Latest / Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas / Frank Race: The Adventure of the Gold Worshipper (EP0897)

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Frank Race: The Adventure of the Gold Worshipper (EP0897) · Great Detectives of Old Time Radio Volume 2|Mystery Audio Dramas

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Welcome to the Great Detectives of Old Time Radio from Boise, Idaho. This
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is your host, Adam Graham. If you have a comment, email it
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to me Box thirteen at Great Detectives not Net, follow us on Twitter and
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Radio Detectives, and become one of our friends on Facebook, Facebook, dot
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com Slash Radio Detectives. Today's episode is brought to you by the support of
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our listeners, and even though our listeners support campaign ended last week, we'll
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be thanking a lot of folks who participated and donated this week. I'm recording
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this particular episode on Saturday, March ninth, and we have one full week
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left in the campaign at the time I'm recording this, and the last week
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tends to be the most active. So thanks to everyone who gave, and
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I especially want to thank David and John and Tracy for their support and we'll
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be sending her along the appropriate thank you gifts. Now it's time for today's
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episode of the Adventures of Frank Race. The Adventure of the Gold Worshiper The
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Adventures of Frank Race starring Paul Dubove with Tony Barrett as Mark Dunoman. The
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war changed many things. The base of the earth and the people on it.
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Before the war, Frank Race worked as an attorney, but he traded
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his law books for the cloak and dagger of the oss. And when it
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was over, his former life was over too. Adventure had become his business,
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the adventures of Frank Race. And now we joined Frank Race for the
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adventure of the gold worshiper. The Western and Orient Insurance Company has been in
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existence nearly a hundred years. Formed in San Francisco to ensure gold shipments,
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it has since underwritten everything from wind jammers to coming out parties. It writes
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unusual policies and deals with unusual people. So as I entered the home offices
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on Market Street, I was prepared for an unusual assignment, and I got
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it from the lips of Gaylord Stewart, president and general manager. Know anything
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about Macau Race snow Feather Bed one of the toughest spots in the Far East.
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Right now, if you have been in Macau, you've no doubt heard
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of Armando doo Trap. Yes, one of the biggest gold brokers in Asia.
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He asked me to send him the finest investigator I knew. Oh,
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I called you, Thanks for the confidence finds you can practically write your own
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ticket on the feed. But don't get the idea that I'm handling or something
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on a platter. Adutra's daughter has been abducted. She's his only child,
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and he'll do anything to get her back. But in that country, you
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have some ideas to what you're up against. Frankly, I think you'll be
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walking into one of the toughest assignments you've ever taken. On MacCall on the
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south coast of China, Blue Skies and the Benevolent Sun. The last time
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i'd been there, i'd know nothing but rain. This was quite a change,
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and I found it hard to retain the feeling that I'd come to participate
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in violence. Here was a colony about which the poets had sung, and
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I was ready to believe the lyrics. Then less than an hour after Mark
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Donovan and I had checked in at the Bella Vista Hotel, there came a
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knocking at our door. Visitors already, I'll get it, Mark, I'm
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alright, Mark, Sure I've opened doors like that before. Yeah, she
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twisted just in time, and that one a coulte with your pot of point,
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it would go on the expensive count. Look what's a pitch in this
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We only been in time a couple of hours. It could have been adorted
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our salesman who didn't care for my expression. No, No, wait a
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minute, for real, nobody knows is here Mark. When you're move into
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a thing like this, you're usually pretty well tagged, and by all the
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wrong people. I went out into a city that had altered its mood once
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again. It had become the place I'd known before, a harbor of danger,
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of Chinese junks and the gold trade. And I was there for a
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date with the highest priest of that trade, Armando Dutra. Seeing him for
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the first time made me think of chill champagne. Strange sort of man insisted
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on showing me through his gold processing plants before we talked about anything else.
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We buy gold from the rest of the world days the prince of thirty five
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dollars an ounce. Then we sell it for fifty dollars to the frightened men
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of China, who seemed to think that gold is their only security. It
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comes to us in the shape of these heavy bars. We then reduce it
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to these thin sticks you see here. There is an additional profit in that
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our buyers do not require a richer gold day. As we import. Our
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business is legal profit. Naturally, there are thousands of the unscrupulous who tried
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to prey upon those of us received its benefits. Now some of them have
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found a way to take my daughter. You heard nothing about her. I
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received the demand for money five thousand American dollars. I paid it, but
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my daughter has not been returned. Where was the money delivered to a dock
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side tavern kept by a Scotsman who once served with the British Army. Was
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the tavern watched? I was instructed to hide the money in one of the
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rooms of the place. I was warned against any attempt at spying, but
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discreetly from a distance, I had the building watched. Any results. We
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noticed a man who dropped in at the tavern several times. We noticed him
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because he was well dressed, because he carried one arm in his sleep.
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Naturally, I could not afford to have him picked up. Can I see
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a photograph of your daughter? Unfortunately no, she has not had her photograph
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taken for several years. I forbid it because I was afraid of just what
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has happened abduction. She has dark hair, blue eyes, her mother was
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a Russian. She is quite beautiful. But I realized that this might describe
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a hundred other women in our area. I'm afraid, so I think it
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only fair to tell your race. You will not be working alone in this
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I have been able to call in Eric Decker, a European detective. Also
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Major Carstairs, Hong Kong Police. Carstairs is here now I shall have him
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come in due to rang a bell, a servant appeared for a few peers
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instructions, and a few minutes later I met Major Alan Carstairs. I've heard
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of your race, Lad, you're in on this affair. It looks a
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bit sticky. Ut has been telling about this fellow with the bandaged I and
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from what I can gather, you might be an Englishman, a Frenchman,
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or any Caucasian going to be like looking for the proverbial needle. Well,
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personally, I like to start in with that an Does it have a name.
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It's called a scab and one word of advice ories when you go there,
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don't go alone? A scarab and one look at it gave plenty of
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reasons for what Carstairs had said. It wasn't hard to spot the proprietor.
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He stood behind the bar beneath a blown up picture of himself and killed the
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uniform. Only come what a layout I would feel safe for in a couple.
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If we start anything here, let's do it back to back, well
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around and see what you can find out. I'll talk to the owner.
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Do you have lad scotch and soda? A yank? That means I better
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make it a double? No? A double? Yes? Yeah? Yet
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a stranger around here. Yes, I'm called Frank Race. I'm Daglish,
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which is too much for emotion. He's people so so they call your Scottie.
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Hey, that's a good likeness of you up there, the arg Island
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Sutherland Highlanders. Yeah you knew where captain. I know where you were too,
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dun kirk Elolamayn Normandy, I have waited a minute. I'll have a
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drink with you and years his own host. Hey, it's good to me
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to lod like you that goes double scutty. And may I say you have
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a sharp eye for strangers in this business. You need it? And possibly
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you remember a man you had him here a few days ago, a man
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with his arm and a slave here. It's possible that I do remember such
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a man but intending new hut. He had feelings, having a quick at
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for his changer, and been willing to guship about him. Are two different
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things. So they are scutty, so they are I understand, good here
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cling this down your hatch. And he's owned the host too. He was
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friendly about it, and there's nothing to do but answer his grin with a
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shrug. But if one man won't talk, there are always others who will.
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As I finished the second drink, I felt a pull at my sleeve,
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the act of a little man standing next to me, an emaciated little
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man with a face like a dose of quinine. I am saying, if
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you would know about this person your seek We waited to my nod, then
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led me to a table at the far end of the room. This man
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with the broken arm. It is important that you'll find him, shall we
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say? Quite important? Important enough to be worth they humble at the American
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Ballace. Provided I see my man, you would perhaps be willing to tear
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the bills intool and give me half on account that's agreeable? Here all right,
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now, where do I find him? In a little yellow house at
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the foot of Ryle Street. Come, I will show you he started to
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get up at a hand on his shoulder, Chain and down again. There
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were two of them standing over, and Chang had taken out the look of
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a hand had just been thrown into a poultry scale. I didn't think you
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get away with this? Did just story? Get get away with what?
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You don't know what happens. The guys are squail at you. He don't
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mean it's simple, pair, I just mean it. Chain twisted a look
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of horror on his face as he stared at the night. The knife that
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stuck from his chest. He toppled against me, saving my life because the
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other plug had lunged with a second blade. Get this other day roll the
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blade that drove another gash of the ching's dying body. I twisted under a
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windy mease they would clutched a pair of legs and ye ain't And I was
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in the little of the feating mass slash of Chinese Europeans with everybody's I twisted
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it and punched my weight on the door. I got to win him ten
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feet. But when I shot an arm another and right, well, I
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gotta right hit him here in the bootle could not wait, but he gives
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shot Jetty Hey Scotty shut me with Rice. Wait a minute, I'll take
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this one. This one is on me. Get head of the pair.
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I'll be back with your scully. I'll be back. It wasn't hard to
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find the little yellow house at the foot of Royal Street, one of those
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high stooped semi basement affairs, look more like something you'd find in New England
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than in an asiatic seaport. Mark rang an old fashioned poolbell several times with
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no result, so we did a little breaking and entering. Had to look
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around. It was neat well furnished, with evidence that a woman had been
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living there. We gave it up of a time being and went back to
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the Bella Vista Hotel. Mark went up to the room and I headed for
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the bar. It was a long bar, but no bartender in sight.
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I was just about to call it off when a provocative voice brushed against my
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ear. I understand that you were looking for a man who had it broken
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arm. She smelled like a garden in the evening, looked like your favorite
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dream, and presented a gaze that said make a pass at me, and
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you draw nothing but a right cross. But for such a blonde, I
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take that kind of a punch anytime. So I reached to the glass she
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was holding. You may not like that the gibson. I like it because,
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believe me, I need it. Why do you want to see the
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man with his arm in a sling? I write for the newspapers. He's
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news. Why is he news? Seems to be wrapped up in a grand
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scale kidnapping. I could use a scoop on it. How could one be
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sure that you are a newspaper man? Look, baby, even from one
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eye, you're a thoroughly beautiful wench with the doggiest legs I've seen since an
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aerialist I glimpsed in Paris last month. But if I remember correctly, I
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did not seek you out. Quite true, it was I who made you,
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cruch. And let's dispense with the police state attitude. You want something
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of me? What is it? If I took you to that man for
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this school, would you be willing to help him? In what way?
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He's been hurt? He needs help? But help, that is, shall
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we say of the proper kind? Yes, all right, let's go in
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the cab. She identified herself as afton Gage from New Orleans. It sounded
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sincere. I couldn't feel too sure it wasn't genuine. She wouldn't say anything
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else about herself, and we finally arrived at the little yellow house on Royal
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Street. I told the Cabby awake, and we went up to the door.
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Pretty dark. You sure we'll find him here? It's the very old
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house. I'll have to light the incandescent manton. Yeah, you know even
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in this lightler beautiful? When now dummy, stairs to the basement, Baby,
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it's stocked down there? Would you like me to eat the way?
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Race? Touchhay? We go below? Race? Wait? What is it?
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I thought? I look the ceiling, don't see you don't see how
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you can either or not? Something's gone around my neck from a song?
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A song we twisted by her hands. I was being grubbed. I tried
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to kick back when the shins were too high. I was going a list.
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With the last effort, I threw myself forward. Well, return of
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the adventures or Frank Race in just about one minute? Now back to the
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adventures are Frank right? I came out of it, conscious of nothing but
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darkness, and had showed her that had gone on striking was picketing the rest
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of me painfully. I fumbled for a match, found one, and managed
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to locate a gas jet. As I littered, I heard the girls stir.
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She lay half on her side, with her blondehead resting on some sort
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of carton. I got down and I needed beside her and had a good
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look. Her face hadn't been hurt. Her head seemed to be all right.
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Even in the gaslight. She looked gorgeous. It was a female who
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would try to murder me, and in the manner no one likes to be
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murdered. With her face that close to me, I couldn't hold out.
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I bent over and pressed my lips to hers, softly at first, then
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hard. Coming out of it, Baby, what what happened to it?
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Nothing much? You try to throttle me. We pitched down the stairs.
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I must have been the buffer. You seem to be all the one piece.
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I think I'm all right. I want to try getting up great you
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you kissed me after what I did to you? Why you're very lovely?
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That all it takes be in love? Who knows? Next of all the
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man who doesn't. But I have no problem to myself. You're the question
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mark. After all, I was only trying to help you, So you
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make an effort to murder me trying to help me. I've been trying to
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find you to return you to your father. I don't know what you mean.
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Let's drop the act. Baby, hair of yours, it's lovely,
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but the tint is natural. I look just now. The roots are quite
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dark, all right. So I am Stephanie Doutre. But I want to
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be let alone, which means there's a man in the picture. Yeah,
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there is a man. I'm in love with him. But my father such
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dreams are impossible. So the two of you pull this abduction hoax. Have
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you married him yet? Not yet? There have been difficulty. How old
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are you, Stephanie? It's always a ut question, right in her own
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mind. Or woman is always too young, too old, never of an
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aged revere. My guests would be about nineteen. You are entitled to your
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judgment. I'm going to have to take you home, baby, I suppose
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so. But first, what the that still worked? I drew her slowly
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to her feet, slipped the arm around her, and kissed her again.
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For a second I got no reaction at all, and suddenly a pulse seemed
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to throb through her body. For just an instant, I felt sure she
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returned the caress. Hey, what what are you trying to prove? Just
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a little terrapy honey. If it works, she might be a lot heavier.
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Am I long? Did your intention to return me to my father?
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Let's get a daughter in the cab. We rolled through narrow streets, labored
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up winding ramps, the girl at my side, sitting in bleak silence.
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I didn't feel too talking to myself. I'd broken the case, but for
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some reason, there wasn't much gayety in the thought. Yes, I do
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not. I think you are going to take me to my father after all?
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No and one, Oh, I see we're being tailed, and it
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looks as though this is about as far as we go. They pop in
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that car like slices from a toastmaster, four of them, including the two
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night wheelers of the Scotsman's Tammar over Dow. When I plug that gun,
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you will leave him alone, I insist on it, okay, But if
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it makes one phony more right, So long, Stephanie. Lots of luck.
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Thank you? Right. Oh. I don't know whether you noticed it
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or not, chum, but I'm still here. I noticed it. The
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girl didn't. Now she's gone. I'm gonna take care of you right right
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between it, between the eyes, never right off a man with a hand
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in his pocket. Chum, Then you've had that coming for a long time,
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haven't you. It evens up for what you did to that Chinese in
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the lobby of the Bella Vista Hotel. I ran into Major Allen Carstairs and
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he shook my hand. Wail Race. I trust you've had more luck on
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his case than I've encountered. The luck I've had has been mostly bad.
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I found the girl all right, then I lost her again. There's nothing
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simple about the affair. She doesn't want to go back to her father.
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Oh one of those things. Yeah, well that means we've really got our
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work cut out for I've been looking all Oh, Mark, sounds as though
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you've been hurrying in a kidden. I got a Lord of Infull for your
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brother. Something up? Oh, I'm sorry, Mark, This is Major
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Carstairs, Mark Donovan, Hi, Major Race. It's all right, Mark.
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Then Adri is in on this with us. Oh, what's the information,
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well, Bread, something kind of aculous. Yes, I am kicking
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around a waterfront wondering what you might be doing. See when I happened to
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take a gander at a boat. We're not a big boat, one of
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them jobs that they call a launch lunch. And there's three things about it.
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They're making it. There's now foist. It was lying very low in
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the waters. Second, the engine seemed to be conked out with three guys
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working on it, and brother, when I say working, I mean trying
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to tell the story. And Floyd, one of these jokers, is wearing
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his arm in a sling. Oh, this kind of makes me curious.
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And they all had their heads buried in the hatch up falicy, So I
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sneak in for a look at what might be in the cabinety I will.
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I'll give you three guesses. One is enough gold it kills you? Yeah,
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yeah, yeah, God, big gold bus maybe a couple of feet
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long. All mess up? He used a way it come right over here.
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It wouldn't hurt to take a look at that carstairs. I believe we're
22:59
safe enough and having a look. There's probably no significance to the gold.
23:02
It's perfectly legal to buy and take it out of Macau. It's only when
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it reaches other ports that it becomes contraband. But the chap with his arm
23:10
in the sling we are suddenly interested in him? Will you lead us to
23:14
a Donovan? Hold it? This year is we're going? I'm still working
23:26
an imagine that kind of started. We still have time to stop him.
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Come on, hey, they push him away from hold it? We want
23:33
to come up on. They don't look us. Race right back, pulled
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back right, Look, John, we ain't got a chance against that chatter
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boy. He's quite right. We've got a clear out of here. Well
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what do you think? I think I'm lick mark. I'm not even sure
23:56
I know what it's all about. I just think a beautiful girl is making
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some kind of a miss steak. I'm not even sure about that. I
24:02
mean, adult dame. What kindomists there? She's in love with some fellows.
24:07
Seems to be a first class heel. I say that. I don't
24:11
even know his identity, the way he's involving her in all this grief.
24:15
I don't know. As I said before, I'm up a tree. Well
24:19
we must admit it's exciting anyway. Kidnappens, guys blazing away with Tommy guns,
24:25
long thick bars of gold, that gold that coold brother? Would I
24:29
like to gloma to one of those items? Nothing seems related here. We're
24:33
getting a fuss over some gold bars on a motor boat and it does Wait
24:37
a minute, mark gold bars? Yeah, yeah, so what nothing really,
24:41
nothing but a hunch, but I might as well play it. Come
24:44
on, I tell you, racist cruel, beat the animals. This animal
24:53
made me run me around tom at three hours. We've been hiding in this
24:57
doorway for another coup. Followers up getting home, something will break market Scott
25:02
too. Yeah, and it's probably gonna be someone's coming. Take good gently,
25:08
baby, we've met before, Yes, race, knock on the doormark,
25:15
Yes, come in, honey, Hello, Carstairs or whatever your name
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is. What are you doing here? Cast? What does he mean?
25:26
Johnny? Are you? I don't know, honey. Let's step inside,
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baby, close the doormark. What did you call him, Stephanie, Johnny,
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Johnny? What his name is? Ands? Johnny Andres? He's been
25:41
calling himself Major Carstairs of the Hong Kong Police Force. He's been working for
25:45
your father, trying to solve the mystery of your abduction. Tell me something,
25:48
baby, what do you know about a motor boat called the Lotus?
25:51
Does it belong to Johnny? Yes, but you don't have to tell him
25:55
anymore, Stephanie, No, she doesn't need to. It's been a bad
25:59
deal. Baby. This man's been taking you for what we call a ride.
26:02
He got information from your didn't he About the workings of your father's goal
26:06
processing plan, about the people who worked there. He needed that information so
26:08
he could steal about a million dollars in gold. You were only part of
26:12
the loud, Stephanie. Believe me, he's weaving quite a fairy tale.
26:15
Honey. Come on, let's get out of here. No, Johnny,
26:18
I don't think I want to go. Oh just like that, A few
26:22
words from this guy and you throw everything out the window. I think I
26:26
changed my mind before this, Johnny. It's just that now I'm sure of
26:30
it. Oh that's a shame, honey, because I can't leave you here,
26:33
Kenn. I hold it, race. He's gun spitz led faster than
26:37
you can think. And sorry, I have to do thisbite a race.
26:42
What dipped you all by words that my pipot accent was very good? It
26:48
wasn't the accent, Johnny, it was that goal. If you'd really been
26:51
major castas of the Hong Kong Police Force, you'd have known that gold never
26:55
leaves McCall and long Chunky Bars comes in that way, but they reduce it
26:59
to small sticks for exports. Well, a man can't know everything, Kenny,
27:04
but then it doesn't always pay. Thank you, Race, You're gonna
27:08
cash in your chips because you knew too much. Thanks Mark, I'd almost
27:15
forgotten you were here. Don't never do it. At least this fellow made
27:22
dead mistaken, Look what happened to him. The Adventures of Frank Race,
27:36
starring Paul Dubow with Tony Barrett as Mark Donovan comes to you from Hollywood.
27:41
Others heard in tonight's cast were Michael Ann Barrett, Jack Crucien Clark, Gordon
27:45
Gunner Peterson, and Wilms Herbert. This series is written and directed by Buckley
27:49
Angel and Joel Murcott. The music is composed and played by Ivan Ditmars.
27:55
Be sure to be with us again this time next week for another dramatic chapter
27:59
in The Adventures Frank Races r Gilmore speaking. This is a Bruce Als production.
28:36
Well, that was a fascinating episode, I have to admit, perhaps
28:41
one of the most odd moments in radio. When he bends down and kisses
28:48
the woman who just tried to kill him, but he's also the woman he
28:53
was looking for, So I guess that's all good. Once again, Mark,
28:59
none of them with the safe I mean, listening to these episodes week
29:03
after week, the power of Mark Donovan just becomes ever more clear. But
29:10
we turned to listener comments and feedback and receive this from Holly, who says
29:15
you're a wonderful example of all that social media can accomplish. I so enjoyed
29:19
exploring this new world for me a classic radio detective with you as a knowledgeable
29:25
and trustworthy guy she goes on and rits. The first time I listened to
29:29
Jack Webb's Pat Novak for Higher I was blown away by the writing, sometimes
29:33
a little over the top, but such rich and evocative language and without the
29:37
need of a warning for explicit language, yet conveying very explicit situations. And
29:44
then I listened to Pete Kelly's Blues Can Life Get any Better? More plot
29:48
and characters, great use of language, and incredible music all into one experience.
29:52
Thanks for the ride, well, thanks so much, Holly, And
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those are definitely two very original series. I really appreciate those programs that go
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kind of beyond what we would normally expect from a detective drama to give us
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something really extra special. There are certain shows. I think A Life in
30:17
Your Hand is one. Those are two others that really go beyond just the
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typical formula, and Richard Diamond to an extent. Well, thanks so much
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that we'll do it for today. We'll be back tomorrow with Kate the Cases
30:32
of mister Race, and be sure and join us next Monday for another episode
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of Frank Race from Boise, Idaho. This is your host, Adam Grahamson and off