The Adventures of Philip Marlowe - Feminine Touch

0:02 An iron skull was their trademark. Their business was climbing walls, and it was all done on wheels at 70 miles an hour. But that was a cinch for the death cheaters until they felt murder and a feminine touch.

0:14 From the pen of Raymond Chandler, outstanding author of crime fiction, comes his most famous character in.

0:20 The Adventures of Philip Marlowe.

0:24 The Adventures of Philip Marlowe Now, with Gerald Moore, starred as Philip Marlowe, we bring you tonight's exciting story, The Feminine Touch.

0:47 It was five minutes to five when I turned off Sunset Boulevard and drove between the two wrought iron gates set in a stone wall that hinted none too subtly at the exclusiveness of the Bel Air Estates. I followed a gently curving street bordered by dignified rows of meticulously manicured palm trees, as far as number 4412. There I turned onto a white driveway, motored over an acre of rigidly disciplined landscape to a house that could have doubled for Buckingham Palace, where I ground to a soft stop and got out. Bel-Air was the soul of peace and serenity until I started across the drive to the front door.

1:33 A motorcycle, jet-propelled by a black-haired lunatic in a leather jacket with a blonde beauty riding behind him. The handlebar missed goring me by inches. I picked myself up, mumbled a few choice words, and went on to the door. I followed a butler through the house to an aviary in the rear, where my client, Mr. Baldwin Granville, putted with a flock of exotic birds in a big wire cage.

1:54 He looked right at home, a penguin in sport clothes, with the yellow staring eyes of an owl.

2:00 Come in, Marlowe, but watch the gate. The birds are all upset. Did you hear that mechanical outburst a moment ago?

2:08 Heard? I was almost run over by it. A jerk and a batty blonde dame on a motorcycle. Who were they?

2:14 The driver was no doubt one Pepper Riggs, which is all I know about him. However, the batty blonde, as you put it, is my daughter, Adrienne.

2:22 Oh, your daughter, huh? Yes, yes.

2:24 23 and already out of school two years. The best schools, of course.

2:28 Still, it's been one crazy scrape after another. Now it's motorcycles and something even worse, I'm afraid. That's why I called you.

2:36 Now look, Mr. Granville, I'm no truant officer. Have you or her mother tried simply talking it over with her?

2:42 We lost her mother in 33. And Adrian refuses flatly to discuss things with me. I've tried everything from bribery to threats.

2:50 How about trying to be a father?

2:52 I'm 20 years late for that. Always been too busy making money. Now I'm worried.

2:59 I think she's infatuated with this Pepper Riggs.

3:02 Well, there isn't much I can do about that. If she wants to break her neck on a motorcycle, I can't do much about that either. You can do something about this. It came to me in this morning's mail.

3:13 Adrian hasn't seen it yet.

3:14 Oh? Keep your daughter out of our hair. Make her lay off pepper rigs, if you know what's good for her. I mean it, Lou Bryan. Who's Lou Bryan?

3:26 I have no idea. But Adrian's in danger, Marlowe.

3:30 Well, I'll do what I can. Got anything else to go on besides two names in the motorcycle crowd?

3:34 No, no, that's all. But, Marlowe, listen.

3:38 It may sound strange to you, But everything I've worked for all my life means nothing to me now. I have finally realized that Adrian is all that really matters.

3:52 Don't let me down. Something close to grief glistened in the old man's yellow eyes. But he hardened up again while we settled a matter of my fee, 100 bucks. Then he hurried me on my way. I figured Pepper Riggs was a wild man, so my first step was a check off of the L.A. dirt track circuit, a wild man's game if ever there was one. The four-stop I made paid off. A track manager told me that Pepper was a used-to-be bike racer, all right, but that he quit and was while working at the Redondo amusement pier as a wall climber. When I found out what that was, it made the dirt track routine sound about as dangerous as an old lady's quilting bee. It was 9.30 when I got out to the Redondo pier and wandered

4:31 through the concessions until I found one with a corny label, the Wall of Death. It looked like a barrel, 30 feet in diameter and 20 feet high. with a grandstand over it and a picture poster in front listing, Hair Raising Shows, 8, 10, and 12 p.m., featuring Pepper Riggs, the Death Cheater, the lovely Mickey North, and smiling Lou Bryan, the one who had written a letter to my client.

4:56 Whatever Adrian Granville was mixed up in, the answer was here. I walked around the big barrel to a shed in the rear. The light was on, so I went to work. Hiya. Looking for somebody? Yeah. Yeah, you're Pepper Riggs, aren't you? My name's Marlow of High Spot Magazine. I've got a feature lined up on your rack. Spare a minute? Sure.

5:15 We can talk while I finish shaving. Shoot. How fast do you travel around that wall? Flip under 60 and you drop. It's no life for sissies, buddy. Any little thing goes wrong up there on the wall and it's curtains. Figures. Is this your bike here? Yeah, the one with my name plate on it there. Uh-huh. I see you carry a little iron skull tied to the handlebars. Kind of grim, isn't it? It's my trademark, buddy.

5:35 I've been knocked off the wall seven times in the last three years and beat old Skull Face every time.

5:40 No kidding. That makes for a nice, quiet future for your fiancée. Fiancée? Yeah, I am. It's Grandville. Gonna take her into the act with you? Could be, buddy.

5:51 Could be.

5:52 What do your partners think of that? The girl, Mickey North, and Lou Bryan, I mean. Is there gonna be room for everybody? You know something, pal?

6:00 I don't think there is a magazine called High Spot.

6:03 Really? I'd better make a note of that.

6:06 Yeah.

6:07 Adrian warned me her old man'd be sending a private eye around. So now that I've caught your act and it's corny, I've got a message for you. Lay off, because Adrian's old enough to know what she wants. Okay. And I've got one for you, screwball. Say that she lives long enough to enjoy it. Get out, you... When he shoved me out the door, my first impulse was to shove back in again... But then I heard the spiel for the 10 o'clock show starting out in front, so I decided Tepper Riggs would keep. I walked around the drone to where a red-faced barker lashed the crowd with every known simile for danger as he whipped up excitement for the act. I stepped up close to listen.

6:46 On an absolutely vertical wall, just hardly as wall of death.

6:50 Don't miss it, folks.

6:51 Show starts in 15 minutes. Come in and watch them cheat.

6:55 Hey, Sam, take over for me, quick.

6:58 When the red-faced barker stopped, his eyes had been fixed on a little man in grimy overalls hurrying across the midway. He jumped down from the platform and ran after the little guy, so I pushed back through the crowd and followed him. The red-faced caught up with the grimy overalls at a hot dog stand, grabbed him by one shoulder and spun him around. Hey, what are you doing there? Hey, Moon, I want to talk to you.

7:15 Are you a motorcycle mechanic or a prima donna? Where you been?

7:20 I slept in, I guess, Mr.

7:21 Hadley.

7:22 Yeah.

7:22 You must have been real tired after last night.

7:25 Last night? Why, what do you mean?

7:27 Don't start with me, Moon. I saw you coming out of the bike shed at 2.30 in the morning. What were you doing in there at that hour?

7:34 Going over the bikes. I'm sick and tired of taking the blame for Lou Brian.

7:38 He's holding back. He says it's.

7:39 Because his bike ain't right, but that's not true. He's turned yellow, that's what, and I'll prove it too.

7:42 Shut up.

7:43 Keep that kind of talk to yourself.

7:45 Oh, but it's true.

7:47 Pepper told him the same thing. Lou Bryant's lost his nerve and he's holding back. Those bikes are identical. Same make and same model. They're both in tip-top shape. And I'm through taking the blame for a guy that's turned yellow.

7:56 What do you have, man? Want something, Jess?

7:58 Yeah, a couple of coffees, bud.

7:59 You, mister? Yeah, a hot dog. Nothing on it. Yes, sir. Right up. Now, listen, Moon.

8:04 You're a good mechanic. I don't want to fire you, but there's trouble cooking around my show, and I don't like it.

8:09 Here you are. Oh, thanks. Oh, sure, sure there's going to be trouble.

8:13 You're blaming me, but you ought to blame that dizzy blonde that Pepper's mixed up with.

8:16 That Adrian Granville.

8:17 She's the dame.

8:20 Hey, you big ears. Huh?

8:22 This is private conversation. What are you tuning in for? Pass a mustard, little man, and keep your greasy thumb out of it. You got secrets you ought to know better than to broadcast them.

8:30 Yeah. Thanks for the advice. Yeah, go soak your head in it. Skip the coffee, Bert.

8:36 Your place is crawling.

8:38 So long, big ears.

8:44 I watched Jess Hadley and Moon walk away, and then I went back to the wall of death, bought a ticket, and climbed the stairs to the gallery at the top of the 30-foot motor drone. The house lights were on, but in the half-darkness at the bottom of the big bowl, I saw three motorcycles in the open trap door. The gallery was nearly full. It only took one glance around the ring of faces at the lip of the bowl to spot her. She had insolent eyes and wide, soft, red mouth, and her hair tumbled in loose, blonde waves over the shoulders of a shimmering white silk shirt, very wide open at her throat. I moved up beside her and leaned on the rail.

9:18 Why don't you go home, Sherlock? I can't use a watchdog.

9:22 You flatter yourself, Adrian. I'm here only to case a set-up. It includes your broken neck. That's just another item in my report.

9:28 Is that right?

9:30 Well, you're pretty, so I'll make it real easy for you. Set up simply this. I like to go fast. Motorcycles do that for me. So does peppery. That satisfy you?

9:44 Not quite. You got the curves, baby, but somebody else has the angles.

9:49 Meaning what?

9:49 Well, these professionals might resent an amateur moving in.

9:55 What makes you think I'm an amateur, Mr.

9:57 Marlowe?

9:57 I'll compete with dear little Mickey North on any basis, curves or angles. I got Pepper, didn't I? And I'll have her spot in the show.

10:06 If I want.

10:07 How does all this set with Lou Bryan?

10:10 Lou's excess baggage, but strictly. Pepper's been carrying the whole show for weeks. Oh, there go the houseplants. So it's been nice, Sherlock, but that makes it time to run along, doesn't it?

10:21 No, I think I'll stick around, honey, whether you like it or not.

10:24 Suit yourself, but don't stick too close. You might get run over.

10:29 When a floodlight over the center of the drone flashed on and filled the deep bowl with a dead white glare. The performers climbed through the trapdoor on the bottom, closed it behind them, and mounted their bikes. With the first roar of the motors, Adrienne gripped the railing and stared down, her eyes glistening with fascination.

10:44 And now, Jess Hadley presents the Just Keepers in a hair-raising exhibition of riding skills, performed at 70 miles an hour on a vertical wall, firing cut-bar rigs with lovely Mickey Knox.

10:57 And smiling Lou Bryan.

11:00 It was Lou Bryan who led off, starting slowly at first, around and around the sloping base of the bowl. Pepper Riggs watched him for a moment, then looked up, waved at Adrian, and grinned while Mickey North glared straight ahead. There was no smile on Smiling Blue Lion's face either as he whirled faster and faster around the drone. The gold began to tremble with every revolution as the speeding motorcycles raced over the boards and rose higher and higher on the vertical wall until finally it was only five feet from the rim. Then suddenly from somewhere a black smear sailed out on the white under the tires. A smear that grew with every turn. It was oil. A second later it happened.

11:31 The back wheel skidded.

11:32 The bike squirmed out of Blue Lion's control like it was something alive.

11:34 And then it fell!

11:43 Move along, folks. Come on, break it up.

11:45 Lou Bryan was dead long before they got him through the trap door and into the ambulance. And watching him fall had put a freeze on my mind that took 20 minutes thawing out. But when the fundamentals of addition went to work again, I started looking around. And just in time to see Moon, the mechanic, barreling a 1930 Plymouth for all it was worth, out of the parking lot and heading for the highway, lights out. I ran to my car, piled in to take after him when something long and yellow smashed into my bumper. Can't you see where you're going? You took the words right out of my mouth, Adrian. You timed it perfectly, didn't you?

12:15 Timed what perfectly?

12:16 That block. So Moon, your grease monkey assistant, could put a few miles behind him. Adrian.

12:21 Adrian, what happened? Marlowe.

12:24 Yeah. Don't worry, Riggs. Adrian here did a lovely job. Our bumpers are braided.

12:28 What?

12:29 And I'm getting a little sick of you, Marlowe. You're liable to get sicker, Speedy. Because I'm going to find out exactly why Lou Bryan died tonight, and you're going to answer some questions.

12:36 He died because the oil line broke.

12:38 Yeah, it happens all the time to wall climbers. It was a tough break, that's all. Oh, sure, sure. Now, look, just in case you two didn't know, Lou Bryan objected to you, Adrian. So much so, in fact, that he wrote a letter to your father threatening to rough you up if you didn't lay off. And where I sit, somebody beat him to the punch. Guess who? Listen, Marley, you're running off at the mouth. If you got something to say, say it right out like a big boy. Okay.

13:00 Riggs Lou Bryan's death was no accident. It was cold, premeditated murder. Tie that on your handlebars, death cheater.

13:08 ¶ ¶.

13:23 In just a moment, the second act of Philip Marlowe.

13:26 But first, the greatest jackpot in the history of radio, $ 54, 000 in prizes and cash, awaits the CBS listener who can solve the mystery of the Phantom Boys on our Saturday Night Sing It Again show.

13:40 $ 25, 000 may be.

13:41 Yours in solid cash, plus $ 29, 000 in marvelous prizes. There's also a host of splendid smaller prizes waiting for you listeners who can crack the riddle song. So be around for Sing It Again tonight when it comes to you for a full hour on most of these same CBS network stations. Now with our star, Gerald Moore, we return to the second act of Philip Marlowe and tonight's story, The Feminine Touch. ¶ ¶.

14:17 I turned without another word and walked away slowly until I was out of sight. I ran for the drone on the off chance that I could find Mickey North in the lead on Moon. I found her alone and on a bench in an almost dark, out-of-the-way corner of an amusement fair. Half watching a couple of hungry seagulls who didn't know when it was time to go to bed circle overhead. I introduced myself and got around to what was fast becoming my only point. The hunch that Lou Bryan's crack-up was no accident. I.

14:45 I can't believe that, Marlowe.

14:46 Why not, Mickey? It adds. Lou Bryan figured Adrian was breaking up a great act. Figured she'd driven a wedge between him and Pepper. And, uh, Pepper and you.

14:57 Oh, yeah, but that's not weep for Adrian or Pepper to kill Lou, Marlowe.

15:03 Well, by its lonesome, no. But there was more, Mickey. Lou Bryan didn't intend to take all this lying down. For one thing, he sent a threatening letter to Adrian's father to keep her away.

15:12 Then Marlowe, you're saying that Adrian.

15:15 And or Pepper Riggs scheduled an accident for Lou Bryan. And then, Mickey, there's Moon. You know, he shoved off without so much as now be back in a minute right after Lou cracked up. Tell me, Mickey, do you have any idea where Moon could have been heading? He was pointing away from L.A. No, I don't.

15:31 Except, of course, his own place.

15:33 He has a little shack on Ocean Avenue, number 41, over in the oil field. But look, Marlowe, maybe Moon's responsible for everything. He and Lou didn't get along, you know. Yes, I've heard. Also, Mickey, I've heard that Moon was around the bikes unusually late last night.

15:48 What?

15:49 Moon around.

15:51 Milo, it must have been Moon then, alone. Sure, what's the matter with me? Pepper wouldn't do a thing like that.

15:57 He's too good, too decent, and nice to.

16:00 Still love him, don't you, Mickey? No, I... I don't.

16:04 He means nothing, Milo.

16:06 All right, honey. Let's call it a tie for the moment. It's Moon alone or the triumvirate Moon Riggs and Adrian Granville, right? Yeah, I guess so.

16:14 Nobody else had any reason to kill Lou.

16:17 If you're sure, that's what happened.

16:20 Are you, Marlowe? Dead, sure?

16:22 Just about. Ask me again, honey, after I've checked the fireside at number 41 Ocean Avenue. By then, I may know more. When I got back to my car, Adrian's convertible was gone. And the pleading that had been my right fender, which said that she'd left in a hurry, cost me ten minutes of stress and strain before my front wheels would turn in either direction without chewing rubber.

16:50 Then I was another ten getting to the intersection of U.S. 101 and Ocean Avenue, which turned out to be a paved semicircle of grime, twisting in between a dozen nodding oil well pumps that had never heard of the eight-hour day. I got out of my car and started to move quietly toward the sagging collection of scrap lumber, unpainted and unpleasant.

17:08 That was number 41. When the sudden splash of a pair of headlights sweeping my way fast sent me sprawling for cover without so much as a reason why. I was glad that I had because it was yellow, long and convertible and behind the wheel and alone. Miss Adrian Granville. I took that as my cue to stop sleuthing and start worrying about a guy named Moon. I moved up to his shack in a hurry. When it showed no light and no answer to my loud knock, I closed one hand tight around the. 38 in my pocket and the other over the knob on the door, which wasn't locked. Inside, there was only shabby furniture of a scarred linoleum. In the middle of the wall opposite me, another door half open. I started for it, and what

17:51 I could almost feel was going to be the too quiet form of the elusive mechanic. The sound behind me that was not the work of the wind brought me to a dead stop. Move one inch, mister, and I'll kill you. I had to think I was worrying about your health. You shouldn't have bothered. I feel fine.

18:07 But you won't if there's any monkey business.

18:09 I'll drop your gun. Come on, fast! That's better. Now, what are you doing here? Wondering why you were dumb enough to let that Granville brat talk you into murdering Lou Bryan for a price?

18:20 You're off your rocker, fella. I didn't drop Bryan. I got no money from the baby, only Gab. Gab that kept me from packing and.

18:25 Getting out of here. That's a lie. I've got a photostat of a check for $ 10, 000 that's made out to you and signed by Adrian Granville. Turn on the light, Buster. Look for yourself. A check for $ 10, 000? Yeah.

18:37 I don't figure how my name could get out.

18:40 Hey, this ain't no check. Oh, my mistake.

18:42 Here.

18:43 It is.

18:43 Come on, get up.

18:47 We'll see.

18:51 First verse. If you didn't kill Brian, why are you running?

18:53 Because Lou and I didn't get along, and Jess Hadley knows that I was around the bikes last night.

18:57 So what?

18:57 Well, sir, sometimes people start putting things together too fast.

19:00 It gets other people in trouble.

19:01 I know.

19:01 It's happened to me before. Five years once on a lousy frame. How unfortunate. What about Adrienne Granville? What's she want with you, Moon?

19:08 I don't know, unless she belongs to the ladies' handkerchief I found near the bikes last night.

19:12 Did you say it was hers? We didn't get that far.

19:14 She ran off when we heard your car turn off on the highway. That's how come I got the drop on you.

19:18 That figures. But what doesn't figure, Moon, is why you're still holding back. So maybe we ought to bounce the mechanic around some more, huh? What do you say? Come on, do we keep this up? You're going to start a talk. No, no, no, please. All right.

19:29 Quit, quit, quit, will you?

19:30 Let me alone. I'll tell you everything.

19:32 Lou was always beefing at me. Whenever Pep would call him yellow for not riding right, he took it out on me. Said I didn't keep his bike in shape.

19:40 So I decided to do... To what? What's the matter? Outside. There, Marlowe.

19:47 A gun.

19:48 No!

19:49 No! When Moon grabbed at his chest with both hands, swung in a half-arc, and pitched forward on his face, I yanked at the light cord in the middle of the room and then threw the door open. The only noise I heard was the starting roar of a motorcycle about 50 feet away. I forgot about being careful and ran out into the street and toward what was fast becoming an increasingly smaller silhouette if I couldn't say who.

20:15 When I returned to the shack and found Moon dead, I ran for my car, piled in and kept a heavy foot on the gas until I was back at the amusement pier where I figured I might find the team of Granville and Riggs standing around like nothing had happened. When I got there, I found just that. Out on the pier was Miss Moneybags herself, walking slowly away from Pepper and Mickey and toward the hot dog stand. When I was next to her and about ready to grab on and start yelling cop, I saw something else. Something that didn't sink in right away. It was a tiny iron skull on an iron chain, swinging from the gold charm bracelet she wore on her right wrist.

20:49 If you're taking inventory, Marlowe, make it fast, will you? The next show starts in a couple of minutes, and I'm going on a loose place, and I don't have.

20:55 That trinket there on your wrist, Adrienne, it's a miniature of the one Pepper has on the handlebars of his bike, right?

21:00 Right. It's his trademark. But what about it? Does that hang all of it?

21:05 No, it just hangs one of us, if I'm right. Goodbye. It was only a hunch and a screwy one at that, but as I ran past Mickey and Pepper who stared at me like my nose was on fire and headed for the shop out in the back where I knew I could find the bike that Lou had been killed on, I gave myself a 50-50 chance of being right. But when I was inside the place and next to the twisted jumble of steel that had once been a motorcycle, the odds jumped from there to sure thing. Because when I passed my fingers over the chrome handlebars, I found that they were not smooth all the way. In the next second, I knew more. I was not alone. I jumped from the bike, reached for my gun, and wheeled around the wrong way. Oh! Oh! When I started back

21:58 for this world, there were only two things in it. One a sharp, searing pain the length of the right side of my face, and the other a crazy thought that since I was still alive, I had to get to the drone and stop Adrian Granville before murder happened again. I ran outside and around to the front where I saw that the rider's trapdoor entrance was already closed and that the act was about to begin. And as I heard the motors roar and a voice announce that Adrian and Mickey were going to ride together, I spotted Jess Hadley at the top of the stairs that led on to the spectators' balcony. I took the dozen steps up to him two at a time, and as the house lights faded and the floods over the riders came up,

22:37 I grabbed him and shouted that we had to stop the act while the bikes were still only getting underway, or death would get Star Billing again.

22:42 What are you talking about, Marlowe?

22:44 Murder, Hadley. How can we stop those bikes?

22:46 I don't know, Marlowe.

22:46 They can't hear a thing down there.

22:48 Well, it'll have to be something they can see. Get to the house lights, Hadley, and turn them up. I'm going to shoot out the overhead floods.

22:52 No, Marlowe.

22:53 You pile of girls up. Get going, Hadley. I'm going to shoot.

22:55 No, Marlowe.

22:56 Don't.

23:06 Dr. Richard Reese, report to surgery, please.

23:10 Dr.

23:10 Richard Reese, report to surgery.

23:12 Well, Marlow, before she blacked out, the police say Mickey admitted wanting to get Pepper because she was crazy jealous of Adrian. They haven't got it straight yet about Moon's death and exactly why Lou was killed by mistake. How'd that go?

23:24 Well, it went two ways, Hadley. One, Mickey fixed Pepper's bike so that the oil line would give. Do you get it? Then Moon, convinced that Lou had gone yellow, switched the bikes to prove that Lou's constant complaint about the bikes was simply an alibi. But here's the joker. He switched right into a double play. Lou Bryan got killed instead of Pepper.

23:48 But then, after the crack-up, Moon knew that it should have happened to Pepper.

23:52 Oh, yeah, sure. But for a lot of reasons, he didn't want to stick around and talk it over. When he was about to tell me the truth, Mickey shot him.

23:59 Mm-hmm.

24:00 Because if you knew the bikes were switched, you'd look for someone with reason to kill Pepper, not Lou, hmm?

24:06 Correct. And once I did know that, it was only Lou and Mickey. See, I picked Mickey because for one thing, her motive was stronger. And for another, Moon found a lady's handkerchief near the bikes. So... Marlowe, you come out here, please. All right, Mr. Granville. See you, Hadley.

24:23 Yeah, Marlowe. Catch the act some night when we play it straight. Still a good show.

24:28 Ha, ha, ha.

24:30 Well, I'm a lucky man, Marlowe. The doctor says Adrian's going to be fine in a few days. She wants to see you now, but it can only be.

24:38 For a moment, you know.

24:40 Frankly, Mr. Granville, a moment's about all I can take. I don't exactly like your daughter.

24:44 Now, now, now, Marlowe, none of that, please. The poor child's not well.

24:48 Besides, she wants to apologize to you and give you my check for $ 100.

24:54 Now, go on, boy. Go on.

24:56 She's calling for you.

24:57 Okay.

24:57 Okay. Hello.

25:00 Marlowe, I want to ask you a question. And, of course, apologize. I'm sorry.

25:06 Hmm. What's the question?

25:09 The iron skull on my bracelet. What did it mean to you?

25:13 Oh, well, it was a reminder that Pepper had one dangling from the handlebars of his bike. And that if Moon had switched bikes, which was a wild thought at the time, that which was called Lou's bike would have a worn spot on the chrome handlebars where the iron chain had rubbed. And it did. Now my turn. You told Pepper, and in particular Mickey, that I was all excited about something, didn't you?

25:33 Yes.

25:34 Why do you ask, Phil?

25:35 Because I was wondering how Mickey knew where I was so that she could come down and play Crown the Private Detective.

25:40 Oh, Phil, she could have killed you.

25:42 Yes, yes. But then when she didn't, I could figure that she'd given up and only wanted time.

25:46 To crash her motorcycle into mine when we were high on the wall.

25:48 Is that it?

25:50 Yeah, that's it. All the way around. Now, if you please, my check and goodbye, hmm? Check?

25:54 Yeah.

25:55 Oh.

25:55 Oh, yes.

25:56 Here. Here.

25:58 Here it is, and for all that you've done for me.

26:00 Hey, cut it out. You're supposed to be sick, Avery, and get back in bed.

26:04 Oh, Marlowe, I'm not any sicker than you are. That's just to keep Daddy from blowing his top. Now, come here, silly. I'm all right.

26:12 You sure?

26:13 I'm positive.

26:15 Oh, Bill.

26:16 That's all I wanted to know. Now, across my knee. Your daddy should have gotten her out of this a long, long time ago. Please, Bill, no! No!

26:23 No!

26:38 I kept swatting it where I figured it would do the most good... until Daddy, two doctors and a nurse came in... and then I recommended that my client consult a child psychologist for his daughter... and a full-grown one for himself, and I left. But by the time I was outside, I'd cooled off some... And it was then that I remembered I had carelessly shoved the $ 100 check which belonged in my wallet into a side pocket. When I took it out and unfolded it, I saw that it was all in order. Names and numbers correct. But then, as I started to put it away, I saw something else.

27:13 On the back and scribbled in pencil. P.S.

27:16 Working with a private detective sounds like much more fun than motorcycles. I'll be at your office first thing Monday morning.

27:24 Signed, Adrian. Hmm. I turned around and started back for the hospital. This was not going to be.

27:47 The Adventures of Philip Marlowe, created by Raymond Chandler, star Gerald Moore, and are produced and directed by Norman MacDonald. Script is by Mel Donnelly, Robert Mitchell, and Gene Levitt. Featured in the cast were Barbara Eiler, Ted Von Eltz, David Ellis, Virginia Gregg, Wilms Herbert, Paul Dubov, and Peter Prowse.

28:06 The special music is by Richard Arundt.

28:13 Be sure and be with us again next week when Philip Marlowe says....

28:18 It was only a gambler's marker. A promise to pay worth a thousand bucks. And I was hired to find it. Yeah, that sounded easy. Until I realized that it meant the whole future to two men. Freedom to a third and death to the girl in the cottage.

28:39 ¶ ¶.

28:52 Sunday will be Mother's Day, and the boy with the neighbor's prize rose in his lapel and a box of cigars under his arm will be Mrs. Benny's little boy Jack, ready for his idea of a proper Mother's Day celebration. For an unusually hilarious Mother's Day session with America's only 39-year-old child prodigy, hear The Jack Benny Show Sunday on all of these same CBS network stations. This is Roy Rowan speaking. Now, stay tuned for Gangbusters, which follows immediately over most of these stations. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.