State Trooper

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. This is a list of hotels. It's part of a chain that stretched from Maine to California. You won't find them in the Auto Club's recommended list. The chances are you don't know anyone that ever stayed at one of them. Memory Ranch, Lafitte's Lair, Deep Six - those are the names of a few of them. I'll be back to tell you about another one in a case we call, "312 Vertical".

[Blake, pretending to be a wanted bank robber, is hiding out in a hotel for criminals]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Ah, quite a place. All the comforts of home.

Ann:
Well, that depends on what you're used to.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Whatever I can get, honey.

[Ed puts his arms on Ann's shoulders]

Ed Grimes:
Provided it isn't already taken you mean.

[last lines]

Beverly:
I found him upstairs, Lieutenant, on the telephone. He was just calling the other hotels.

Lt. Rod Blake:
I'm sorry to break the chain, Mr. Daley. This time it's your bad luck.

Ross Daley:
It'll take me a long time to forget you.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Time? We'll try to see you have all the time you want.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Didn't you hear a woman scream four or five times right outside you door?

Frank Parnessa:
Oh, I don't know. Maybe I did; probably I didn't.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Don't you think it would be normal to react if you did?

Frank Parnessa:
Lieutenant, down here a woman screams when she's mad, sad, glad or in love. In other neighborhoods maybe she'll sing... down here she screams.

Gladys Henderson:
None of this would have happened. It's the neighborhood!

Lt. Rod Blake:
A neighborhood is what you make it, Mrs. Henderson. You're one of the neighbors.

[last lines]

[Blake has arrested Jenny for filing a false report]

Jenny Henderson:
I'll get my coat.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Well, they say a bad penny always returns. Well, maybe, but when the missing Penny is 5'6" and blonde and you're not sure how bad it is, there's not much to do but go looking for it. Well, we did - with rifles and tear gas - and what happened shouldn't happen to a policeman, a sheriff or a trooper.

[Sheriff Elder thinks that the disappearence of Nevers' beautiful client is a publicity stunt]

Ronnie Nevers:
What'll I tell the newspaper?

Sheriff Elder:
I'll be interested in reading that myself.

Rod Blake:
I think I was talking to a crook with a bright, new idea.

Sheriff Elder:
We got the girl - what could they want?

Rod Blake:
Probably one jump ahead of us on that, too.

Rod Blake:
And when did you start to suspect him?

Penny Lawrence:
Well, I began to think something was wrong when he stuck a gun in my ribs.

Jackson:
What are you sweatin' about?

[to his two goons carrying picks and shovels]

Jackson:
We're doin' the diggin' and he's doin' the sweatin'.

Rod Blake:
[narrating] That's why a showgirl or a Penny Lawrin was perfect for the operation. Her disapperance made headlines and every lawman in the valley was looking for her. It was so perfect it had an aroma about it - the sweet smell of cooperation.

Rod Blake:
How are you feeling?

Penny Lawrence:
I'm all right. They didn't hurt me except for that cord on my wrists and the gag.

[last lines]

Rod Blake:
That was some publicity stunt.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. The most dangerous weapon I've learned in police work isn't always the most obvious one.

[Blake holds up a revolver]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Now this is obvious.

[holds up a handful of hair]

Lt. Rod Blake:
This is less obvious - blonde hair. But if it should fall on the coat of man who is married to a brunette, or he just let it stay on her head - in heavy traffic for instance - it has a high danger potential. You'll see another example in a case called, "And Baby Makes Two".

Pete:
Well, what's it all about, Lieutenant?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Don't you read the morning papers?

Pete:
My sidemen say I can't even read music.

Lt. Rod Blake:
I just want to talk.

Sally Stoddard:
What about?

Lt. Rod Blake:
A case I'm working on.

Sally Stoddard:
What case?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, if you had anything to do with it, you'd know what case. If you didn't have anything to do with it, it doesn't matter, does it?

Sally Stoddard:
You lost me about seven verbs and a pronoun back, Lieutenant.

Lt. Rod Blake:
I've seen you in pictures.

Sally Stoddard:
Well, don't tell which ones and date me.

[Blake believes Wendy's fiancee was involved in a casino robbery]

Wendy:
I don't want to believe it, so don't convince me.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Convincing you would be easy. The district attorney would be something else. He can't *buy* theories.

[referring to Pete who, like Sally, has just been arrested for robbing a casino]

Sally Stoddard:
He had such great plans. We were going to do the grandma bandit bit next. By the time I get out, I won't need any makeup.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. This is a file on George Jones. It's closed now; it's one of a handful of cases I can't forget... I wish I could. The crime of violence touches more people than just the criminal and his victim - even a peace officer. I think you'll understand when you see tonight's story which we call, "Another Chance".

Kansas Sheriff:
Now, Jones, this officer has come all the way from Nevada to take you back. Now, he could hang around here and get the governor to extradite ya, but what's the point in that? It's just wastin' the taxpayers' money.

George Jones:
Why should I make it easy for him to hang me?

Kansas Sheriff:
Oh, they're not going to hang you. You use gas out in Nevada, don't you, Lieutenant?

George Jones:
I got a letter from the sanitarium that they couldn't keep her any longer unless I paid.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, you can't blame them.

George Jones:
No, I guess not. Anyway, that's when I took my last money and paid ten bucks for a gun. You saw the gun didn't you?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Yeah, we got your prints off of it.

George Jones:
I think it's a pretty good buy for ten bucks don't you?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Yeah. You got a real bargain.

[last lines]

[Just before his execution, Jones learns that his wife died suddenly in a sanatorium]

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Look at his face. He isn't afraid anymore.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, who knows. Maybe this is a new beginning for him - and for her. Maybe we all get another chance.

[Jones is led away to the gas chamber]

Minister:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me besides still waters, he restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake...

Rod Blake:
Well, there's no law that says a man has to give his real name and occupation to every blonde he meets poolside.

[Doris leans back on the couch seductively]

Doris Woodley:
Now, Lieutenant, is this *every* blonde?

[Doris' undercover assignment requires her to lounge poolside in skimpy bathing suits and escape attempts on her life]

Doris Woodley:
Rod, please let me stay on the case. Now, how often does a deputy sheriff get it so good?

Rod Blake:
You almost got it good in the pool.

Rod Blake:
[narrating] Deke Conners Jr. looked more like a playboy than a stock man, but his late father had built one of the biggest cattle empires in the West before he got himself shot off his horse by a rustler. Deke Jr. inherited the big ranch when he was only 25. Junior was a of different breed than the old man. From what I heard, he'd be more likely to be shot off a sofa by some irate husband if he got himself shot at all.

Rod Blake:
[discussing Doris] Somebody must have spotted her. They tried to drown her.

Sheriff Elder:
Well, she'll be in no danger as long as she's got Deke Connors nearby... no danger of murder, that is.

[last lines]

[Rod has just rescued Doris, a policewoman, from two murderous crooks]

Doris Woodley:
Who tried to drown me?

Rod Blake:
Deke. Just before he shot Soto, Pepe told him he'd never get away with it - that you knew the whole story.

Doris Woodley:
You know, I really think he thought I did - but, you pulled the trigger on me this time. He heard you tell the sheriff to pick me up and he said he couldn't let that happen.

Rod Blake:
Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you... take the rest of the night off.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. I've just been giving a bit of advice to a group businessmen from all parts of Nevada. For instance, a safe on wheels under a bright light - this is a safecrackers idea of heaven. A rollaway job, they call it. They roll the real safe back into a dark corner while they leave this for the patrolman to watch while the real one is being opened - so if you have a safe that's on wheels, take 'em off. There aren't very many of the old-time yeggs left, I'm glad to say, but you'll meet one in a moment in a case we call, "Boulder Joe's Bottle House."

Rod Blake:
You're going to have a house guest for a few days, Joe. I bought some supplies.

Boulder Joe:
If they show up, they'll kill me! A cop there...

Rod Blake:
If they don't show up and they pin that Reno job on ya, the state'll kill ya.

Boulder Joe:
That's tin pyrite from up toward the gorge. Not much of it around. Got tin, copper, iron, sulpher and sometimes zinc in it.

Rod Blake:
I'll admit you know quite a bit about rocks.

Boulder Joe:
Well, had more than a speakin' acquaintance with it at the state pen.

Lee's Wife:
Come on in, Blake. The water's fine.

Rod Blake:
You offering something besides the loot? Is that what Lee and Frankie disagreed about?

Lee's Wife:
Well, we don't need Lee especially.

Rod Blake:
I gotta pick my women - they don't pick me... and I don't pick you, sweetie.

[last lines]

Boulder Joe:
There's plenty of work to do. Them bullets broke a bottle in the wall. Have to tear down the whole house most likely.

Rod Blake:
For one bottle?

Boulder Joe:
Wait till you see what was in the bottle - five hundred! And there's more in other bottles. Them varmints hid their loot here in my house. Be just as hard to tear down as it was to put up.

Rod Blake:
Well, if you're lucky, maybe the state will be breaking stones for you this time.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. This is a buried treasure map published in San Francisco. The name and location of each treasure is yours for a quarter. Nevada's legends are full of lost mines and buried treasures, but personally, I've only known one man who really knew where to find a buried treasure. He buried it, watched it for fifty years and never got a chance to dig it up. The closest he ever got to a shovel after that was when they buried him. I'll be back in a minute to tell you about it in a case we call, "Buck Fever".

[first lines]

[holding an aerial photograph of Hoover Dam]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Now Hoover Dam is one of the world's most spectacular places no matter how you view it. Tourists generally see it from this highway that crosses its top or looking up from Lake Mead. You're going to see it from a different angle, the way I did. Sheriff Elder in Las Vegas said that I got a jailbird's eye view of it. Well, whatever it was, I don't want it again. I'll be back in a moment with a case we call, "Cable Car to Tombstone".

[Boger fell to his death at Hoover Dam because he believed Detective James was chasing him]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Let's go and see the widow.

Detective Wes James:
Yeah.

Lt. Rod Blake:
It won't be as bad as you expect... it'll be worse.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, when I was a youngster a wooden Indian in front of a tobacco shop was as much of the town as the railroad station or the firehouse. You have to go far to find a wooden Indian these days, but in Carson City, there's a mannequin called "Kitty". As the saying goes, she's quite a doll - especially since she helped apprehend a killer. You'll see how in a case called, "Carson City Kitty".

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers.

[holds up a pair of shoes]

Lt. Rod Blake:
These are a present for a friend of mine, the young wife of a Zapotec Indian, my favorite hunting guide. These will be the first pair of shoes she's ever owned. They'll probably wind up on the fireplace mantle of their adobe hut instead of on her feet... but don't feel sorry for her. The fact that she never owned a pair of shoes once saved her life. You'll meet her in, "The Case of the Barefoot Girl".

[Mrs. Wallace discovers the man she embraced in the dark is not her husband]

Mrs. Wallace:
Who are you? What are you doing in here?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, this is my room.

Mrs. Wallace:
Your room!... Ohhh, boy am I embarrassed. I thought you were my husband. But my key fit your door!

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, that's why they call Mexico the land of enchantment.

[Blake and Anderson discover the missing furs in an angler's camper]

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Funny what you catch when you go fishin'.

Tiny Ray:
I got a tip on something at the switchyard. I'll call and check with you later.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
You want to take some deputies with you?

Tiny Ray:
Nooo. The quickest way to freeze a man's tongue is to flash a badge.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
It'll be dark in 20 minutes. Who'll see a badge?

Tiny Ray:
They'd smell it.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Tiny... you still work without a gun?

Tiny Ray:
Haven't carried one in over thirty years.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Well now, that's just plain foolish.

Tiny Ray:
Well, sir, I figured it saved my life a couple of times. A gunfighter has got to be quick on the draw and present a mighty small target. How in the world would I ever do that?

Slim Smith:
Mr. Ray, how about me goin' with ya. Everybody knows you don't carry a gun.

Tiny Ray:
You said they had one. One's enough to go around.

Max Dorfman:
[to the hobos] You gonna let one cop take care of all of us?

Rod Blake:
I don't want all of you - just two. I got an idea you're one of 'em, Max. Name's Dorfman isn't it?

Max Dorfman:
Don't stand there - let's get him!

Slim Smith:
Hold it! The two guys the Lieutenant is looking for killed another man tonight. Shot him in the back.

Max Dorfman:
Don't listen to him! It's none of your business.

Slim Smith:
You're wrong there. The man was Tiny Ray!

[the hobos turn on Dorfman]

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, if you live in one of the large cities, you probably think of the cowboy as a vanishing American or an entertainer who works in rodeos and Wild West shows. Actually, there are more working cowboys in the Western states than ever before. As long as the world eats beef, they'll be needed. Nothing much has changed in the life of the cowpoke - still rides fence lines, rounds up the strays, freezes in winter, sweats in summer. Occasionally, he still dies with his boots on. One did in the case we call, "Coate of Many Colors".

[the lawmen discover that their murder victim led a double life]

Rod Blake:
Charlie Bedford... Bedford Coate.

Sheriff Logan:
Yeah! Could be the same man, couldn't it.

Rod Blake:
Yeah, which one was murdered - the artist or the cowboy?

Rod Blake:
Well, that's a good bronco - is it a good painting?

Art Dealer:
Well, the price on this one is five thousand - a couple of buyers are interested.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. That was an invitation to a wedding this afternoon - one of our deputies. Las Vegas is a great city for weddings, you know. There are a dozen chapels and, almost any hour, you can find some happy couple starting out a new life together. In tonight's story, however, you'll meet a young boy and girl who walked out of a wedding chapel and right into a case we call, "Dangerous Honeymoon".

[a young couple has just emerged from a wedding chapel]

Nancy Sheldon:
Oh darling, I'm so happy.

William Baxter:
That's because you're Mrs. Sheldon, Mrs. Sheldon.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. This is s souvenir of the Old West.

[indicates a model of a Conestoga wagon]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Many of these passed over the Old Spanish Trail from Utah to California. It was rugged and dangerous. Today that same wagon trail is U.S. 91, a smooth ribbon of concrete, but it's still dangerous and men still dies with their boots on - usually with one boot on the accelerator. You'll see danger on that road tonight in a case we call, "Death on Wheels".

[referring to Rod]

Dan Quirt:
Is he a friend of yours?

Hal Michaels:
We work for the same company so I guess that makes us friends.

Dan Quirt:
He has bad manners. We're going outside and talk it over.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Look, Quirt, I'm not a fighting man.

Dan Quirt:
I'll teach you.

Lt. Rod Blake:
I wouldn't do that.

Dan Quirt:
Stand up.

[Rod punches Quirt in the stomach then knocks him down with an uppercut]

Lt. Rod Blake:
All right, I'm standing.

Special Investigator Dan Quirk:
Sheriff Bronson said he'd be riding a couple of miles behind you all the way to Salt Lake.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, it may be just a ride. We're gambling.

Special Investigator Dan Quirk:
In Nevada that's legal, isn't it?

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. I've been doing a little hunting. You know, the northern part of the state has one of the finest hunting areas in the West, but the game I was after was a little different than the usual species found around here - it had only two legs.

Rod Blake:
[narrating] The Humboldt Range has long been known as the hunter's paradise. At open season, you'll find hunters from every point of the compass in these hills. Most of them return home with their trophies and fond memories of the hunt. Others go back in a baggage car - dead freight.

Cy Conway:
First day of huntin' season, my property looks like No-Man's Land... bullets flyin', fences torn down. No wonder there's been at least one person killed each year for the past three. Sheriff, I'm tellin' you if I find one man inside my fence, he'll get a load of buckshot!

Sheriff Steve Reed:
Mr. Conway, you'd better call me first before you do any shooting.

Cy Conway:
I'll call you after. I know my rights!

Rod Blake:
They don't include homicide.

Rod Blake:
There's an accident up the trail. You live around here?

Walter Johnson:
Yeah - down the road a piece. Hey, ain't that Sy Conway's boy in there? He ain't the one that's hurt is he?

Rod Blake:
No, it's a hunter up near Diablo.

Walter Johnson:
You want to use my pickup truck for an ambulance?

Rod Blake:
Ah, thanks. There's no hurry... the man's dead.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. A newspaper man with a flare for colorful phrases accused me of grounding an angel with ice on her wings. Well, it turned out she was no angel and the ice wasn't the kind you pick up in a blizzard - but she did have wings.

Rod Blake:
Well, that brings us right back to the air charter service.

Sheriff Rex Miller:
I've known Bob Stuart all my life.

Rod Blake:
Well, I haven't, so I'll talk to him.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You've probably seen Marilyn Thayer if you watch television or go to the movies. Maybe you've heard some of her records. The inscription says, "To the Nevada State Troopers with deep affection and appreciation." Well, the first time a state trooper met Miss Thayer, she had a different opinion. I'll be back in a moment to tell you about it in a case we call, "Diamonds in the Rough".

Hess:
Hey... you a cop?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Why do you ask?

Hess:
If you are you're wastin' your time around here. Ruby don't know anything about that brother of hers.

Lt. Rod Blake:
I heard differently.

Hess:
Look, I'm her husband. I oughta know.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Yeah, you ought to. Apparently you don't.

Police Sgt. Riggs:
You sent for me, Skipper?

Capt. Daniel Box:
Yeah. I just had a call from Lt. Blake.

Police Sgt. Riggs:
Blake? Oh, the state trooper from out in Nevada.

Capt. Daniel Box:
He's not out in Nevada. He's right here in New York.

Police Sgt. Riggs:
What's he doin' here?

Capt. Daniel Box:
Well, he didn't say, but he'll be over here in a few minutes.

Police Sgt. Riggs:
You reckon he's moseyin' back here to teach us tenderfeet how to track down a varmint like this here Joe Belden?

Capt. Daniel Box:
Don't laugh, Riggs. He's apt to do just that.

Police Sgt. Riggs:
You're the first real live Westerner I've ever met, Lieutenant... outside of my wife's second cousin over in West Orange, New Jersey.

Capt. Daniel Box:
Riggs is what's known as a professional New Yorker. He's never been west of the Hudson River.

Police Sgt. Riggs:
Well, what's the point. As they used to say in vaudeville, after New York, everything else is Bridgeport.

[Riggs tries to warn Blake about the mean streets of New York]

Police Sgt. Riggs:
You know, New York is quite a bit different from those wide-open spaces.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Yes, that's right, Sergeant. For example, do you know what a cougar is?

Police Sgt. Riggs:
Kind of a mountain lion, I guess, isn't it?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Yeah. Did you ever hunt one?

Police Sgt. Riggs:
Here in New York? Nope. Why?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, once you have, chasing rats won't bother you too much.

[to his bound and gagged wife]

Hess:
I met your cop friend for ya. His body's halfway down the bay by now... and tonight, you'll be floatin' out after him.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, every occupation has its specialized tools. This is a pike pole, part of a lumberman's equipment. Made of hardwood, it has this long steel spike in the end. It's an extremely useful tool when you're wrangling logs... it's also a very dangerous weapon in a fight. You'll meet the pike pole again in a story called, "Excitement at Milltown".

Myrna Carlson:
Would you like one of my sandwiches?

Lt. Rod Blake:
No thanks.

Myrna Carlson:
Oh, but I insist! It you don't, I'll tell my father.

Lt. Rod Blake:
You'll get me fired, I suppose

Myrna Carlson:
It's a perfectly wonderful arrangement... Father runs the mill and *I* run Father.

[discussing Loomis' daughter, Myrna]

Mr. Carlson:
I don't know what to do with her.

Lt. Rod Blake:
How long has it been since she's had a good spanking?

Lt. Rod Blake:
You want the truth?

Myrna Carlson:
Sure. Who's afraid of the big, bad truth?

[Rod has just given Myrna the benefit of his amateur psychoanalytical abilities]

Myrna Carlson:
Do you read palms, too?

Lt. Rod Blake:
I read faces better.

[last lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
[narrating] Byron once said that "Hatred is the madness of the heart." Ella Westover wasn't out of her mind, but it was a thin line that separated insanity from the acts of a woman ignored.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Now every once in a while a case comes up that has a history - the point of origin sometimes goes back a long way. We just closed the files on the granddaddy of them all. This case goes back 250 years to the town of Cromona, Italy where a man named Antonio Stradivari started making violins for which he would be forever famous. You'll hear about it in a case called, "Fiddle Dee Dead".

[De Vol's car was stolen with a Stradivarius violin in the backseat]

Lt. Rod Blake:
If the newspapers make a big thing out of this, then this guy is going to figure the Strad is so hot, he'd better burn it before it burns him.

Frank De Vol:
What do you think, Andy?

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
I don't think the guy that stole the car would know a Stradivarius from a pastrami sandwich.

[Rex proposes to sell the stolen Stradiavarius]

Ben Slausen:
I wouldn't touch that fiddle with a ten-foot pole and a fifty-foot extension!

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Now, every year millions of Americans visiting our national parks and forests read signs imploring them to "snuff out that cigarette" or "break that match". Forest fires cost the taxpayer more than 50 million dollars every year. Now most fires are started by carelessness, but there are those fires deliberately set that represent the most brutal crimes in police history. You'll hear about such a case in a story called, "The Firebug".

Nick May:
Are you calling me a liar?

Lt. Rod Blake:
I'm more interested in finding out why you lied to me.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, you might envy the man who sent me this.

[indicates a samurai sword]

Rod Blake:
The only authentic beachcomber I ever met. He said every morning was like Christmas. He walked down to his own private beach and see what the ocean brought him. It wasn't always good. One time the sea washed up a human bounty hunter. Another day it brought me - with a murder warrant. I'll be back in a moment to tell you about a case we call, "From Here to Molokai".

C.R. Benedict:
Is there a reward?

Rod Blake:
The dead man's widow and his partner put up 2500 at the time. I don't know whether it's still posted. I'll have to check.

C.R. Benedict:
You do that.

Rod Blake:
Where is he, this Stanley?

C.R. Benedict:
You check and I'll see if I can remember.

Rod Blake:
You're under arrest.

C.R. Benedict:
Me? What for?

Rod Blake:
Suspicion of harboring a fugitive; suspicison of withholding information concerning a felony.

C.R. Benedict:
I didn't say I knew for sure.

Rod Blake:
I said "suspicion". I'll walk you across the street to the sheriff's office.

C.R. Benedict:
I seen this beachcomber fishin' in the surf...

Rod Blake:
And you think it's Stanley.

C.R. Benedict:
I grew up with Arthur Stanley. He's grown a beard and he looks like something that crawled up out of the lagoon, but it's Stanley.

Rod Blake:
And you think he might still be there.

C.R. Benedict:
Small world, ain't it? Here's a guy from Sparks walkin' along a beach - nothin' but the birds and another guy from Sparks. How small can it get?

[while stalking Collins, Kendall stumbles upon Betty with her pistol drawn]

Lou Kendall:
You were going to kill him.

Betty Davidson:
Weren't you?... Or perhaps you were going to kill me?

Betty Davidson:
All right, I don't know which you I hated more - you or Jess. Jess... I couldn't stand the sight of him. Now you... You'd kill Arthur to keep on protecting me.

Lou Kendall:
I thought of it. Now I know I could never do it. I'm no killer.

Betty Davidson:
And not a liar, either. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. This microscope has convicted more criminals than all the testimony I've given. One look through here and our lab men can come up with a lot of answers. Good solid evidence that can't be refuted. There's one thing a microscope can't do - look inside a human being, show a man's driving force that causes him to throw away his reason and yield to a murderous impulse. That's the way it was with the man in tonight's story, "Full Circle".

Sheriff Bronson:
This is a weird one, Rod.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, it can only be one of two things - an accident or murder.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Someone once said something to the effect that the thought you think can do no harm, but the words you think are beyond recall.

[Rod is questioning Marty Nestor, an ex-convict]

Rod Blake:
Do you got a gun?

Marty Nestor:
No, but I had guns a long time ago... but, after I got out, the state thought I oughta stick to fishin'.

[Blake is trying to match samples of wire to that used on a booby trap]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Can you spare a sample of this?

Johnny:
Sure. Naturally, I'm curious. What are you going to do with a piece of wire, Lieutenant?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Some people collect old coins and stamps... I like wire. Oh, I saw some in your toolkit. Can you spare a sample?

Davis:
Take all you want. Oh by the way, Lieutenant, you can help me with my collection sometime. I like blondes.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Nevada once at a reputation for being a hard money state. Well, there's still more hard money in circulation here than in any other state. That's probably why almost everyone in Nevada is either a professional or an amateur coin collector. In a case called "Hard Money, Soft Touch", you'll meet three kinds of coin collectors - professional, amateur and sticky-fingered.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
You give me a description of every coin in your collection; we'll alert every dealer and collector in the country.

Jasper Williams:
I have them all cataloged. Most of the dealers and buyers will be at the convention at Lake Tahoe over the weekend.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, your collection will be probably be there.

Jasper Williams:
You think the thieves will try to peddle it to some unscrupulous buyer?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, I think they might try to sell it to a real scrupulous buyer - *you*.

[Blake has been posing as a private detective named Craig]

Dobie:
Now-now Craig, we can still make a deal. Well, they can't pin Irma's murder on either one of us. Now, you take the reward dough. Take the coin collection, too. It's in the back of the truck.

Lt. Rod Blake:
I forgot to bring the award money anyway.

Dobie:
You private dick! What are you trying to pull?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Nevada state trooper. I'm sure we can pin Irma's murder on one of us.

[last lines]

Dobie:
Well, that little fool. She meant it! She fell for that old egghead. She was going to cut out on me. I couldn't take that!

Lt. Rod Blake:
You're going to have to take a lot more now.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, lots of Nevada kids have never seen a zoo, but they grew up around powder monkeys, giraffes, desert zebras and doodle bugs. I know - as a kid I rode a giraffe in the old Silver Sage mine near Tonepah and I was a donkey doctor's assistance at the Popcorn mine down near Beatty. In case you didn't know, a powder monkey is a man in charge of explosives; a giraffe is an ore car that's higher on one end than the other and a donkey doctor is the mechanic on a donkey engine sometimes called a desert zebra. You'll see them all wandering through a story called, "Hardrock Man".

[discussing a murder victim]

Detective Capt. Leo Horton:
He drowned, remember? All of our suspects are two to four hundred miles from the spot.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, Inspector Stone - he taught at the Police Academy - had a favorite saying... "If you can't place your suspect at the scene of the crime, try moving the scene of the crime to the suspect." He didn't think much of alibis.

Connie Moser:
You killed Hardrock. I was sure of it!

[Edna pulls a pistol from her pocket]

Edna Linkman:
Well, the same thing could happen to you, too.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, over the years, a police officer sees a lot of guns - too many of them from the wrong end. You get so you don't look at the gun if you want to stay alive; you look at the man on the other end. It's a good theory - I'm still around - but it can have it's disconcerting moments, like when you look for a man at the other end and find a teenager... or an old lady. I'll be back in a moment with a case called, "Inherit a Bullet".

Lt. Rod Blake:
[narrating] Allen Easton, at forty, had everything to live for. He was a millionaire, he was healthy, he and his mother owned a ranching empire. He traded it all for a twenty second nap on the highway between Las Vegas and Tonopah.

[picture of a car driving off the edge of a cliff and crashing on the rocks below]

[last lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
[to Ross] Did you ever paddle Jennie?

Jennie:
And how!

Lt. Rod Blake:
Do you still have the paddle?

Ross:
[referring to Baker] It will be ready whenever he is.

Lt. Rod Blake:
[to Jennie] And you teach him how to handle a rifle, Tight Pants.

[Mrs. Barnes is out on bail]

Elaine Barnes:
I should have known better than to expect gratitude from a cop.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Mrs. Barnes, you're going to get all that's coming to you.

Rod Blake:
[narrating] To a peace officer, there's only thing worse than losing your gun and that's your prisoner. How it happens isn't important. It's your responsibility.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, the state of Nevada loves its tourists and I like any tourist when it comes to photographing our historic buildings. This is the museum down the street with the Virginia & Truckee locomotive pastured out front. This is Piper's Opera House in Virginia City and St. Mary's of the Mountains in Virginia City. Yes, we encourage the tourists to shoot all the film they like, but that's about the only kind of shooting we approve of.

[Blake is interrogating a prisoner in the Goldfield jail]

Johnny Bledsoe:
Where's my wife?

Rod Blake:
I wish I knew. We have a vacancy here she could have.

Rod Blake:
[to Bledsoe] How lucky can you get? Gordo is going to live and we had the gas chamber all scrubbed out for you.

Rod Blake:
You get smart and tell me where that money is. You don't think they tore that Tonopah jail apart just to help you break out on a 25-day rap do you? They'll afraid you're going to talk and they want that money. Now what does that add up to?

Johnny Bledsoe:
I've got friends.

Rod Blake:
You've got one less! Fred Carr's on a slab and he wanted that money!

[last lines]

[Rod holds a cup of poison Bledsoe's wife planned to give Johnny]

Johnny Bledsoe:
Oh, my head!

Rod Blake:
Don't tempt me, Johnny.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Sometimes cases take nothing but paperwork and hours spent at a desk. Then there are times when a night's sleep is something to look forward to like next summer's vacation. Now keeping fit is part of every law officer's job. I spent some time recently in a modern, fully-equiped gymnasium. I got lots of exercise, but it wasn't to keep me in shape - it was to save a life. That life happened to be my own. You'll hear about it in a story called, "Joker's Dead".

[Rod and Sheriff Anderson are investigator the murder of a man found bound to an exercise bike in a resort's gymnasium]

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
There are probably more fingerprints than in a public library. According to that speedometer, he's traveled four miles.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, that's the longest trip he ever made.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
One way at that.

[last lines]

Paul Stagg:
I couldn't take it any longer. Milford and his wife were hitting me for money every time I turned around.

Lt. Rod Blake:
What did they have on you?

Paul Stagg:
Enough to send me up for ten years.

Lt. Rod Blake:
You made a bad choice. You should have taken the ten years.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. I just hired a magician for the annual state troopers' picnic. He's always a hit - and not just with the kids. You know, a magician depends on his ability to see and believe what he wants. In tonight's case, a thief's hand was quicker than several eyes, but a crime lab camera showed up the trick. I'll be back in a moment to tell you about it in a case called, "Key to a Killer".

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Listen.

[Rod turns on a tape recorder]

Ted Joiner:
[voice] Friends, a few moments ago, I told you of the tragic death of Helen Camelot, a Las Vegas showgirl. Now you're about to hear one of the most unusual recordings I ever brought you - the questioning of an actual suspect. The questioner is Lt. Blake of the Nevada state troopers. The suspect is... myself.

[Rod turns off the tape]

Lt. Rod Blake:
I don't know if you caught that broadcast a few months ago. If not, you'll meet the broadcaster for the first time in a case called, "Kitchen Kill."

[discussing Betty's dead ex-roommate]

Lt. Rod Blake:
You used to live with her. Did she ever mention her parents or family?

Betty Dolan:
Are you kidding? Girls like Helen aren't born - they just come up out of the swamp and somehow manage to grow up and look like human beings.

[discussing her ex-roommates death]

Betty Dolan:
Well, I guess that makes a fool out of the guy who said, "Only the good die young".

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. What it takes to make a criminal is a question for he psychology boys. Most people think that if a bank robber had plenty of money, he wouldn't be a bank robber. I wonder. I wonder who can say how much is plenty to a bank robber. I went along with that theory once and I'll never come closer to be buried out on the 'lone prairie' with a slagpile for a headstone. Maybe you can find the answer in the Ace Moody case - that's the way it's listed in our files. The file clerk with a knack for titles called it, "Larceny and Old Ace".

Lt. Rod Blake:
[narrating] I'm no alarmist, but when a convict about to be released from prison declares open season on the officer that sent him there you can't afford not to take notice of it.

[last lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
[to Julie] Does any crook ever have plenty of money?

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Naw, it's not a beecatchers bonnet, it's a type of mask and helmet worn by the jumpers of the Forest Service firefighting division. They're the first to go in when a fire has been spotted - just a handful of them to try to stop or turn the blaze before it gets out of control. The big catch to their job - aside from trying to find a soft tree to land in - is that they can jump in... but they can't jump out. You'll meet a group of these men in a case called, "Let 'Em Eat Smoke".

[to Patty who has rebuffed his advances]

Dewey Binns:
Hey baby, have you got corners where you used to have curves?

Lt. Rod Blake:
[narrating] Hank Patton didn't seem to be worried. He knew his sister; she'd never again have anything to do with a character like Dewey Binns again. When I told him that Dewey had quit being just a wild, colorful character - he had added a cold-blooded murder to his accomplishments - Hank became worried.

[discussing a wanted criminal who fled in the direction of a forest fire]

Hank Patton:
If he went uphill, he's going to get his tail scorched.

Jeff Roberts:
Oh, I'd hate that. Where will I kick him the next time I see him.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know progress keeps the mapmakers busy. Here's an early map that was published not long after Nevada became a state. There's an area here marked "Indian land" that you won't find on maps of today. An act of Congress granted the Indians a different area and the maps had to be changed... but changes are made more easily on paper than with people, especially when the change means to die. You'll hear of an unusual fight for survival in a story called "Lonely Valley".

[the Piutes are discussing an enormous atomic explosion they observed in the distance]

Lt. Rod Blake:
[narrating] If this was the white mans' weapon, what was the size of the enemy the white man feared?

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers and this is William Shakespeare. You know, it's not often I get a chance to reread some of the Bard's great plays, but recently we had a case that made me recall one of his greatest, "Romeo and Juliet, the Tale of Star-Crossed Lovers". The only difference is our Romeo wore jeans and Juliet had a ponytail. You'll learn more about them in a case called, "Love on the Rocks".

Lt. Rod Blake:
Jake, what were your feelings towards Rena Desmond.

Jake Holden:
I just got one regret - nobody asked me to come and do a jig at her funeral!

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello there. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. I guess you could tell that was a brand new deputy sheriff. He's the son of a friend of mine - a retired lawman from up in Washoo County. HIs father sent him to me to teach him how to shoot. I gave him the advice a famous sheriff gave me when I was a rookie - I told him I could teach him how to shoot; I couldn't teach him when to shoot. This is every officer's nightmare. Hold your fire and be a dead hero; shoot too soon and be tagged a killer yourself.

Rod Blake:
Get anything?

Sheriff Lowell:
Well, a border guard thought he saw Barnett going into Canada two days ago, but he just got a picture today. That's one I'd like to believe.

Rod Blake:
What have you got against Canada?

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Doesn't look like much, does it? It's a chunk of rock - but it wrote a lot of Nevada history. It came from this mine, the Comstock Lode, outside Virginia City. This doesn't like much, either, now, but through that portal came 340 million dollars, 38 million of it in a single year - 1877. The Comstock silver vein was four miles long and 3000 feet wide, but after it had been worked out, Virginia City just sort of died. But few of it's legends have died as you'll see in a story we call, "Meeting at Julias".

Rod Blake:
The Silver Inch Mine is typical of the new mining industry in Nevada. New methods are making it profitable to mine medium grade ore and miners are drawing down 17 dollars a day. It makes a big payroll in a mine like the Silver Inch. Miners like their pay in cash - always have and always will, I suppose.

Rod Blake:
Miller said that Julia's place was in Virginia City. Maybe they're waiting for him there.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
What did the operator have?

Rod Blake:
Oh, didn't I tell you?

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
No.

Rod Blake:
Woman named Julia - the only one in Virginia City.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Well, take some men with ya!

Rod Blake:
Naw. If they see the law moving in, there won't be any meeting at Julia's.

Rod Blake:
What did you mean, "Miss Julia"?

Bennett Collins:
This is Julia Bulette's grave. Didn't you know that?

Rod Blake:
Well, I don't have a speaking acquaintance.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, the .30-30 has long been the favorite hunting rifle of the folks who originally settled the more remote regions of Nevada. This particular rifle belonged to a young backwoodsman who couldn't speak, so he let his rifle speak for him - even when there was death in what he tried to say. You'll hear about him in a story called, "The Sniper".

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Have you ever been a pigeon? Sure you have - and so have I. No, not that kind... and not this kind. These are trapshooting targets - clay pigeons. It takes all kinds of pigeons to make a world. We have several kinds in the case you'll see in a moment that we call "Nevada Boy, Pride and Joy".

Rod Blake:
You know, this could have been an accident.

Colonel Greenlee:
Certainly. That's why I haven't made any open accusations on the grounds that I have now. Neither do I want to be killed.

Colonel Greenlee:
This is Jenny Braeden, Miss Cottle, and my son, Hank.

Nancy Cottle:
Hello.

Colonel Greenlee:
Anything you want to see while you're in Nevada, Hank'll show it to you. He's a real son of Nevada, this boy.

Hank Greenlee:
His pride and joy.

Colonel Greenlee:
I don't deny it.

Nancy Cottle:
It's no wonder you don't deny it.

Hank Greenlee:
Jenny's pride and joy, too, I hope. We're engaged.

Rod Blake:
You didn't tell me who was on the other end of that shotgun.

Colonel Greenlee:
Jenny Braeden, my son's fiancee. I think Jenny intends to kill me.

Rod Blake:
I'll ask her.

Colonel Greenlee:
No! No! Good heavens, man! That's why I didn't tell Sheriff Anderson who I suspected. It would alienate my son forever if I made any such charge.

Rod Blake:
Have you been opposing the marriage?

Colonel Greenlee:
No! I gave them my blessing... Well, Hank's my pride and joy. He was born right her on this ranch. I don't suppose I would have thought anyone really good enough for him.

Rod Blake:
But you don't like Jenny Braeden?

Colonel Greenlee:
I do like her! Really! She was a secretary in my bank. She's a good girl, but, ah...

Rod Blake:
...A secretary.

Rod Blake:
Well, don't make me sound more snobbish than I am.

Rod Blake:
It's all right, Colonel. Sheriff's bomb detail has that little gadget you rigged up. I just wanted to see your reaction to this. I promised Sheriff Anderson I'd bring you back with me.

Colonel Greenlee:
...Will this jacket be all right?

Rod Blake:
...That's just the thing.

[last lines]

Rod Blake:
Jenny wasn't missing the tough ones anymore - and they wouldn't have father-in-law trouble for a long time. A year in a mental hospital and continued psychiatric treatment were conditions of Colonel Greenlee's probation.

[last lines]

Frank Cliff:
Lt. Blake, Mabel says that Annie died of a heart attack that afternoon. She couldn't pass up the chance to burn the store and collect the life insurance, too.

Rod Blake:
She'll have to convince a jury. Maybe it's too bad she burned the evidence.

Mabel Cliff:
You and your big mouth.

[first lines]

[holding a stuffed squirrel]

Rod Blake:
Well, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. No, my small friend here didn't figure in any of my cases. I saw him in a taxidermist's window and he caught my eye because he reminded me of another little fellow who could have been his brother and who did cooperate in a case. Of course, he didn't know he was cooperating, but without his help, we might never have known the truth about Hattie Hale. Hattie didn't think much of the new-fangled West where heated swimming pools had replaced the pump and cowboys chased cattle in jeeps instead of horses. I'll be back in a moment to tell you about a case we call, "No Fancy Cowboys".

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
So you think there might be something?

Rod Blake:
Well, if there is, the operation's been stepped up. Four times since the first of the year. Somebody's getting sure of themselves.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Or careless. You know one of these days, this might blow up in our faces.

Rod Blake:
We can't wait for that. Visitors are important to this state - we're supposed to take care of 'em.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Well, I guess it's right in my lap.

Rod Blake:
No, not yours, Andy. You just dropped it in mine.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, ever since Romeo and Juliet, cases of headstrong young couples who want to get married in defiance of their parents have become almost commonplace. Perhaps not so common, however, is the case of a father who used strongarm tactics to keep his offspring single. You'll hear about it in a story called, "No, My Darling Daughter".

Lt. Rod Blake:
Anything new on Nick Shawn?

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Bolling couldn't have hired a worse character to guard his darling daughter if he tried.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Does he have a record?

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
More like an album.

Donald Bowling:
And to think I hired Nick Shawn.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Yeah, sort of like hiring a cobra to get rid of the mice.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, Lake Tahoe is just a short drive from my office - miles of blue water, fishing, big trees and the good ship Dixie. You may have seen the Dixie, she's a midget showboat tied up on Amundsen's boat landing on the southeast shore. I spent quite an evening on her not too long ago and the owner sent me this bell as a souvenir. Folks around the lake said they never heard it rung so loud as the night I rang it - with my head. Be back in a minute to tell you about a story we called, "One Way to Tahoe".

Arness Blackmore:
What's it going to convince you that you're out of her life?

Stanley Andrews:
Divorce should have. I didn't think she'd go through with it.

Rod Blake:
[narrating] It was just a normal guest ranch wardrobe and the sheriff's men had been over it all. I don't know what I expected to find... I didn't need to look at what my fingers were touching in that pocket. It started a lot of bells ringing and one of them was the "all clear" signal in the state prison gas chamber.

[Rod is posing as a private detective]

Arness Blackmore:
Maybe you'd like to report to me once in a while for what they're doin'.

Rod Blake:
That wouldn't be ethical and my fee's pretty high for being unethical.

Arness Blackmore:
Don't shoot!

Rod Blake:
I wouldn't shoot you for the world, Blackmore. I'm givin' the newspapers their daily laugh.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. To say the least, this is the most unusual trophy I've ever received. Some newspaper men in San Francisco sent it to me as a gift. It's supposed to represent a scalp I helped them collect... one that they and the Bay City police had been trying to take for a long time. I guess, more than anybody else, a newspaperman has to have a sense of humor, viewing as he does man's inhumanity to man on one hand and man's kindness to man on the other and trying to reconcile the two 24 hours a day. Of course, this is just a sample of the wigmaker's art. You'll meet the man whose scalp it represents in a case called, "Pistols for Two".

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, it's been said many times that crime, complex or simple, is not unique to the big cities. Murder or petty theft in New York or Hollywood is no different from murder or petty theft in Tombstone or Steptoe Valley. It doesn't happen to a city; it happens to an individual. I'm thinking of a case called, "The Prettiest Dress in Goldfield". In New York it wouldn't have made quite the headlines it made in the Tonopah Tribune.

[Blake pretended his prisoner handcuffed his wrists and escaped]

Sheriff Morton:
Let's go over to my office.

Lt. Rod Blake:
So you can get that laugh out of your system.

Sheriff Morton:
We'll pick up a mechanic, go after your car and go after Doc. He can't have gotten very far.

Lt. Rod Blake:
My car's all right and Doc's stashed in the schoolhouse over there.

Sheriff Morton:
What?

Lt. Rod Blake:
You're no John Barrymore. Watch you expression and I'll tell you about it in your office.

Lt. Rod Blake:
I'm risking my badge on account of you, you old scoundrel.

Doc Crippin:
Looks like you're risking my neck, too.

Lt. Rod Blake:
You won't be needing it unless I prove you didn't do this.

[last lines]

[Rod finds his pen in Doc's pocket]

Doc Crippin:
Is that your pen?

Lt. Rod Blake:
That's my car out in front, too... if it's still there.

[Rod gives his pen to Doc]

Doc Crippin:
Thank you.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Okay, Doc.

Rod Blake:
Where did Tobias tell you he was going to jump me?

Jean Burton:
You have a one-track mind. I don't know Johnny Tobias except by sight!

Rod Blake:
You were talking to him tonight.

Jean Burton:
I was sitting by the pool and he made a pass at me.

Rod Blake:
I played the tape while he was making that pass.

Jean Burton:
That siren was just something that came over the radio. I was recording music.

Rod Blake:
Well, if Johnny plays a tune for us, I'll believe you.

[last lines]

[Rod throws Tobias into the car with his accomplice]

Rod Blake:
Oh, have you two met?

Johnny Tobias:
He could be a cop.

Jean Burton:
He doesn't dance like a cop.

Johnny Tobias:
You ought to know.

Rod Blake:
Let's get back to town, Andy. You know where this Ronnie Mann lives?

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Everybody within 40 miles of Tahoe knows - especially the women.

Rod Blake:
Andy, does it ever make you nervous when a picture hanging crooked on the wall?

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Why, yeah, now that you mention it.

Rod Blake:
Well, that's the way I feel about this case - it doesn't sit right.

[Gil has just robbed a store]

Marie Miller:
Some money?

[Gil shows Marie the loot]

Marie Miller:
What did I tell ya?

Gil Miller:
I guess it beats dancin' for a livin'.

Marie Miller:
You mean starving.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Well, you can laugh, but an old lady running loose around town with a gun in her hand is no joke!

Rod Blake:
And especially if it isn't a lady.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
I thought of that, but the owner of the store swears it was a woman - .45 Colt, scratch on the right side of the barrel, front sight missing.

Rod Blake:
I'd say he was staring more at the gun than at the woman.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
The case you are watching has been dramatized from the files of the law enforcement agencies of the state of Nevada. Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved. This is the headquarters of the Nevada state police in Carson City. As a state, we rank sixth in size, 48th in population. This suits our citizens just fine. They like room to breathe but, as cops, it gives us a lot of wild, wide-open territory to cover.

[demonstrating a technique for disarming a criminal]

Lt. Rod Blake:
I turn and drop my left arm at the same time, knocking the gun to one side so the shot goes over there. I go into an ordinary wrist lock and take the gun away from him... and you finish it like this.

[tosses his "assailant" to the floor]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Think you can do it now?

Gym Deputy:
Well, I don't know. What if you miss a wrist lock?

Lt. Rod Blake:
That's why we have a widows and orphans fund.

[indicating plaster casts of horseshoe prints found near the site of a murder]

Sheriff Grundy:
We got these out by the side of the road.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, now all we need is a horse that fits 'em.

Sheriff Grundy:
Yeah... and the fellow that fits the horse.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. If you're ever big game hunting and you come across tracks like these, you can be pretty sure you're on a cold trail - a few million years cold. These are dinosaur footprints - the real thing. These particular ones are well-preserved in the yard of the Nevada state penitentiary here in Carson City. They're responsible for a saying among the prisoners, "When a man's in, he's riding the dinosaur." I got this from an old man who'd been riding the monster for ten years. He said this was going to be his last ride and I believed him. Whether I should have or not is the point of a story called "Room Service for 321".

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Say, you got a soft spot for this old man?

Rod Blake:
Not if he's back in business.

[Frank points at a pistol at Gil thinking he was a thief]

Frank Leonard:
You want Cathy to be a widow before she's a bride?

Gil Henderson:
Why so jumpy? It's only money.

Frank Leonard:
My whole bank is in that box and I'm not about to give it up without a discussion

Rod Blake:
They'll find the truck and your safe out in the desert, most likely. Wouldn't expect the box to be in very good condition, though.

Frank Leonard:
Well, if they find the safe, they'll find my money. It's manganese steel with a high vanadium content. The company guaranteed it couldn't be opened without the combination.

Rod Blake:
Guaranteed? You get your money back if the safe's been cracked?

Frank Leonard:
...I get a new safe.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Hello, I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. One major crime cause that never ceases to amaze peace officers it's how many people think elimination of another person will solve all their problems. This weighty thought came to me while lying on my back after one such intended victim whose life I was trying to prolong clipped me on the chin. You'll meet him in the company of a pretty widow in a case called, "So Early in the Mourning."

Janice Moore:
Mr. Blake, this is Peck Brinkman.

Peck Brinkman:
Glad to know you.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Hello.

Peck Brinkman:
Ah, did Mrs. Blake come with you?

Lt. Rod Blake:
No, there isn't any.

Peck Brinkman:
Oh.

[leading the beautiful Janice away]

Peck Brinkman:
I was afraid of that.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Did you ever glance through the personals of the classified section of your newspaper? You often see items like this - "Anyone knowing the whereabouts of Irma Medford, please communicate with her anxious parents, Box So-And-So." Well, girls leave home and go to the big city every day. Some of 'em don't come back. You'll hear about such a girl in a case called, "Stay Lost Little Girl".

Lt. Rod Blake:
[narrating] One look at the place showed that Mildred Schmidt's friend had come a long way since her carnival days... one look at Mrs. Schigalo and I could see why. She had what it took to feather a nest with expensive feathers and, apparently, Mr. Schigalo had them for the plucking.

[last lines]

Howell Haley:
You know, Lieutenant, there are times when it would seem when it would be better, all the way around, if some little girls would stay lost.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, not too long ago, disputes over water rights were often settled with a .45. Today, a special federal court hands down the decisions. When the court calendar's full, the parties concerned in the dispute over water rights sometimes have to wait a long while for a hearing. Some folks are just too hot-blooded to wait. They still prefer the six-gun to the law book. You'll hear about such a case in a story called, "Still Water Runs Red".

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Lola, you've got to get it through you head that times have changed!

Lola Tucker:
Maybe times have changed, but people haven't.

[a hidden gunman shoots at Blake, who is acting as a reservoir guard]

Lt. Rod Blake:
[narrating] Apparently, it was still open season on watchman at Peyote Lake.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Circumstantial evidence is every peace officer potential nightmare... the fear of building an airtight case around an innocent man. Of course, we pride ourselves on building one around a guilty man. This was the circumstantial evidence in the case I'm thinking of. We had a lightbulb that didn't throw any light, eyeglasses and we couldn't see and a crowbar that might have saved a man's live. You'll see them again in a case called "Sweet & Gentle, Ltd."

[last lines]

Sheriff Tom Billings:
I'll say one thing, Rod. I never did see so much love in one office before.

Lt. Rod Blake:
You never saw so *little* love in one office before.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, Nevada is proud of its school system, from the elementary right up to the college level. It's especially proud of its college of agriculture and mining. I want to make it plain the activities in the case you're going to see, though they occured on and around a college campus, were strictly extracurricular. Even this book, which figured in tonight's case, turned out to be more lethal than literary. In a moment, you'll meet "The Sweetheart of Sigmund Kaye". This was her book.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, nine out of ten missing persons show up, generally with a good excuse. Was that their bath?

Doris Green:
Yes. Evidently, the sheriff didn't share you're believe about nine out of ten... otherwise, he wouldn't have sent you out here.

Lt. Rod Blake:
The sheriff always worries about that tenth one.

Lt. Rod Blake:
She said her parents liked Sigmund.

Doc Brennan:
Ah yes, Sigmund. I invariably come back to Sigmund, also.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, they told me they were going to be married.

Doc Brennan:
Yes, unless I'm right. Sigmund comes from very poor but very proud people.

Lt. Rod Blake:
How'd her family feel about the marriage?

Doc Brennan:
Well, they forbade it to start with. See, Sigmund has continental ideas about marriage and dowries. He couldn't understand why they should have to wait as long as her parents were wealthy. I think he took a shortcut through the cemetery.

Lt. Rod Blake:
I'm looking for the non-existent parents of a girl who was never born.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello, I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Cutthroats and big mouths are to be expected in my line of work. Maybe this kind of cutthroat will surprise you.

[indicates a fish mounted on the wall]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Nevada's lakes are famous for its big trout. The record cutthroat weighed 41 pounds out of Pyramid Lake; a mackinaw weighing 30 pounds came out of Tahoe and the bigmouth bass, of course, are in every lake. They figure in a case we call "The Black Leaper".

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Most people think the branding iron is a relic of the horse and buggy age. It isn't. It's still with us in the form of the serial number on your automobile. That number on the frame and on the engine are the only proof you have of ownership. If that number is removed or changed that car ceases to exist as far as the owner's concerned - it's a favorite underworld trick. Now a hot brunette, a hot car and a cold slab in the morgue broke up the operation in a case called, "The Bride Wore Bullets".

Victor Beck:
Somebody once said that the shortest way to gas chamber is right through a police lab.

Lt. Rod Blake:
You must have know who her friends were or who she was running around with.

Victor Beck:
Remember the old story about the girl who had two friends - the army and the navy?

[last lines]

Bundy Lane:
[to Rod] You're the cop! [to Steve] You knew it all the time!

Steve Lane:
Lieutenant, will you do me a favor?

Bundy Lane:
I'll tell them that you cooperated.

Steve Lane:
Could you see to it that when it gets into the papers that Steve Lane clammed up, that he didn't say a word when he was arrested? It was his sister that did all the talking. She *sang* like a bird.

Bundy Lane:
You'll get me killed!

Steve Lane:
Yeah. Say hello to Marietta for me, Bundy. Give her my love.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. This is a souvenir. It's a symbol of old China... well, it is until you take a closer look at it.

[Blake turns the toy dragon around to review a transistor radio inside its head]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Then it becomes a symbol of San Francisco's Chinatown, where the old beliefs are in conflict with the beliefs of the younger generation. Most of the young Chinese-Americans respect the attitudes of the elders. What lengths they'll go to to protect the old customs you'll see in "The Case of the Happy Dragon".

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. I've just been re-reading somebody else's mail - line of duty, of course. Funny thing about a letter... it can bring good news or bad; make a man laugh or cry; reassure him or panic him. A three-cent stamp - probably the most powerful tool you can buy at that price. I'll be back in a moment to show you how it was used in a case we call, "The Cash Out".

Sheriff Elder:
This is Hal Denton, special agent for the bonding company. Lieutenant Blake.

Rod Blake:
How are you?

Agent Denton:
Sixty thousand dollar headache, thanks.

Sheriff Elder:
His company's stuck with the loss.

[last lines]

Rod Blake:
Well, Denton was right about one thing - and only one.

Debbie Lang:
What?

Rod Blake:
You.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. If somebody tells you he's a whizzo at kissing a dog, you'll know, of course, that he's referring to his ability to pick your pockets while he's standing face to face with you. If, later, a cannon took a flop on a dead banger, you'd know he'd been caught red-handed at his trade and sent to prison. I had to brush up on my underworld lingo not long ago in order to close a case called, "The Choker".

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, a financial wizard once advised people to buy something - buy anything - as a solution to an economic recession. Well, that's good, sound advice if you assume that all people are going to buy sensibly. In a case called, "The Clever Man" you'll meet some people who demonstrate that a bargain is not always what it seems.

Joe Landers:
You deal with a crook, you're a fraternity brother.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Gold cigarette case and lighter - I'd sort of like to keep them but, of course, I can't. They're a loan from the Tropicana Hotel gift shop; supposed to impress a charming lady who claimed she had fallen in love with me. You know, some crooks pack their powder in compacts rather than a bullet. I'll be back in a minute to tell you about one in a case we call, "The Dancing Dowager".

Sheriff Elder:
I was in the Tropicana last night, Rod, when a breeze from the Old South blew in - money, charm and a Pekingese dog. Does that sound familiar?

Lt. Rod Blake:
No.

Sheriff Elder:
Six months ago, a man named Grant from Minneapolis met a wealthy widow in Jacksonville, Florida... fell in love, proposed to her. She took him for thirty thousand and disappeared.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Same description, all right. Did you contact Jacksonville?

Sheriff Elder:
I wired for a sample of her handwriting; I also called Minneapolis. They're checking with this man Grant. Originally, he wouldn't sign a complaint.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Why?

Sheriff Elder:
He couldn't believe he'd been taken. He felt sorry for the woman. Thought maybe she'd gotten into some kind of trouble. That's the only reason he went to the police.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, he was right about one thing.

Sheriff Elder:
Oh?

Lt. Rod Blake:
She is in trouble.

Cynthia:
Money isn't everything, is it?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Only when you haven't got it.

[last lines]

Cynthia:
You know what burns me... not the hick from Minneapolis - the other guy.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Who? Sheriff Elder?

Cynthia:
The first day here he said, "Nevada has a kind of Southern hospitality."

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, that's the truth. You just wait until you try his home cooking.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, most kids attribute human qualities to their toys and pets and maybe believing makes it so. This doll, for instance, kept its eyes open during a crime and sent a killer up for life. Now, after all her adventures, she's going back to her young owner... or should I say, "mother". You'll meet them in a moment in case we call, "The Doll Who Couldn't Sleep".

[last lines]

Rose Stassel:
What's going to happen to Edith?

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers.

[indicates a railroad tool]

Lt. Rod Blake:
This is a souvenir of my two weeks as a professional dancer. I didn't spend them in a ballroom as you'll see in a case we call, "The Gandy Dancers of Steptoe Valley". Don't let the title mislead you. A gandy dancer is a railroad section hand. The Steptoe Valley is the location of one of the largest open-pit copper mines in all the world.

[last lines]

[Unfaithful Francesca discovers the man she was seeing on the sly was the leader of a gang of thieves]

Francesca:
I didn't do anything. I'm not in trouble.

Lt. Rod Blake:
You'll always be in trouble, Francesca.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, it's been said that the road to that least desirable place in the hereafter is paved with good intentions but, believe me, there are side roads and detours that are paved with nothing but bad intentions - some well-marked. You'll travel one of those roads with me in a case called, "The Girl on Cloud Nine".

Lt. Rod Blake:
I have it good authority that you're the "cat" of the company.

Claire Eaton:
Oh, that's the female viewpoint. You'll find me rather kittenish.

[last lines]

[Ben Stander tried to kill Claire by throwing her off a theater catwalk, but Blake managed to break her fall]

Lt. Rod Blake:
You all right?

Claire Eaton:
Yeah. Sorry to drop in on you like this without phoning first.

Lt. Rod Blake:
That's all right. I like an impulsive woman. Can you get up? We'll take you to a doctor just in case. Maybe he'll put you on a diet.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Well, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, to a killer, everyone is expendable - strangers, friends in general, the peace officer who's after him in particular. Sometimes they get pretty tricky. I'm thinking of one who not only moved the body, but moved the whole scene of the crime. Oh, this? It's a spearfishing gun. I found it out in the desert near Tonopah and I thought that made it interesting. I'll be back in a moment to tell you about the "Hills of Homicide".

[looking at stock certificates pinned to the wall of a trailer at the scene of a murder]

Sheriff Logan:
Uranium stocks, penny stocks. Now, if there were a gun around, the solution would be simple. They just couldn't stand looking at their life savings good for nothing except wallpaper and ended it all.

Rod Blake:
Naw, it's not that, Bill. They certificates are put on with thumbtacks. If they were already worthless they would have pasted them on. I think their whole dream of the future is pinned to the wall where they could look at it. I think they were a happy couple.

Sheriff Logan:
What is that, a harpoon?

Rod Blake:
Junior grade. Skin divers use them for spearfishing.

Ed Munger:
You're crazy. You're trying to frame me. It was not premeditated murder!

Rod Blake:
It was premediated something or you'd have used your real name.

[last lines]

Ed Munger:
Amelia... you've got to help me, Amelia.

Amelia Spender:
I don't want to see you. I don't want to see you ever again.

Rod Blake:
The visiting days are Tuesdays and Fridays if you change your mind.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. This branch came from a tree that grows in Southern Nevada. There's nothing special about the tree except that it's an American variety of the tree from which Judas is supposed to have hung himself. Well, the tree this came from wasn't big enough for a hanging, but it did help us catch a couple of killers. You'll see how in a case called, "The Judas Tree".

Sheriff Elder:
Wouldn't some doctor have to treat him by this time?

Rod Blake:
That's the way we'll get 'em if he's still alive.

Sheriff Elder:
You think we're only lookin' for one man, huh?

Rod Blake:
Yeah - or one fresh grave.

Rod Blake:
He didn't win any money.

Bertha Thompson:
Oh, what's that got to do with it.

Rod Blake:
I'm trying to go back into his life.

Bertha Thompson:
His life is over - or didn't see him at the undertaker's?

Rod Blake:
Well, the wound will bring him in - either the doctor that treats it or the coroner will get him if it wasn't treated. I saw that bullet wound... I know.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. These are the blueprints for a new house out in the Bear Valley district - not mine... not a policeman's salary. This is a memento. Ordinarily, a blueprint is a blueprint, but this one had a built-in feature that I hope you never find in your new home. It was a design for murder - mine. You'll see it in a case called, "The Last Waltz".

[Blake, working undercover as a carpenter, is ordered to assist the sheriff by moving a pile of bricks]

Chauncey Potter:
Look, if you're going to give him a hand, you better get started. I'm paying you three dollars an hour!

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
[to Rod] No kiddin'? They payin' you three dollars an hour?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Told you I was a good carpenter.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
You think they could use another man? I made a broom closet for my wife once.

[Ernie isn't happy over his wife Claire's flirting with other men]

Ernie:
I'm sure she's a good Potter and she'd be a good girl if you left her alone.

Chauncey Potter:
I've sent her to Sunday School every Sunday since she was five years old.

Ernie:
Will you quit telling me that! You sent her to Sunday School on Sundays - where did you send her on the other days?

[Ernie, the only member of the Potter family without a criminal record, was just shot]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Make another call on your phone Andy. Put a guard on Ernie and no visitors.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
He's not going to run away.

Lt. Rod Blake:
This is not to keep Ernie in... someone tries to make a vital statistic out of him.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
[speaking on phone] No, you'll never take Willie Losada with a helicopter or a mounted posse. My man's worked a lot with the Indians. He can trail with the best of 'em. Stay after him a year if it need be, but it won't. This man thinks like an Indian; he may be an Indian for all I know. Yeah, I'll keep you posted, Mr. Peters.

Rod Blake:
I could use a man like that on my staff, Andy.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Oh hello, Rod. I was talking about you.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
That was Peters of the Cattleman's Association. They want that Indian back. Personally, I'd settle for the other two - Wink and Red Shawn. They're the bad boys.

Rod Blake:
Well, maybe they'll be together.

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
Not a chance. Willie's no criminal - he's just a wild horse.

Rod Blake:
Now take it easy, Mr. Anson. That wasn't a war party; that was one Indian.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know parole boards have found that the average prisoner intends and wants to go straight when he gets out, but he has two strikes against him with the public. I'm not criticizing the attitude - I guess it's normal - but as a peace officer, I've learned it's not always the public that has to be protected from the ex-convict... sometimes the ex-convict has to be protected from the public. You'll see an example in a case called, "The Man from Solitary".

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Psychiatrists claim that sleepwalking is usually caused by deep-seated psychological distrubances. That was certainly the case of Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, who walked in her sleep trying to wash the blood of Banquo's murder from her hands. You'll meet a less famous, but equally disturbed sleepwalker who became the victim of a murderer in a case called, "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes".

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello there. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers.

[holds up some expensive fishing tackle]

Rod Blake:
It takes a lot of equipment these days to catch a fish. When I was a boy, all you needed was a bent pin, a piece of string, an angle worm... and a little water. I just left a group of men who spent two million dollars to enjoy this sport. Do you think it made them happy? It added up to murder.

Rod Blake:
Well, Colonel, do you have any real evidence? Anything that would justify us starting an investigation.

Colonel Emory Baker:
I've given you an opinion. Evidence - that's is your department.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. The title of this particular case may be misleading. It's called "The Only Girl on Boot Hill". Now every town in the old West had a Boot Hill. It got its name because a good portion of its clientele died with their boots on, but you didn't have to wearing boots to gain admission.

Mr. Ormsby:
You see Greg is obsessed with the idea that he brings death to everyone around him - people he loves.

Rod Blake:
Well, the secretary mentioned your wife - his mother... no one else.

Mr. Ormsby:
Yes, his mother died the day before Greg graduated from college. Before that, his roommate when he was a sophomore - train wreck. I thought he'd gotten over his mother's death. Married a beautiful girl. They went off the end of ferry landing in Greg's sports car. She drowned. They'd only been married a month.

Rod Blake:
It would take time to get over a thing like that.

Mr. Ormsby:
I don't think we have time, Lieutenant.

Rod Blake:
He's a sick man

Mrs. Willoughby:
What was he sick of?

Rod Blake:
He had enough trouble to break a man.

Rod Blake:
I asked the old timer about the McGill family, Betty McGill in particular and got a shock. "Up in the cemetary," he said. "She's the only girl on Boot Hill." Then he added, "She's the only girl *alive* on Boot Hill."

[last lines]

[Greg's wife died when he drove their car intentionally off a ferry ramp and she couldn't open her seat belt]

Rod Blake:
There were hammer marks on that seat belt buckle. He told you, didn't he?

Betty McGill:
Yes. She couldn't get out.

Gregg Ormsby:
I'm only sorry about one thing. I wonder what she thought about when she was strapped in. I wanted to know that. I wanted to know that!

Rod Blake:
Well, don't give up hope. You may find out what it's like to be strapped in.

Rod Blake:
[narrating] The payroll checks were on differenct companies; the endorsements on back were different names, but the handwriting and the check protection machine were the same - that made it one operation. The sheriff had talked to every merchant and hotel man who had cashed the checks. They'd all been cashed by a man - a tall, short, thin, fat, dark, blonde, bald, wavy-haired man. No wonder the sheriff was dizzy.

Betty Fowler:
I really should have had lunch with you, but sort of feel that I have to be suspicious of everybody, you know, small town girl in the big city.

Jeff Manley:
Big city? Las Vegas?

Betty Fowler:
Well, you know how I mean big. Goodness sake, before I married Will, I was never out of Pioche.

Rod Blake:
Mr. Fowler?

Jeff Manley:
No, you've made a mistake.

Rod Blake:
You sure?

Jeff Manley:
My name is Manley.

Rod Blake:
You've never used the name Fowler?

Jeff Manley:
W-Why should I use that name?

Rod Blake:
Well, you have used the name Fowler and you're under arrest... under any name you like.

Rod Blake:
It's better to be stuck for a few hundred dollars than what you are stuck for - forgery.

Jeff Manley:
I didn't forge that check!

Rod Blake:
You passed a forged check under an assumed name. Now what do you call it?

Rod Blake:
All right, you help us; we'll try to help you. Now you find that girl for us.

Jeff Manley:
All right, I will, but you're making a mistake. This girl couldn't be any more guilty than I am.

Rod Blake:
You let her tell us that; then you'll be off the hook. I'm sure she'd want to do *that*.

Sheriff Elder:
A nice girl like that.

[last lines]

Sheriff Elder:
Did I tell you she had a record? Women's prison, California. You know where she worked?

Rod Blake:
The print shop?

Sheriff Elder:
That's right.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, eternity to a small boy means the time stretching ahead till he's a man - to the rest of us it means forever. But both versions of eternity - the small boy's and the true one - have a place in this story called, "The Patient Skeleton". It may be that the character mentioned in the title is the only one that's really qualified to discourse on both patience and eternity.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. The shortage of water in the desert to the Southwest can be and has been a disaster at one time or another. There's a case on file, however, where a life was saved by an insufficent supply of water. I'll be back in a moment to tell you about it in a case we call, "The Perilous Picnic".

Carlson:
Blair and the chief of the company police put in a call to Reno. Your description matches perfectly with a certain Harry Jeffers - ex-con, gunman, cardsharp and all-around no-good adult delinquent.

Rod Blake:
Good old Andy. Never does things by half measures.

Carlson:
If Barron is an honest cop, you'll get your walkin' papers - but I don't think you're going to.

Lt. Rod Blake:
In the travel folders, Nevada's Virgina City is described as the liveliest ghost town on earth. In the summer, the streets swarm with visitors who come to look into the past of one of the most spectacular mining towns in Western history. They see were Mark Twain got his start as a reporter writing for the Territorial Enterprise or see where three quarters of a billion dollars of gold and silver was taken out of the earth and visit Piper's Opera House where the great artists of the past - Menckin, Booth, Maude Adams and Lily Langtry and scores of others - once performed. Where Felina Dubois scored her biggest success and where today her granddaughter, Felina Meadows, leads a group of young actors in a season of summer stock.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Here, boy!

[a German Shepherd leaps onto Rod's lap]

Lt. Rod Blake:
You know, man's best friend can also be a specialist in crime detection. This is Speed, a German Shepherd, who gets credit for solving a murder and for halting one of the biggest shakedown operations in Nevada. You'll meet Speed again in a case we call, "The Sound of Death".

Lt. Rod Blake:
[narrating] I was convinced that the old Indian had been silenced because he knew something that the rest of us didn't. Nothing can hold a secret like death.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. I never met the man who wrote this - I saw him once, but he was dead then - but he said something in here that stuck in my mind. I'd like to have talked to him. He said, "It isn't when a man's heart stops beating that he really dies, it's sometime before that - a month, a day, maybe only an instant, like when a doctor tells him he only has two months or when a truck's coming head on and there's nothing that can be done, or when he sees hand pulling a pistol trigger." Henry Dupenz didn't die in any of these ways, but there was an instant just before it happened when he knew his life was ended. We call this case, "The Talking Corpse".

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers.

[picks up an antique revolver]

Lt. Rod Blake:
In the early days of the West, this used to be called a "Widow Maker". It's a pepperbox model revolver manufactured between the 1830s and the Civil War. It was especially popular with Nevada gunmen. Then, after the turn of the century, a new widow maker came along and lifted the label from the pistol. You meet the owner of one in a case called just that - "The Widow Maker".

Lt. Rod Blake:
Miss Ide?

Starry Ide:
Starry Ide.

Lt. Rod Blake:
That's a pretty name.

Starry Ide:
Oh, it's an improvement over Pressy Pratt, anyhow.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. Are you a fatalist? A peace officer becomes very conscious of time and place. Here's a woman who was killed by a truck at an intersection. You'll probably say if she left home a minute sooner or a minute later, she'd still be alive. Well, a fatalist would argue the point. He's say a minute sooner or a minute later and the truck would have kept the appointment - it was just the time and the place for her to go. Now here's a deputy sheriff who walked into a bank to deposit his paycheck. Now, generally, his wife did it, but this day he did it and a minute later he was dead from a bandit's bullet. Fate? You'll have a chance to decide in a case we call, "The Winnemucca Weskit". A dude in the ballistics department said it was a 'weskit'. I call it a vest.

[discussing a new bulletproof vest that Johnny has been demonstrating]

Millie Marvin:
Must he wear it when you shoot at him?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, I ruled that out - I made him hang it on a chair.

Johnny Marvin:
Well, his ribs are black and blue. Now he wants to demonstrate it to every member of the police association at the convention. That's his idea of a floor show for the policeman's ball.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Listen, no police officer is going to buy thing until he's seen it work on somebody. A written guarantee on a bulletproof vest doesn't mean very much if it only promises the widow should get her money back.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You've all heard the old saying that "the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach." Well, there's a shorter way - the course taken by a bullet. However, finding a man with a bullet in his heart and proving it's murder are two different things. Sometimes a capital crime is so cleverly conceived that the jury brings in a verdict of justifiable homicide and the murderer goes free. You'll hear about a case where this nearly happened in a case called, "The Woman Who Cried Wolf".

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. I know a lot of you have read this book and I'm sure all of you have at least heard of it - it's 'Joe Miller's Joke Book'. Well, in this case we have a joke - a morbid one. It isn't in this book, but in our books it's called "This One'll Kill Ya".

[Jill Benton has been found murdered]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Do you have any idea who did kill her?

Kay Wallace:
Meaning besides myself, of course?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Yes, of course.

Kay Wallace:
You're the cop, sergeant, I'm just a chorus girl. You stay out of my racket and I promise not to muscle into yours.

Johnny Garth:
There's a reservation for you in my name at the door.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, thanks.

Johnny Garth:
Oh, Lieutenant, check your gun. I tell some pretty stale jokes. You may be tempted.

Kay Wallace:
You'll die laughing, Major... I hope.

Lt. Rod Blake:
[narrating] Five days after Jill Benton's murder I went to Sheriff Anderson with a new twist to my plan. Anderson bawked; he called it dangerous. I called it a calculated risk, which was probably just another way of saying the same thing.

Kay Wallace:
I overheard you and Johnny talking, Waldo.

Waldo Sims:
So?

Kay Wallace:
Well, I just wondered what you did for a living before you started freeloading off of Johnny... because whatever it was you better start getting back in training for it.

Rod Blake:
[narrating] There are millions of visitors who to come each year to Nevada each year to work, play, rest or... strike it rich.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, these constitute some of the most popular reading matter in the country today - travel folders. More Americans are seeing more of the world, traveling farther and getting there faster than ever before. Most of them get home safely. The case you're about to see concerns one who didn't. We call it, "Travel Now, Slay Later".

Lt. Rod Blake:
Dave... find a nice comfortable cell for Mr. Jaffe.

Sid Jaffe:
You're holding me?

Lt. Rod Blake:
That's right.

Sid Jaffe:
On what charge!

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, with your record, it's a question of picking and choosing.

Tom Lanning:
Aloha, Carol dear.

Carol Ward:
Tom! How did you know I was hear?

Tom Lanning:
I understand that's a very versatile work, "aloha". Not only means hello but *goodbye*.

Rod Blake:
[narrating] Once Sam George was a police officer. He had three things that made him a good one - a shrewd mind, a powerful body and all the courage you could crowd into one man. Three other qualities made him a bad officer - an uncontrollable temper, a sadistic streak and a taste for rich living. That's why the police department fired Sam George.

Sam Jordan:
I make enough legitimately. I don't have to step out of bounds.

Rod Blake:
Easier targets, Sam. Real criminals are tougher than people who just make a mistake now and then.

Sam Jordan:
Isn't that why they bounced me from the department? I was tougher than the crooks?

Rod Blake:
You got bounced because you were a bad cop.

Sam Jordan:
Tough cop! Now I'm smart, too.

Rod Blake:
Sam told me he taped every conversation that went on in this room and he wanted to bet me I couldn't find his hidden bug in two days. Maybe Sam gave his own killer a two day start on me. That would be a joke.

Sheriff Dan Elder:
But he ain't laughin'.

[Blake asks Sheriff Elder to pick up Nelson Miller]

Rod Blake:
I just want to talk to him. If I find that bug, maybe I won't have to.

Sheriff Dan Elder:
Look, we've been over this room six times!

Rod Blake:
So?

Sheriff Dan Elder:
I see what you mean.

Nelson Miller:
Let's get two things straight - I didn't kill him... and I'm glad he's dead.

[last lines]

[believing his daughter is paralyzed, Miller kills the blackmailer responsible and plans to drive his car off a cliff, but stops when he sees his daughter walking beside the road]

Nelson Miller:
It's Wendy!

Wendy Miller:
Katie...

Nelson Miller:
She's all right?

Rod Blake:
Yes, Mr. Miller, she's fine. Too bad you didn't have brakes on that gun.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Hello, I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, it must have been 70 years since Nevada gold went East to make this pretty vase. It's a real antique, made in Sandwich, Massachusetts. They got that ruby red color by adding gold to the melted glass. It's pretty, but the gold in this particular vase came back home to Nevada as a lethal weapon after all these years. I'll be back in a minute with a case we call, "Weep No More O'Grady".

Rod Blake:
A cop learns early to look for answers before he asks the questions.

Rod Blake:
She was broken up over the death of her son.

Jay O'Grady:
I was being childish; I should have paid my respects, but I told my lawyer to see that everything was being done - to order the best for both young men.

Rod Blake:
Just like old times. You said you came from an era when you buried your enemies with sad words and real tears... or am I misquoting you?

Jay O'Grady:
We buried our friends the same way.

[Blake follows Bender after he sneaks into an old warehouse late at night]

Bender:
The shop's closed!

Rod Blake:
But we opened it, didn't we?

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, you'll probably never pull the trigger on a rifle like this but if you do, look out - it's got a jolt in both ends. It's a .375 Magnum. That end could slap down a running rhinocerous. This is part of my personal collection and, ordinarily, I'd keep it home, but this stopped a killer for me once, so now I keep it in that cabinet - it's sort of earned its badge. One of the boys in the Bureau tabbed this case, "What Price Gloria". As you'll see in a minute, he had a point.

Rod Blake:
[narrating] The landing attendant said he'd found the boat floating bottom up in the middle of the lake. There wasn't much to be told by the hole in the side of the boat. It could have happened in a hundred different ways and the one person who knew exactly how it happened was probably at the bottom of the lake. There's a legend about Lake Tahoe. It's bottomless in spots and it never gives up its victims.

Rod Blake:
[narrating] The sheriff was right - there wasn't anything to see out where they'd found the boat. There wasn't anything to place Herndon at that spot, either... out in the boat with Gloria DiNeen last night, make it on shore this morning unless he was a channel swimmer as well as an artist. Of course, murders aren't always committed to make it easy for the police. The boat could have been towed to where it was found.

Rod Blake:
What exactly did happen?

Gloria DiNeen:
I was going along at, oh, trolling speed. This other speed boat whizzed out of the dark and hit me broadside.

Rod Blake:
Did you see who was in it?

Gloria DiNeen:
One minute I saw the boat and the next minute I was in the water. It could have been an accident.

Rod Blake:
Yeah, or a practical joke. That's why the other boat didn't stop to pick you up. Was it Herndon?

Gloria DiNeen:
I don't want to say it was Jim.

Rod Blake:
Would you want to say it wasn't?

Rod Blake:
[narrating] I didn't want to alarm Herndon, but I didn't like Gloria's reaction to the good news - stunned shock and then a happy day at the lake. Marriages have to end in one of two ways - divorce or 'death do us part'.

[last lines]

Mary Herndon:
Why? Why did she do it?

Rod Blake:
She wanted your husband - alimony free.

Mary Herndon:
You and Jim?

Gloria DiNeen:
That's his story!

Rod Blake:
No, not Jim. He didn't suspect it until he added all his troubles together and they came out "Gloria".

Gloria DiNeen:
You can't prove any of it.

Rod Blake:
I can prove the false accident report and I can try to prove attempted murder.

Gloria DiNeen:
But that's silly! Mary's my best friend.

Rod Blake:
I think she scratched you off her list out there on the lake. You're too expensive, Gloria.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, possession may be nine points of the law as the saying goes, but the tenth point can cause you a lot of trouble... like the prospector who had a bear by the tail. Momentarially, he had legal possession of the bear - but the prospector's in Boot Hill now and the bear's still roaming the woods over near Lake Tahoe... just another way of saying that being too possessive can get you in trouble. There's an even better example in a case called, "What' Mine Is Mine."

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, a panda bear can be a pretty expensive prize to take home from a carnival. I once watch a sailor throw ten dollars worth of baseballs at wooden milk bottles just to get one. The most expensive prize I know of, however, cost the winner his life. You'll hear about it in a case called, "When the Cat's Away".

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, sometimes police work is like the old shell game.

[Blake holds up a walnut shell and a pea]

Lt. Rod Blake:
For example, once in a while this office will get a case in which there is doubt about the identity of someone who died under suspicious circumstances.

[hold up two other walnut shells showing nothing beneath either one]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Such cases are usually tough.

[Blake mixes the three shells around on his desk]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Then there's another kind - the case in which we aren't sure if the death were caused by accident or murder... and these are even tougher. But you put the two together - the case in which we're not sure who died how and you're likely to come up with this...

[Blake holds up all three walnut shells showing the pea has disappeared]

Lt. Rod Blake:
...a complete blank. This could have happened in a case called, "While Jerome Burned".

Linda Graham:
Murder? What makes you consider the possibility of murder?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Because I can't consider the probability of an accident.

Linda Graham:
He worked for Jerome so long he thought of the ranch as anybody else's. When Jerome and I were married, I made Jerome put Gabe straight. He was the happiest man in the world when Jerome and I were divorced; he had *his* ranch back. If you think Jerome's smash-up wasn't an accident, you ought to talk to Gabe again. The ranch will really be his now. Jerome's will leaves it to him.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Did you know Teller planned to sell the ranch?

Linda Graham:
No, but I'm not surprised. He was three months behind in his alimony to me and I wrote and told him he had to do something.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Well, if Teller didn't, somebody did.

Frank Nagel:
Is Teller alive?

Lt. Rod Blake:
I don't know.

Frank Nagel:
But it's possible?

Lt. Rod Blake:
Yes, it's possible.

Frank Nagel:
That's all that insurance company would have to know. If they thought it was one chance in a thousand that Teller was still living, they would never pay off on that policy.

Lt. Rod Blake:
Let's go down to the sheriff's office and talk about it.

Frank Nagel:
Yeah, why not? If I can't be rich, I might as well be honest.

[first lines]

Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, in the old days, prospectors used to pan the Truckee River with one eye on their gold pans and the other on the trees, half expected a Washoo or a Piute arrow in the back. Well, arrows and gold still haunt the Truckee. Most of the gold is in the form of wedding rings tossed off the Virginia Street Bridge opposite the Reno courthouse. It's become tradition with the new divorcees. And the arrow? I thought the coroner was joking when he called and asked, "Who killed Doc Robbins?" I'll be back in a moment to tell you about it.

[Rod approaches Dorrit on Reno's Virginia Street Bridge over the Truckee River]

DoretteMason:
Hello, I'm Lieutenant Blake. The water's pretty cold this time of year.

Rod Blake:
Is it a tradition to throw your wedding ring in here when you're through with it?

DoretteMason:
Well, the custom is to take it off first.

Rod Blake:
Oh, did you get anything on the laundry marks?

Sheriff Andy Anderson:
There are 3792 laundries west of Salt Lake. All it will prove is Gilbert wore shirts.

[last lines]

Rod Blake:
[narrating] She didn't want money; she wanted her man, so outside a farmhouse Doc found out how much love, even his kind, means to a plain woman.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers.

[the sound of jets roaring overhead distracts Rod for a moment]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Jet planes passing through - probably halfway to Las Vegas by now. You know, it takes a lot of money to keep our Air Force strong, and it's money well-spent. A couple of weeks ago, three people took a dangerous interest in some money destined for Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. I'll be back to tell you about it in a case called, "Wild Green Yonder".

[while investigating a payroll robbery, Blake interviews a possible witness]

Mary Jenson:
Do you really think it's Betty? I mean, gee, if it is, I-I don't know how I'd feel.

Lt. Rod Blake:
You'll feel a lot better than Betty.

[during a shootout, Ben's eyes are splattered with a corrosive liquid]

Ben Miller:
Get me a doctor! I can't see!

Lt. Rod Blake:
That's the problem with your kind - you never can.

[last lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
[narrating] Within 48 hours, the stolen payroll was back at Nellis Air Force Base. Ben Miller and the Lockes were in jail in Las Vegas contemplating the irony of their capture. It had been a perfect crime - almost - except for one pair of glasses, a waitress, a grocery store boxboy and - funniest of all - two cans of quite ordinary peaches.

[first lines]

Lt. Rod Blake:
Oh, hello. I'm Rod Blake, chief investigator for the Nevada state troopers. You know, they say that in almost every family there's a skeleton in the closet. Well, in police work, we just naturally open a lot of closet doors. Except in tonight's case, it was the glove compartment in an automobile. I'll be back in a moment and tell you what we found in, "You Can't Run Forever".