud of what the oriental did to her look. Ah, my indeed. Good afternoon. Hello. I'm here to sign the article. On the melee trader. Oh, what please your name? Dollar. Johnny Dollar. Dollar. Are you a very thirsty man, Mr. Dollar? Well, hardly. My name is usually the only one I have to my name. Yes, and it's your idea. I wish I was sailing with you. What? What did you say? That I wish I was sailing with you. I have bed with my father. But you would not let me go with him. Your father's gone with it, huh? I didn't know that. I would beg some more. I once again believed in the righteous. Oh, you have a nice hand, Mr. Dollar. Nice hand? Now why'd you say that? I see so many hands here on my desk. So I noticed them. Some are big and lumpy. Some are short. Some are dirty. And there's sewage department. Some are clean from this washing bag. Oh, really, please. Let's see. Well, I'd better get back to the ship, thanks. Thank you. We hope that conditions during your voyage will meet with your approval and that you will accept employment with melee traders again. And with those memorized words ringing in my ear, I thank the luscious am I again and proceeded shipless to take up my duties as a very ordinary seaman. I hope that her interest in my landlubber hand really stemmed from her unusual hobby and not from suspicion. And I wondered why Mr. Pila, her father, and the local head of the suspect company had decided to go with us. Had his doctor ordered a sea voyage for his health? Or did he want to enjoy in person the odour of burning rubber? The next afternoon, the cargo had all been brought aboard. The ship was made ready to see. And I had sustained along with multiple cuts and bruises, the ire of the bosom, because I didn't know the difference between a preventer and a topping list. But by the time night fells and the melee trader was plunging down the Atlantic coast, I knew one thing, the sale of life is not from ease. How'd you make out, Al? Well, nothing new. Scuttlebutt is still very crude, but there's something screwy about it, Johnny. You develop a nose after you've snooped as many ships as I have. There's something wrong aboard. What, besides my seamanship? The old man? Yeah, a lot of little things. Of course, we're on for Florida straights, the readings on the ballast gauges. Of course, the displacement ratio changes with different oceans and water temperatures. Look, look Al, that's all Greek to me. Ballast gauges, displacement ratio. Just what are these things that are bothering you? Well, I don't know, just vague things, but... Look, come out on a foredeck with me, will you? Yeah, it should. Probably just this overactive nose of mine, but... I want to get a look at one of these holes. Now, there's a hand-standing lookout in the bow, and if you'll go up there and keep his attention, I'll flip into the escape hatch of number two, all I need is about ten minutes. I'll meet you in the cabin. I made small talk with a lookout for ten minutes, then started back towards the cabin. Suddenly, I heard a scuffle behind me. Hey Al, is that you? Then I heard someone running, and I started after the disappearing ticket, but I didn't get very far. I stumbled over our roaders' body by the open hatch, and there was a stab wound in the back of his neck, just at the top of his spine. It was small enough to have been met there by a ten night. I didn't report to the chief's mate or the captain. I went over both their heads, and I counted on the door of the owner, Mr. Pilar. Mr. Pilar? Yes, yes, yes, yes. One moment. Yes, what is this? Yes, what does this mean? There's been a killing down on deck. What do you say, killing me? My watchmate Al wrote it. But this I will not believe. The captain or Mr. Hochtof, where are they? Why do you come to me? Because I take a request from you as an order. I think Spock, or the radio, the coast guard, the sooner the better. But the killing on my ship, to believe this from you, no, no, I do not. I'm an overlord! I'll help you, book. Man overlord, Mr. Pilar. A murder. It just turned into an accident. In just a moment, we return to the second act of Johnny Dollar. But first, Kitty Callen will join Vaughn Monroe's Caravan along most of the same CBS stations this Saturday night. And on the CBS Gene Autry Show, the king of the cowboys will bring you Ramona when the bloom is on the sage and many another western favorite. The Vaughn Monroe Caravan and the Gene Autry Show are heard every Saturday night. Hear them tomorrow night in an hour of top pop and sage brush symphonies. Now with our star, Edmond O'Brien, we return to the second act of yours truly Johnny Dollar. Mr. Horsesh. Mr. Horsesh. Please come here, Mr. Horsesh. Yes, sir. Mr. Horsesh. There has been trouble. Yes, sir. One of the crew fell overboard, sir. Then talk with this young man. He speaks of killing. Killing? Oh, it's you, Dollar. That's this guff about Kelly. Our rotor. He was stabbed in the back of the neck with a small knife. This man is either drunk or crazy, Mr. Pilar. Yes, Mr. Pilar. I just stepped out on deck to check the running lights before it turned in. I saw the man leaning over the rail. He was sick. The ship rolled. They went over. Have it your way. I guess that was a life jacket I've done below that, huh? What are you doing about the man over the boat? I'll thank you to remember your place on the ship. I do, but I also remember our rotor. Doing what's prescribed by maritime law. I'm changing my course to circle and search the area. Yeah, how about the coast guy? Well, you notified in your time. Now either go to your quarters or get forward to the rest of the crew and look for this guy you're so worried about. Where are you going? The radio room. Even I know the coast guard gets first bit. You'll listen to me, darling. I'll have you up before a commission board. You'll never ship again if you don't obey my orbit. And the boilers. You better get to your lifeboat station, Mr. Pilar. Every time an explosion lifted the melee trader up off the water it lifted my stomach up with it. My heart must have been pounding too because I felt a fire in my throat and feeling that big seagulling box of steel plates and bolts shuddering at my feet and just sweat on my forehead and big, sticky flashes of real fear on my soul. This would be getting dead the hard way. Finally, the quivering of a ship came to a stop calming down my own vibrations that had faded. Then the tub started to lift, giving me a new reason for keeping my mind off and picking a cutter hole shaft with a coastal fire axe. The crew got panicky as a bunch of kids in a burning school. And while they stumbled with a lifeboat, I took a last running look at number two holes. There were still blood stains on the deck where I found rulers. And next to them, besides the open hatch, I found something that whole staff hadn't realized he'd lost or hadn't had time to look for. His pen, a pearl shell handle, with an anchor on Boston shoulder. I pulled back the top further, moved a few of the sectional hatch colours and got a look into the holes. There was enough light to see the cargo and enough smoke curled out to tell me the explosion had not been in the boiler. Yeah, I had a fine case, except it was going down under my feet. And I'd end up with everything but proof. It was shortly after dawn when the melee traitor finally settled by the bow and went into her final plunge. Everybody in the lifeboat turned and watched her grow. The water quieted over her. The only traces left were the hatch colours I pulled loose. Here's the place, Nancy. That'll bring, uh, two-eight. Hey, I'll keep it. Well, thanks. Who are you? Page one and three, line twenty-two. Ship's articles, you remember? Dollar. Oh, yeah. But it's newspaper. This is your missing from shipwreck. Yeah, a guy had to be stupid or dead that he lost on his thinking like that. Everything was too convenient. Plenty of time to get the boat launched. Only four miles from shore. Yeah, they reported me missing because I didn't take time to report myself among the living. You see, I couldn't wait to get back to Savannah, get back to you and the king-sized scheme cooked up in this office. Now, I'm not promising anything but a quick sign statement might help you. I'll write it in new signers. Talk about it. Boom. What statement is this? Ah, come on, stop it. Look, use the old sex pitch. Try to tell me that it'll be worse my while, but don't try to sell me innocent. It's darling. You think I know about something? Hmm. Give me what it is. Look, if you're bluffing, you can quit. I know that explosion on the ship was staged. Now, the next step is to try to collect the insurance on the rubber that was lost. And that's the step I'm supposed to start. Here. Here's my ID. Oh, you see, it's time. I'm not understand. You are a police. Yeah, in a way. In a way, I'm the police. And the real ones aren't far behind me. And you do not like me. Look, I wouldn't have any reason. See, Truma, I knew nothing about it. I too do not like. Well, why'd you think your father was taking this trip? I did not question. He told me he had a business in Corpus Christi. Well, then, whole staff lied to you. The newspapers will tell you why your father took the trip. Here, look at this. Importerant fleet on a narrowly escaped death and explosion aboard his own ship. Now, who'd think of scuttling with the aged owner taking the risk himself, huh? It's darling. It's being difficult when, in a few minutes, two men you love to come. Darling, it's screaming now. I am only daughter. I not question my father. If he did this thing, he did it with reason. Now, what would you have me to do? Well, first stop looking at me as if I started it all. I'm sorry. Honestly, I am. It was clear to me now that she wasn't lying. To hide my embarrassment, I read through the newspaper accounts of the thinking again while she recovered herself. There were air photographs of the huge oils like the thinking ship had left on the surface. They only remind them now that the hatch covers had drifted away. The lack of wreckage was mentioned in the stories, and I remembered Al wrote a worrying about ballast and displacement. I looked up the number of a local chemist and I made a phone call. (phone ringing) Hello? Listen, Doc. This may sound like a silly question, but it could be important. This crude rubber slope... Crude rubber? Do you mean perhaps latex? Yeah, whatever you call it. The way it comes into the country wrapped in red tan. Will it float? Ah, specific gravity weight. I think it decreases as the temperature rises. You'd normally, specific gravity is a little less than that of water. Yeah. It would float. Yeah, it floats. In the whole of a sunken ship, with a hatch partly opened, it would force its way out and come to the surface? Yeah, it floats. Yeah, but it didn't. Thanks. Am I? Thanks. How many warehouses does melee traders have here in Savannah? Oh, and is that food? Here on the waterfront, yeah? Has anything moved out of them last night after the ship left? No. Nothing was moved. The guy know what does this mean? Am I? I want you to wait here in the office for your father. When he comes, I want you to tell him that I'll be waiting for him in one of the warehouses. And that I know the truth. [Music] The melee trader warehouses were closed for the day, but my foot on a window opened them. Both were sack high with imported goods, and I picked my way through everything from leeching up to ivory backstratchers. And the second one, hidden behind a wall of cotton, Ceylon tea, I found what I was looking for. [Music] They were unlabeled wood crates. I opened one, and the resilient mass inside was crude rubber, still on dry land, and still insured. All right, dollar, hold it. Hold white holes, Beth. There's nothing left to hold. [Music] What do you mean by that? That for me, everything is finished. Wound up. Time for the law. Unless you can make another switch with that rubber before they get you. That rubber on the crate? Yeah. That here for over a year. Oh, come on, let's not waste time. You and Pila, and I know there wasn't any rubber in number two holes. You saved it to sell after you got paid off for losing it. And I'll let the expert prove it. What expert? Oh, they got all kinds. You know, one group is going to nail you for murder. [Laughs] That's very funny. That's very funny. Those are penknife, a funny murder weapon. But I found one on the melee trader on the deck near number two holes. So you've got a pen there, Beth? Yeah. There's a pearl handle, and a silver anchor on it. You know, I guess at least a hundredth seamen would testify under oath that it's yours. I know I will. I only wish I could be fifteen people when you hit the courtroom. The jury, the prosecuting attorney, the star witness, and the sentencing judge. Well, you won't see me in the courtroom. How do they execute down here, huh? Gallows, electric chair, gas, chamber, what? Come on, tell me. What do I have to look it up? They'll have to have more than they've got. Uh-uh. They got twenty. All I have to do is match up the weapon with a wound. Look, dollar, I don't scare easy. I could make a confession, and it still wouldn't hold without a body. What do you mean without a body? I gotta have a body. Anyone knows that. You're getting ahead of yourself, huh? Did I say they didn't have a body? Huh? You think those coast guard helicopter and blimp crews are blind? Keep going, darling. You think a guy who's been a marine investigator as long as our road ahead went around without figuring how to do his job even after he was dead? What are you talking about? What are you thinking? What do you think he wore around his middle? A money belt or a light belt that would keep him afloat? You're a stupid horse, then. Give me the knife, darling. It's not only a knife. It's exhibit A, and the prosecution will want it. Give me the knife, darling. I'll kill you if I have to. You don't want to shoot me, you horse, man. How do you know I've got the knife, wouldn't you? Hey. How do you know I haven't left it someplace with a note to the police? Stand still. I'll get your hands off to the side. I'll hold 'em there. All right, and I'll keep your hands still. Now just turn around. Don't move. It wasn't time the Queensbury rules were supposed to be. I used my feet. The first one landed on his shin. And the same instrument went overboard on my hands and kicked out with... Two people into the solar plexus would have got an ordinary hand. And after I gave him a couple more... The big piece made turned into just that, an ordinary man. Ugh. I turned Hall staff over to the police, along with the murder weapon and the results of my blood. They took it from there to a sensation. Mr. Peeler was cleared of responsibility for Al road as murder, but now being held on conspiracies is destroyed. I hope since the policy on the remaining cargo of rubber can now be canceled... Intercontinental is minimizing the monetary loss in Singapore. For you, the loss is a little more than $100,000. And an offer it is. I have lost a friend. Expense account item two, $63. Getting my foot on a bar and my chin off my chest while waiting for a train that take me out of Savannah. Item three, $80. Transportation Savannah to hot. Item four, $10. Public stenographer who took the dictation on this expense account. Item five, entertainment, same public stenographer who spent the evening proving that socially she didn't take dictation. Also that she was not good at making me forget what I want so badly to forget. The face of Al roaded. Expense account total? Give it this one as I need your truly Johnny Dallas. Your truly Johnny Dallas stars Edmund O'Brien in the title role, and is written by Paul Dudley and Gil Dowd with music by Leith Stevens. Edmund O'Brien can currently be seen starring in Harry M. Hopkins United Artists' Production, D.O.A. Featured in our cast were Lillian Bias, Martin Yarbrough, William Conrad, Eliot Reed, and Robert Griffin. Your truly Johnny Dallas is produced and directed by Jaime Delbye. Join us again next week when Edmund O'Brien returns in another adventure of... Your truly Johnny Dallas. The case of the Oblivious Angels. A true story of manhunt in Tennessee and Georgia is to be dramatized on gangbusters this Saturday night. The story will have narration by the chief of police who directed the successful search for the bandits. So for a half hour of real adventure, as experienced by our forces combating crime, listen in this Saturday on most of these same CBS network stations to gangbusters story "The Case of the Oblivious Angels." This is Roy Rowan speaking. This is CBS where your truly Johnny Dallas meets adventure every Friday night. The Columbia broadcasting system. The Dacono Music & Spirits Festival returns to Centennial Park Saturday, August 3rd from 2 to 10 p.m. And it's free! Live music from the Warren Treaty. Chris Daniels and the Kings is Cally and More. Enjoy a spirits competition. Kidzone and fireworks presented by Oxy and the City of Dacono. Admission and parking are free. The Dacono Music & Spirits Festival brought to you by Breckenridge Brewery and City of Dacono. Go to thecityofdacono.com for more information. Looking for a financial institution that has fewer fees, better rates, and gives back to the local community? As one of Colorado's largest credit unions, Belco offers great rates on products like our free boost interest checking and lower rates on loans, including our home equity choice line. Bank virtually anytime, anywhere, through online banking and our mobile app. Becoming a member has never been easier. Visit Belco.org or stop by any Belco branch. Membership eligibility required. Equal housing opportunity. All loans subject to approval, insured by NCUA. Belto, thank you for everyone.