Personal notice stangers my stock and trade. If the job's too tough for you to handle, you got a job for me, George Valentine. Write full details. Standard Oil Company of California on behalf of independent Chevron gas stations and standard stations throughout the west invite you to let George do it. The White Elephant, another adventure of George Valentine. My dear Mr. Valentine, I don't write letters very often these days. Having friends with whom one exchanges the best of one's mind and heart has rather gone out of fashion. To exchange anything less is death already. You mustn't misunderstand, Mr. Valentine. My brother and I have enjoyed our life of seclusion. After all, we've lived this way almost entirely ever since our dear parents died in a train accident and left us alone at the age of ten. I only speak a little sadly because as every person must, I've been going through the unpleasant task of making up a will and I think you should be informed of the fact that I'm including you in my will. Yes, Mr. Valentine, I'm leaving you to some of one thousand dollars. You will receive this legacy when you have caught my murderer. When? Miss Alice Mae Edmund, number one, Bartholomew Square. Oh, that's the commercial district. And on the letterhead there's an engraving of a white elephant. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Excuse me. No, no, I was just going to ring the bell. Is this number one by a thousand? Go away, no peddlers or agents allowed, no soliciting. Oh, but we're not peddlers. I'm saving you trouble at all. You'll only have an iron deer thrown at you. That isn't a house, it's a booby hat. A forty-two room booby hat. Okay, okay, thanks very much. Goodbye. I'll go on in, but me I'll still go out. Keeper of the white elephant barker for the trained seals. I'm warning you, someday I'm going to kill that woman in there. Where? What do you suppose is the matter with him? Hey, look, Angel, three stories high. Gardens. Hey, you can't even hear the street in here. Right in the middle of the city. Yeah, a whole block of a house. Old fish and geese on the willy. It's white, George. Painted white. Guess this is it, Booksy. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. The white elephant. No, Mr. Valentine, should only be drunk at a certain temperature of warmth. My brother Stephen taught me that. We much prefer it to tea in the afternoons, but naturally, if you would like a feminine wafer or... No, we don't care for anything. Thanks, Miss Edmund. It's tea time. You'll have something. You'll join me. Jensen? All right, Miss. Look, Miss Edmund, we... In the first place, this house. And I do wish you wouldn't stare about so. The animal casters are quite clean, young lady, and I crocheted them myself. I didn't mean... It has 42 rooms. Yes, 42. So I'll grant you I've closed off a number of them. But even with the ones that aren't, it's large, it's quite large, and I like it that way. It's old-fashioned, it's gracious, and it absolutely is not a white elephant. Well, an anachronism, maybe, in the middle of the town like this. Because the white elephant, I am afraid, is me. Ah. Yes, on my stationary, the little white figure. It's the only way I have to get back at my family, to show them I know what they think of me. Your family? Oh, I know I have none. Just my brother and me, all alone in the world. He's such a wonderful person. There aren't any gentlemen like him anymore. But we're wealthy. Don't you see? Anybody who is wealthy has a family, Mr. Valentine. That man you bumped into on the way in here, that Clarence Morley. Only a second cousin, but he calls me Aunt Alice. He kisses my hand. He simpers all over himself trying to get into this house. And is for a cousin, you. All right, Mrs. Edmonds, so much for your family. What I want to know about is your murder. Last week, someone tampered with the wiring, apparently, so that I was very nearly electrocuted. But didn't you call the police? Mr. Valentine, it's probably incomprehensible to a person as young as you. But I didn't do anything. I wasn't even sure. And I, I don't particularly care if I die. No, no, no, please, please, why should I? I've outlived my time. In many ways, I seem so indestructible. It would be rather a relief to be murdered. Here's the tea stuff, Miss. I told you I'm not much in the kitchen. That's the only service I could. Oh, right, Jensen, all right. Now get out of here. Get back to your cottage. Go on. Do you know something? The family I spoke of, they made me take him. But I generally won't let him in the house. For 20 years, Miss Brooks, I've done every bit of housework in this place myself. Yes, yes, all by myself. Miss Edmonds, a second ago, you were saying... Excuse me. Stop that, will you? For heaven's sake, stop that thing and go on and get out of my house. I'll turn it down. Take it easy, Alice. Yeah, that's good enough, isn't it? Oh, volume controlled. Unusual in the gramophone. Wouldn't bring more than $50, though, I don't believe. Curio, maybe. Mr. Valentine, this is Yule. I think I spoke of him. Another one of my cousins. A dear, dear relative. Pleasure, pleasure. Mother's side to us, third cousin. And get your hand off that sheriff. For this chair? Oh, no, no, no, dear. Late 19th century imitation. It is not. He's so kind, Mr. Valentine. He buys and sells for me. Could be mistaken. There's a real one in the library. An antique dealer, wouldn't you know from the beard? I don't want to talk business today. I don't want to. I only hung around from the meeting. Look at some things. Get out, will you? Please, get out, please. All right, all right. But you don't look well, Alice. You ought to let us come visit more often. Uh, what was the meeting he spoke of, Miss Edmund? I said, what was the... He was playing Marley Branigan again. It's a song a girl used to sing. A redheaded Irish servant girl. She went back to the old country 20 years ago. Oh. She was like a breath of sunshine. Miss Edmund, what are you trying to say? My brother and I have always been alone here since we were ten. Mr. Valentine, I am peculiar, you know. The meeting? Oh, it was the relatives, that's all. I try to act like a hereditary, as supposed to. But I'm terrified of them. What's the matter with you, Miss Edmund? Oh, I'm all right. They want me to get out of the house. I don't really have any money. It's all in the house. It's valuable property. But it's mine, and I want to stay here. I don't know why I'm rambling, so I... They want to make me get out. But how can they? Miss Edmund, this brother you talk about, this Stephen, can't he help? Stephen's so kind. He won't let anything... He won't let anything... Miss Edmund. Miss Edmund! Hey, this glass, Brooksie, the milk. It's the milk she drank right in front of us. Somebody was trying to murder her, Brooksie. It was poisoned. Now take it easy, Mr. Valentine. I said we can't tell yet. She's all right. She's alive. And from my experience with her in the past, she has a constant... It was Strickland, wasn't it, Doctor? And from the smell of that milk there... Undoubtedly an overdose. But I've treated her with it in the past. You've what? It's a legitimate remedy for certain conditions, you know. It was kept in the cupboard down by the butler's penthouse. Okay, I'll take a look. Have you called the police? No, and I don't intend to. What? Not yet. Please, listen to me. I've known and admired Miss Edmund for a very long time. That bravado of hers is all front, you understand. She's a very shy person. What's that got to do with it? If she should live, Miss Brooks, she'd probably call off the investigation herself, rather than risk invasion of her privacy in the house here. No. No, it has to be done from the inside. Are you, Mr. Valentine? And suppose she dies, Doctor? Well, you've met the people who would benefit, Molly and Cousin Yule. If one of them should conceivably be a murderer, it'd have only accomplished what they're all trying to do anyway, get her out of this house. So you don't think they'd testify against each other, do you? But why do they want... I get it, I get it. This property's worth a fortune, isn't it? Precisely. The white elephant. Every day that she lives, she has to borrow against taxes. So they have to get her out. Or in a few years, there won't be any fortune left for them to inherit. Yeah, here's the bottle, all right, Angel. Stricken. Somebody certainly had a choice. Sleeping powder's all of the medicines right here by the... Yeah, wait a minute, look at this. The ring from the counter, see? From the moisture, from the glass. Jensen says he poured the milk and then left it for her. So anybody who happened to come in right then, golden opportunity. Just spike a drink a little... What is all this you're talking about, young man? I thought you left the house, went out. Oh, I saw the doctor's car, I came back. What's the matter with her? Well, he'd better tell you. But you can tell me something. Where's Miss Edmund's brother? She confused me on that. Steven? Her brother Steven? That brother of hers has been dead for 20 years. Dead for a lifetime. Here. Doctor, is she... No, no, she's alive. She's going to be all right. But perhaps you had better call the police. What do you mean, doctor? I thought it would be so simple to track down just one person. That's why she's alive. A barbiturate acts against Stricken, you see. A barb... What do you mean? You saw that stuff there in the cabinet. Sleeping powders. I'm trying to tell you why she's all right. It was in the milk, too. Agent and reagent. Poison and antidote. Yes, yes, believe it or not, the poor little white elephant is still with us because two people tried to poison her. Two people tried to murder her. We'll return to tonight's adventure of George Valentine in just a moment. One of these days, science may come up with a method for keeping your car's windshield constantly clean. That would be just fine because driving with a clouded windshield can be a hazard as well as a discomfort. Meantime, depend on the men at standard stations and independent Chevron gas stations to keep your windshield sparkling clean. With them, this service is practically second nature. It's one of the reasons you'll notice more and more motorists pulling in at these stations every day of the week. And the reason this service is done so speedily is that they have the best equipment, including willing elbow grease. So next time your windshield has more than its share of road dust, drive in and drive out with the better vision and greater safety that a clean windshield gives you. Get this car saver service at independent Chevron gas stations and standard stations. At all these service stations, you can count on top service and quality products like RPM motor oil. And here's what they say and mean, we take better care of your car. Music And now back to tonight's adventure of George Valentine. Poison and antidote and a little old lady who didn't particularly care whether she was killed or not, whose only desire was to be left alone in her strange, old fashioned house. At first you wondered what reason there was for her fears, but now you know the only reason she's alive is because not one but two people tried to poison her. Two negatives make a positive, and the poisons were such that they cancelled each other out. Well, if your name is George Valentine, all you know is that now you have to work twice as fast. Miss Edmund, did you see anybody touch that warm milk of yours today? Oh, I forget, I don't know. It's so much more real twenty years ago. Like that brother you keep talking about, I suppose? We took care of each other. We weren't like the rest of the world, the scramble, the suffering that people call excitement. I talked about Stephen as though he were alive, didn't I? Miss Edmund, perhaps we'd better go to... And about her too, the Irish servant girl. Because she was the last happy thing in this house. Please listen to me. I still don't see what you're driving at. She would have fitted in so beautifully. She was young too, only nineteen, so much younger, but it didn't make any difference. So full of life. That cousin of yours knows, he knew her. Miss Edmund. Now let it go on, Brooks. But Stephen was in love. I hated her afterwards, but now I don't. Wherever she is, she's probably never eaten again. There was a boy in the old country. She showed me the cable gram. I helped put her aboard ship that same afternoon. I begged her to stay, but she left to be married. Not thinking, just happy. My brother came here, home, and went out. And I never saw him again. And that's when they all started coming. That's when the white elephant was born. The rich, sick relative alone in my house. It was Molly who called the next morning. They said my brother had gone out. And shot him. Shot him so far. Because the girl left him. And you haven't cared about anything since then. Uh-huh, beginning to catch on now. They've handled all your affairs since then, right? Yes. And if you've talked about Stephen as though he were alive, it's only to keep yourself alive. And now they want you out of the house because it won't be long until the taxes have eaten up its value. There's a paper, a mural. This. George, it's a court thing. It says I'm... I'm...inculpted. Well, you heard her. You've seen how she acts. That wasn't what I asked you, Mr. Morley. But what's the central thing? You don't just stand by and watch anybody throw money away when they're the first mortgage already in you. Who'd benefit, Mr. Morley, if she had died an hour ago? Well, I would, for one. I don't mind telling you. The police would want to hear that, too. Now, see here. They're already running tests on the poison in the glass. Well, I didn't touch it. I was on the telephone at the time business downtown, five or ten minutes. My office will verify that. The telephone in the hall, Mr. Morley? Yes, crazy old fangled contraption. It's the only one in this room. The door to the butler's pantry was open, George. And if you were standing in there at the telephone... Yeah, that's right, Brooksy. Glass would have been right in plain sight, wouldn't it? Well, I didn't notice. I didn't even see it. Why did that stupid Jensen leave it there in the first place? Stupid Jensen, my friend, is a servant that you hired for her. Well, who else would stay here except a thick-skinned old coot like him? Mr. Valentine, she's been getting worse, fussy, picky in this preoccupation with her brother. We know all about that, Mr. Morley. We also know what her own doctor thinks about her. He's a fool, too. Old admirer of Allison's. Valentine, what would you think if you came in and found her prowling among her brother's old things? Of course it was a tragedy for her, but now, a few years later, to find that she's reopened that room of his, nosing around and mooning over the old things. Is that what happened to you? Yes, just yesterday. She was trying to pretend that she hadn't seen. Just cleaning, she said. Get out, she said. Leave me alone. Do you think that the normal person acts like that? I don't know, I don't know, Mr. Morley. Why don't you tell me how she acted today at that family meeting? Yeah. Well, you saw my reaction. She said she wouldn't ever leave this house. Not ever. And no court order could make her. And for us to stop bothering her, or she'd make us stop. The stubbornness. Just insane, just insane. Insane, my friend? No, I finally realized little Miss Edmund has been pointing in the right direction after all. That brother Stephen, dead 20 years. Yeah, that's how we solve it. George, this was the maid's room. Yeah, sure, Bruxy. And it's been closed all this time, too, hasn't it? Stephen was in love with her. Look at that. The old style maid's sitting room for a little redheaded Irish girl. Not very big, is it? Wait a minute, I'll get the lights. Here we are. Look at the dust in the cobwebs. George, look. On the mirror. Yeah, she collected things, all right. True to type. Paper flowers, dance program, carnival doll. And the snapshot. Don't you recognize it? What do you mean? Without that stomach and antique dealer's mustache. It's cousin of yours. Oh, yeah. A day at the beach. We knew she was the sunshine girl. Probably played the field. See, isn't there anything from Stephen? George, you see this. The tea was just perfect, and I reward you with a rose. Won't you join my sister and me for some phonograph records in the parlor this evening? What in the notes? Notes from Stephen. George, she saved them. There's nothing to give us even a hint about his death. Isn't there? Wait a minute, Bruxy. Listen to this one. Today I told Alice May we should leave this house. It is gloomy. If you would only say yes to me, there is nowhere on earth we couldn't go and with blessing. You have shown us what sunshine can be. Well, if she'd accepted him. But I certainly can't blame her. I'd have run to a fuddy-duddy like that. No, no, no. That's not what I meant, Bruxy. Stephen offered to leave this house. Don't you see what... Mr. Valentine! Miss Edmund! Yeah, but where is she? George, she must be up at the end of the stairs there. From her room. I can't see anything. Mr. Valentine! Where are you? Mr. Valentine! There had already been two attempts on this lady's life. And now a third. It was a police matter in the first place, Valentine. Take it easy, Riley. Please take it easy. Hello, doctor. Oh, it's about time you got here. I came as quickly as I could. I didn't even know where the maid's quarters were. Here, I'll take her. Oh, I was... I'm all right. Now, what happened, Miss Edmund? You ran out to the head of the stairs. You called Valentine. Sure, sure, you're all right. Just lie still. Look, Valentine, I said I'm taking over. Earlier today, any one of these guys could have got at that milk. What did you say, Riley? I said any one of them. The milk sat there for a good half hour. Any one of them wouldn't have used two poisons, Lieutenant. Huh? That counteracted each other. Well, no, I grant you, but... Wait a minute, wait a minute. Morley and Yule, why don't you go in the other room? You too, doctor. Miss Brooks can take care of her all right. That's your idea, Valentine. Sergeant, keep your eye out. Mr. Valentine, I'm trying to remember. I was frightened. I was at the head of the stairs. No, no, wait, please, Miss Edmund. Riley, what did you find out? The records on Stephen's death, huh? Well, they committed suicide. Shot himself. Went out to a public place, got drunk, just like ordinary people. Yeah. He had been jilted by a redheaded girl half his age who went away and left him. But he couldn't just cry in his beer. He pulled out a gun, shot himself in front of witnesses. They don't have people like him anymore. Yes, yes, I told you what it was, Mr. Valentine. It didn't die. We thought your brother's death might have had something to do with all this today. Well, I guess we were wrong. Now it's simpler than you think, Angel. Miss Edmund, you waited to drink the milk until I got here. I what? George. Brooksie, you just said no one person would give two poisons that worked against each other, made someone just a little sick. Well, Miss Edmund is one person who would. Yeah? Where is all this? What in the name of it? And she's taken the medicines long enough. She would have known how they'd act. The doctor could have told her. So Miss Edmund, you wanted me out here to see it all, didn't you? Because that family out there was going to get you out of this house and you'd sworn you'd stop them. Well, that was your idea of how to do it, wasn't it? Mr. Valentine, they don't understand. You knew that if you could cast the suspicion of murder at them, no court would ever believe them when they tried to say you were peculiar, incompetent to handle your own affairs. So you would have won. You would have stayed on in your house. There was no reason for me to leave. But that is what... Look, Miss Edmund, you're quite fussy. You're meticulous. That glass of milk of yours sat handy on the counter after Jensen prepared it for half an hour. Now, the first words you said to me today were, milk should always be drunk at a certain temperature of warmth. Warm milk. Well, in half an hour it would have been cold. So why didn't you say something? Why did you drink it without noticing? Unless you were the one who doctored it yourself. What if I did? What if I did? It's my house. Why shouldn't I fight for it? It's mine, not theirs. I can go bankrupt if I want to. So... So that's all it was, huh? Tempest in a teapot. I'm sorry, you poor thing. If it meant so much to you not to leave this place, you would... Yeah, yeah, Riley. We thought the key to the whole thing was her brother. And I wish I didn't have to say that maybe it is. What are you talking about, George? Brooksine, we'd left the door to this room open. She could see us from the head of the stairs. And I suppose she crawled out in terror and fainted and fell. Valentine, I don't care. She wasn't pushed, Riley. There's terror at seeing us in this room. It's Valentine. Yes, Miss Edmund? It's an old-fashioned made sitting room, Riley. Now, it's only a guess. It's all it can be. But I can think of a way this would all tie together. All for her brother. What's through there, Edmund? Bedroom? There is the closed off place. And why Miss Edmund wouldn't leave this house? Why she couldn't? The memories that held her. Memories of herself. Of things she'd done 20 years ago. Okay, let's see what's behind this curtain. Riley! Good Lord. Red... red hair. White apron. Oh, yeah. 20 years. It's the Irish servant girl. Oh, George. I know, Brooksy, I know. But when people become hermits like that, there's generally a reason. She was the only one who ever told me that. She'd put the girl on the boat. Including the guy she did it for, I suppose. Only when she told him it didn't do any good. He killed himself. She did it and still lost her brother. She had to stay on and on in this house. This prison of her own making. Miss Alice Mae Edmund. All kinds of loves against Brooksy. All kinds of people. The white elephant. There's an understatement. If your car hates to get going in the morning, if it drags the way it would on a sand bed and labors up hills, it may be the fault of gummy gasoline. Most raw gasolines contain impurities that form power-robbing gum. The only way to get rid of the impurities is to refine them out. And Chevron Supreme is the gasoline that's super refined to prevent engine-sticking gum. Further, super refined Chevron Supreme gives you all the qualities in careful balance that your car needs for every driving condition throughout the West. This proper balancing means that the car is well-balanced. This proper balancing means faster starting, faster pick-up, smoother power on hills. And it means, too, that you can depend on Chevron Supreme for plus mileage and for the new car feeling. Ask for it where your car's windshield gets a real cleaning at standard stations and independent Chevron gas stations where they say and mean, we take better care of your car. Tonight's adventure of George Valentine has been brought to you by Standard Oil Company of California on behalf of independent Chevron gas stations and standard stations throughout the West. Robert Bailey is starred as George, with Virginia Gregg as Brooksy. Let George Do It is written by David Victor and Jackson Gillis and directed by Don Clark. Wally Mayer is Lieutenant Riley, Larene Tuttle was heard as Alice, Ted Osborne as Morley, Larry Dobkin as Yule, and Herb Butterfield as the Doctor. The music is composed and presented by Eddie Dunstetter. Your announcer, John Heaston. Listen again next week, same time, same station, to Let George Do It. This is the Mutual Don Lee Broadcasting System. Music
