Suspense.
And the producer of radio's outstanding theater of thrills,
the master of mystery and adventure, William N. Robeson.
We try to avoid cliches and platitudes on suspense.
For instance, you'll never hear a victim say to a criminal,
you can't get away with it, or hardly ever.
Yet the bad guys hardly ever do get away with it,
even when they plan their crimes brilliantly and set their getaways with the most meticulous detail.
The law doesn't catch up to them, more often than not, they catch up with themselves.
As Joseph Dunlop, alias Andrew Burt, does in A Good Neighbor,
a strange story of retribution starring Mr. Jeff Chandler.
And now...
Mr. Jeff Chandler in A Good Neighbor,
a tale well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense.
I am a thief.
I have stolen $150,000 in diamonds from my employer's firm.
Last night I left New York in a secondhand car, the jewelry in a steel box locked in the trunk.
The theft will be discovered this morning.
In a few minutes I'll reach the place where I'll hide on this deserted main coast.
Then I will take the cut stones out of the settings and put them with the other unmounted stones,
and in a few days I'll leave for Mexico.
There I will sell the stones to an agent I have contacted.
Then I will go on to South America.
My name now is Andrew Burt.
I have identification cards and a passport to prove it.
They were very expensive, but I will be very rich.
And the police will be looking for a man named Joseph Dunlop who has vanished from New York.
It'll be dawn soon.
And as the narrow back road winds closer to the sea, I can feel the wind rising against the car.
The fog is moving in and the headlights bounce back from it.
But I can't slow down.
I have to reach my hideout before dawn.
And suddenly I saw...
an old woman standing in the middle of the road waving a flashlight.
I'm almost to the house, almost safe, and now this.
What is it? What's wrong?
I'm so sorry, but have you run into a tree branch or anything along the road?
No, no, no, I haven't.
Oh, well, good. Then it must be farther along.
Do you mind?
Before I could answer, the woman yanked open the door and popped in beside me.
Could be quite dangerous, you know.
Something like that lying on the road.
You drive very slowly. I'm sure we'll come to it.
She was a short, skinny little woman.
She wore a heavy coat and a thick scarf tied around her head.
I suppose I should introduce myself.
I'm Mrs. Poe. I lived just over that rise.
Oh, well, you can't see it, Miss Falk.
What's all this about a tree branch?
I can't hear you very well. Just a moment and I'll take off my scarf.
Always wear it when it's windy. There, now. What did you say?
What about a tree branch?
I'm not so sure it is a tree branch.
It's just something large and solid.
If a car ran into it, there could be an accident.
You drive slowly now. We'll find it.
How do you know it's there if you don't know where it is?
I don't think I can...
Oh, I must explain.
I saw this big thing lying in the road
and I got out of bed and came out to find it.
Now, when we move it off the road, I'll go right on back to bed.
It's much too early to be up.
When did you see it?
This time I was sound asleep.
I woke with a stop and I saw it right before my eyes.
Second sight, young man. I am second sight.
I see things before they happen. Look!
I could see it through the fog.
A large, gnarled tree branch lying across the road.
Second sight. I didn't believe her and yet there it was.
Oh, I am, right? I am.
Oh, that's very gratifying.
Can you manage it? Drag it off to the ditch.
Will my light help?
She turned on a big square flashlight and aimed it at the trees along the road.
See up there? A fresh break on that big elm.
Oh, how exciting.
Looking at this strange little woman, I wanted to get back in the car
and get away from her and from the wind and fog, but I couldn't.
The tree branch was blocking the road.
How did she know about it?
She could be a local character making a fool out of me,
but why on this back road before dawn?
I got hold of one end of the limb and dragged it into the ditch.
Now, couldn't a thing like that wreck a car?
Oh, yes, yes, it could.
I'm so glad you came along. I couldn't have managed it alone.
No, I don't suppose you could.
Odd that you should come along.
I wondered who it would be.
Everything's planned for us, you know. There's no coincidence.
You're driving far.
I noticed all those groceries in the back seat of your car.
I could tell her I was going north, but my house was too near and she was old.
She couldn't have walked far.
She must live near my house.
I had to tell her the truth.
I'm just driving onto my house. It's near here.
Where?
Well, I've got a map in the glove compartment. I'm not sure just where.
It's your house and you don't know where it is.
It was left to me two years ago. It's been rented until recently.
This side of the village, there are only two houses, mine and that old place on the cliff.
Well, that must be my house.
Such a lonely place for a young man to want to live.
I knew it was vacant, though. I watched those renters move out last week.
And to tell you the truth, I wasn't sorry to see them go. They weren't very friendly folks.
Oh, that's too bad. Mrs. Poe, is it?
Poe, Poe. He or we? Who are you?
My name's Andrew Burt.
Oh.
Hmm? But was anything wrong, Mrs. Poe?
Oh, no. Just that I have feelings about people, Mr. Burt, and you...
Oh, I mustn't keep you any longer.
Your road is just around the bend and there's a footpath behind us. I go that way.
We're neighbors, you and I.
I watched Mrs. Poe start down the road, tying her heavy scarf around her head.
Then she was gone, swallowed up by the fog.
Around the next bend, I saw the turnoff to my house.
My driveway was a narrow, rutted road that wound up a sharp grade to a bluff above.
As I drove over the top of the hill, I felt the cold wind from the sea rush against the car.
It almost seemed to be pushing, trying to hold me back.
The fog was thicker here, and I couldn't see the road.
The fog was thicker here, and I couldn't see the house.
My house.
I had visited my great uncle here once many years ago, but no one knew about it now.
No one except the lawyer in Boston who had traced me. He had died a year ago.
Suddenly the fog thinned, and I saw my house.
It stood square and bleak on the rocky land, a hundred yards ahead.
A gray, lonely house, weather-beaten and neglected.
There were no trees, nothing to break the emptiness of the land.
I put my car in the garage and went into the house.
Inside it was plain, almost bare, but clean and weather-tight against the wind.
The wind. Did it ever stop?
The wind and the fog. I'd be glad when I was finished and could leave this place.
There was a note from the tenants telling me the telephone was connected and that my number was ring two.
They added the name of a man to call for ice and coal, but there was cordwood outside and I had food to last a week.
I wouldn't have to call anyone, and it was a cinch no one would call me.
I won't answer it. No one knows I'm here?
Mrs. Poe.
Hello?
Mr. Burt? Mr. Burt?
Yes.
Well, I'm home and so are you. That's nice. Are you comfortable?
Very. Thank you.
Well, if you're sure. Now, if anything goes wrong, if you need anyone, you just call.
I won't need anything, Mrs. Poe.
I hope so, Mr. Burt. But I have a feeling about that house.
Well, you're not alone, Mr. Burt.
You have a neighbor.
A neighbor? A meddling, eccentric old woman.
I had to be careful not give her anything to gossip about in the village.
Mrs. Poe could be a very dangerous nuisance.
Well, I won't let her be. I'm a thief, but if necessary, I'm capable of murder.
I'm not going to let anyone stop me now. This project's been too successful to be lost up by an old biddy with second sight.
I went back to the car and carried the cartons of food into the house.
Then I opened the trunk and took out the box.
It was quite ordinary looking, the kind of steel box you buy for storing important papers.
I locked the garage doors and went into the house, put the box on the kitchen table and opened it.
Diamonds.
They caught the light and reflected it a hundred times, shining and glinting in that cold empty room.
After two years of waiting and planning, I had them. I was rich and free.
Free of my dull, respectable job and my dull, respectable employer.
Quiet, cautious Mr. Radcliffe.
What would he do without me? What would he do without his diamonds?
All he could do was tell the police and insurance people about Joseph Dunlop, a man they would never find.
I even felt a little sorry for Mr. Radcliffe. He had trusted me so much.
And now, well, he had his insurance, he could buy more diamonds.
I spent some time getting the place settled. In case anyone should come to the house, it would look like I was planning to stay.
Once I went outside to look over my property.
The wind was getting stronger, blowing the fog into the dawn, and the smell of the ocean was clean and fresh.
I could see Mrs. Poe's house a few hundred yards away on lower ground.
She was standing on the porch of her house and she waved to me.
I didn't wave back.
I went inside and had some breakfast, then slept for a few hours.
Last I started to work. The unset stones I put in a soft leather bag in my pocket.
Then I started breaking up the set pieces.
I cut the links off the jewelry and gently pried the stones from their settings.
Then I hammered the metal out of shape.
I worked slowly, carefully, keeping the bits of gold and platinum in a neat pile on the table and laying the diamonds out in a row.
Oh, they were magnificent stones. I had chosen well.
It was beginning to get dark when I finished.
I looked at my watch almost five o'clock, but one more part of my plan was completed.
I gathered up the diamonds and put them in the leather bag with the uncut stones.
Then I scraped up the bits of metal and put them in the steel box with my jewelry tools.
Now I had to get rid of the box.
A woman, a crying old woman.
Hello.
Mr. Bird? Mr. Bird?
Yes.
This is your neighbor. This is Mrs. Poe.
Well, what is it, Mrs. Poe?
I'm coming over, Mr. Bird, for a little visit.
No. That is not now, Mrs. Poe. I was just going to rest for a while. I'm very tired.
Of course. You drove all last night, didn't you? You must have been in a hurry. Is everything all right?
Yes, yes. Everything is all right.
Evil comes to him who evil thinks. I always try to remember that. Goodbye, Mr. Bird.
In a moment we continue with...
Suspense.
And now...
We continue with...
A Good Neighbor starring Mr. Jeff Chandler.
A tale well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense.
That hateful, meddling Mrs. Poe.
No, no, I can't let her upset me. She doesn't know anything. She's harmless. I must go on with my plan.
I had to hide the steel box where it would never be found.
Someplace...
Sea.
I'll throw it into the sea. I put on my coat, picked up the box and went outside.
I looked over toward Mrs. Poe's house. Was she watching me staring out from the darkened windows?
If she wants to know, I'll tell her. I'll tell her I decided to go for a walk to make me sleep here.
I started across the barren, rutted yard. Then I turned off toward the protection of a shallow draw on the far side of the house.
I could follow the draw to the cliff hidden from Mrs. Poe.
It was hard walking across the fields. Wild grass clipped against my legs tangled my feet.
The cold wind rushed against me, making every step more and more difficult until at last I reached the edge of the cliff and looked down at the sea more than a hundred feet below.
No. No, it wouldn't work below my feet.
Below me were huge rocks, boulders piled high against the foot of the cliff and stretching out to sea.
I couldn't drop the box here. It would land on the rocks to be found and reported.
I had to hide it somewhere else.
But where? I had no tools to bury it. It wouldn't burn.
I hid it in the house Mrs. Poe or some other busybody might find it after I'd gone.
I turned and looked behind me.
I could see the top of my house in the distance and the smoke from Mrs. Poe's chimney.
Again I looked down at the rocks below me and then the earth under my foot gave way.
I slipped forward, struggling to throw myself back.
I fell, sliding toward the edge. I clutched, tore at the grass.
I grabbed a rock half buried in the ground and just hung there.
I was half over the edge of the cliff lying on my face clinging desperately to the rock.
Then I inched my way forward away from the edge, crawling carefully forward until I was back on firm ground.
I lay there shaking, my face buried in the grass.
Then slowly I got to my feet.
The box, I dropped it.
I got down to the ground.
I got down on my hands and knees and crawled toward the edge again.
Then I saw the box.
It was lying in the grass close to where I'd fallen.
I reached out and grabbed it, dragged it back to me.
I got to my feet and stumbled away toward my house.
As I made my way back along the draw I tried desperately to think of a place to hide the box.
Hide it where it could never be found.
I wanted nothing to connect this house with the man I had been in New York.
Then I saw the well.
It was off beyond the draw.
I pushed through the grass that was almost waist high, laid aside the steel box and dropped to my knees beside the well.
The top of it was almost even with the ground and covered with wide wooden boards.
The few stones that had once been around the top had fallen away.
I lifted one of the boards from the top and threw it aside.
Then another and another and finally the last flat heavy board was off.
The well was about five feet across the top lined with damp slippery stones.
I picked up a rock and held it over the top of the well and dropped it.
The well was old, abandoned, and the water at the bottom was deep.
A perfect place for a box.
For a moment I knelt there staring at the damp rocks wondering who had put them there, how long ago.
What did Mrs. Poe say?
Everything has been planned for us and the well was here for me to find.
I turned and reached for the box.
Huh?
Mrs. Poe?
Where? I can't see her.
I got to my feet and stumbled away from the well.
I couldn't let her find me here.
Hello, Mr. Bird.
I got to the draw and started running back to the house and suddenly I saw Mrs. Poe coming toward me.
Oh, Mr. Bird. Oh, I'm so bad.
Are you all right?
Yes, yes.
You seem quite out of breath and I can't hear you in this wind.
Mrs. Poe took off her scarf and we started back to the house.
I heard you calling. I thought something was wrong.
You shouldn't be out, Mr. Bird. It's almost dark.
I went for a walk to the cliff to make me sleepy.
Oh, Mr. Bird. Oh, I knew there was a danger.
I tried to telephone you and when you didn't answer I was worried.
That cliff, that cliff isn't safe.
I should have warned you. It's always falling away.
Mr. Bird, you're covered with dirt. You fell.
I fell, Mrs. Poe.
The air is full of danger. Full of implications.
If you'll excuse me, Mrs. Poe, I'm going inside.
Of course, of course. You're very sharp.
Good evening, Mrs. Poe.
May I please come in? Just for a moment. I must talk with you, Mr. Bird.
Mrs. Poe, I realize you feel alarmed.
No, something else. I just see a moment and it's so important.
I went across the porch and I heard a drawl before her.
She went into the hall. Suddenly she stopped and turned to me.
This house. Something. Something.
Mr. Bird, I want you to get out of this house.
Go to the village or come to my place. But leave here.
Forces are at work, Mr. Bird. It's not safe.
I understand your belief in premonitions, Mrs. Poe, but I don't agree with you.
You must and there's a storm coming. Leave before the storm, Mr. Bird.
Why do you want me out of this house, Mrs. Poe? What is it you want here?
Oh, if I could only see the danger. Oh, I've tried, but I can't see it.
Wrong, wrong. The vibrations are all wrong today.
Get out, Mr. Bird. You have no other chance.
I watched her from the window as she started towards her house,
leaning against the wind, tying that heavy woolen scarf tight under her chin.
Had she seen me at the well? Or had she seen me leave and then come over and searched my house?
Mrs. Poe was interfering with my plans.
Why? She couldn't know about the jewelry.
She knew about the tree limb and the road.
What was she after hounding me, watching every move I made?
Whatever her game is, she won't interfere with my plans.
I can put a stop to Mrs. Poe as soon as I've gone back to the well and disposed of the box.
Box? I'd left it behind at the well. What if she finds it?
No, no, not on a night like this. Her rude home is nowhere near the well.
And with a storm coming, she won't be out again in this weather.
I should go back now. Wind, wind.
It never stops. It's pitch dark outside.
I can wait until morning.
I fixed dinner and ate quickly.
After dinner, I lighted the living room fire and sat listening to the storm outside.
I touched the pocket of my jacket, felt the leather bag full of the diamonds I'd stolen.
I was warm and safe in my house.
The storm grew wilder and wilder.
The rain struck the house heavily, hammered against the windows and walls.
I built up the fire and sat close to it.
Somewhere a screen door slammed back and forth in the wind.
But I wouldn't leave the bright warm fire to fix it.
Oh, Mrs. Poe had... I won't answer.
Let her think the lines are down.
She asked the operator and the operator would know the lines are working.
Why won't she leave me alone?
Yes, Mrs. Poe.
Mr. Byrd, I'm almost there. Can I come home with you?
No.
I'll be quite all right. I have my flashlight.
What do you want, Mrs. Poe? What are you after, spying on me?
Your field. I saw your field.
It came to me at last. Something is wrong. Someone is lost in a field.
Stay away from here. Do you hear me?
I'm leaving at once. Don't worry. I have my flashlight.
Someone needs my help.
I'll stop her. She won't go into the field.
The box is there and I can't let her find it.
She must know. She must realize it's there.
She watched me this afternoon and this is her ghastly way of telling me she knows.
I'll stop her.
That heavy scarf she always wears, always knotted tightly under her chin.
They'll think when they find her that poor old Mrs. Poe had fallen in the dark
and her own scarf choked her to death.
Oh no, Mrs. Poe, you won't spoil my plans.
I went outside and started across the yard.
In the distance I could see the beam of Mrs. Poe's flashlight.
I was supposed to run it. But on the path I hadn't seen,
the path had cut me off from the place where I'd left the box.
I ran too. Stumbling and sliding, I ran to the draw and started along it toward the box.
The rain and wind were driving into my face, almost blinding me.
I had to find the box. I had to.
I didn't want to kill Mrs. Poe. If I could get there before she did.
I was almost there.
I could see the beam of Mrs. Poe's flashlight growing larger, coming at me.
I turned away from the light, dashed forward into the tall wild grass.
I remembered just where the box was hidden.
Off to the left of the boards I had lifted off the...
Ah! The well! I tripped! I fell! I'm falling into the well!
I had to touch at the wet stones. Last time I broke my fall.
I dared not move.
The thing is held desperately to the wet, slippery stones.
My legs were doubled behind me, pressed against the far side of the well
as though I were kneeling in midair.
Then I heard a splash.
I knew it was the bag of diamonds that had dropped from my jacket pocket.
It didn't matter now. All that mattered now was getting out of the well.
Surely Mrs. Poe would find me soon. Soon before my fingers lost their grip.
Where was she?
I moved my head carefully, slowly.
Looked over my shoulder at the top of the well.
It was about five feet above me.
Mrs. Poe will see me. She'll hear me if I yell.
Wait. Wait, wait until the flashlight shines up there.
Until she's close enough to hear.
There it is. I see her light. She's coming toward the well.
The light's going brighter. A few more feet.
Stop it. What is she waiting for?
Hurry! Hurry! I'm slipping!
The light's moving away!
I know. I know. She set the flashlight on the ground.
Yes. Yes. I see her shadow across the beam.
She's coming toward the edge now.
Mrs. Poe! Mrs. Poe!
My hands are slipping. I can't hold onto the rocks.
Mrs. Poe! Why doesn't she hear?
What? The light. There's something moving across the light.
There's something at the edge of the well.
A board! She's found the board!
She's covering the well! No! Mrs. Poe!
Why can't she hear me?
Scarf. That scarf around her head, around her ears shutting out the wind.
She can't hear. She'll never hear me.
And my hands. I'm slipping. Slipping.
Please. Please hear me!
Mrs. Poe! Mrs. Poe!
There. Oh, I just knew there was danger out here tonight.
That nice Mr. Bert.
He might have tripped over those boards and had a nasty fall.
Suspense.
In which Mr. Jeff Chandler starred in William M. Robeson's production of
Good Neighbor, a first radio play by David Reel.
Mr. Chandler was supported by Virginia Gregg as Mrs. Poe.
Listen. Listen again next week when we return with another tale
well calculated to keep you in...
Suspense.