Who's that little chatterbox, the one with pretty auburn locks? Whom do you see? It's little orphan Annie. She and Sandy make a pair, they never seem to have a care. Cute little she, this little orphan Annie. Bright eyes, cheeks of rosy glow, there's a store of healthiness handy. Mite's eyes always on the go, if you want to know. Mark says Sandy always wears a sunny smile, now wouldn't it be worth the while, if you could be like little orphan Annie. It's 5.45 now, orphan Annie time and Ovaltine time again. And these are certainly busy days for Annie in Simmons Corners now, aren't they? Yes sir, with poor Tony Rinelli in jail and so many mysterious things happening down at the new bridge, Annie and Joe certainly have their hands full. But you can bet they're having a mighty fine time through it all because they're bubbling over with so much pep and energy, they always get loads of fun out of everything they do. And that's usually the way it is with boys and girls who have plenty of Ovaltine pep, because by drinking two or three big cupfuls of Ovaltine every day, they get lots of important minerals and vitamins and things to help nature make them husky and strong and as full of fun and pep as orphan Annie herself. And so, if you've been missing out on your Ovaltine lately, you certainly want to ask your mother to get you another can at her dog or grocery store now. And it's especially important to do that right away because the quicker you get that can of Ovaltine, the quicker you can send in for that latest design orphan Annie hot Ovaltine mug I've been telling you about. And here's something important, if you haven't sent in yet, you'd better hurry because we'll be offering them over the radio for only a few more days. And so, if you haven't got one of these keen looking mugs now, don't miss this opportunity. But keep listening after tonight's adventure's over and I'll tell you exactly how to send in for yours right away. But now, let's see what Annie's doing about the missing Bill Corwin. You remember Mrs. Wigglesworth was so worried, she got the marshal out to her farm and then Walter Broom reported that the Wigglesworth's rowboat and fishing tackle were missing. Can you suppose that Bill went fishing on the river last night? Neither Annie and Joe or Mrs. Wigglesworth think so, but the marshal does. Listen to him now. Gone fishing, eh? So that's what you get me out here for, Mrs. Wigglesworth, on a wild goose chase. Or I guess a wild fish chase, eh? My goodness, I never knew Bill to do a thing like this before. You're sure about that boat, Walter? Sure, I'm sure, Mrs. Wigglesworth. It's gone from the dock, just like I said, and so is all of Mr. Wigglesworth's fishing tackle. Shush, you don't suppose he's really gone fishing, do you? Of course not, Joe. Beep, beep, and lizards, there couldn't anybody fish with what Bill Corwin had on his mind. What's that, Annie, his hat? You know, I really ought to be mad, Mrs. Wigglesworth, you getting me way out here and just to tell me Bill Corwin's gone fishing and is wearing his hat on his mind. But I ain't. It's a good joke. Just wait till the boys hear about it. Oh, you think you're smart, Elmer Slamp, don't you? Well, you're just so smart, I'm going to give you a piece of my mind. No, no, don't you do that. You might need it sometime, Mrs. Wigglesworth. Maybe to clean those fish Bill's going to bring home. Well, I got to be getting back to town. Listen, Mr. Marshall, there's more in this thing than meets the eye. I'm glad of that, Annie, or there ain't nothing meets my eye in it excepting it young Corwin's gone fishing. But he hasn't, Mr. Slamp, he couldn't have. I'm sorry, Annie, but all the evidence says that he has. The fishing tackle's gone, the boat's gone, and Corwin's gone. Till I see something different, I got to believe that evidence. Yeah? Well, listen, you believe some other evidence once. That day you arrested Tony Rinelli for the payroll robbery. Once? What do you mean once? I still believe it. And that evidence is going to hold up in court next week and send Rinelli to prison for a good many years. I've been Marshall long enough to know evidence when I see it, and this time I see it. Bill Corwin's gone fishing, and if he brings home a big mess of fish, Mrs. Wigglesworth, you might send a few of them over to me. And have Walter clean them for me first. Say, I got other things to do besides cleaning fish for you. Wait a minute, Mr. Marshall, wait a minute, I got something to tell you. Well, if it's any more of your fish stories, Annie, you better tell it to the Marines. The shioksy is gone. Doggone, if he thinks I'm going to clean any fish for him. The idea, he thinks he's too smart, Elmer Slimp does. Fishing indeed. Bill's never gone fishing since he come to board with us, and he certainly wouldn't start out in the middle of the night without even going to bed. He didn't go to bed at all, Mrs. Wigglesworth? Of course he didn't, Annie. His bed wasn't slept in. He didn't come home. Mr. Wigglesworth says I worry too much. Well, maybe I do, but ever since that boy come to stay with us, I haven't closed my eyes nights till he come in. No, sir, I've laid awake in bed listening for the door to open and close and for Bill to come upstairs. Never having any children of my own. Well, I felt sort of like a mother to him, and all this until last night. He's come in early. Even when he had a date in town to go to the movies with Eleanor Bartlett, he was always back before midnight. I can't understand it. To think Bill would go off like this without saying a word to me who was so good to him. There, Mrs. Wigglesworth, don't you be feeling too bad. Something's happened to Bill so he couldn't come home. The land sakes, but what, Annie? I've got an idea, at least a part of an idea. So you go inside and rest awhile, Mrs. Wigglesworth, and we'll see what we can do about it. All right, Annie. I do feel kind of low, not sleeping last night and worrying so much. You go right in and lie down awhile. Just you leave this to us, Mrs. Wigglesworth. You let me know as soon as you find out anything, won't you? Sure, you bet we will. Y'all, girl, I never seen Mrs. Wigglesworth feel so bad before. Shucks, neither did I. She acts just like Bill was her own son. Couldn't feel no worse, I guess, if he was. Like she says, I guess never having had any children of her own made her love Bill an awful lot. Yeah, but you said you had an idea, Annie. What is it? Well, it's only part of an idea, Joe. Shucks, a part of an idea is a lot better than none at all. I haven't got any. Doggone, I never seem to get any ideas. It's like this. If Bill's disappeared, Joe, you and I know why. Sure we do. It's because of the cement and the bridge and that man who warned him to get out of town. What is all this? I've got one time to tell you now, Walter. It's something Joe and I found out from Bill. I was going to tell the marshal just as he was driving away, but... Shucks, he said to tell it to the Marines. Well, I'm kind of glad he didn't listen, Joe. I don't suppose it would make any difference to him anyhow. And it may be awful useful to Tony in his trial. Huh? What's it got to do with Tony? Lawyer Jones may be able to hook it up with Tony's case and help him, don't you see? And coming as a surprise in court, it may do a lot of good with the jury. Boy, oh boy, I never thought of that. Was that why you stopped me when I started to tell the marshal, Annie? Yeah. I didn't see that he had a note if he was going to look for Bill anyhow. But when he got that fishing stuff in his head, I was going to tell him as a last resort to get him to do something. But instead, he drove away. Now, it's up to us to do it. Do what? Find Bill. Will you help us, Walter? Huh? Oh, sure I will. I ain't got much to do today, and anyhow, looking for Bill will be easier than starting a plow. He was too wet to plow anyhow, like I told Moe. Let's get started, then. Where are we going to start? Down at the river, down where the Wigglesworth's boat's missing. Come on. But shucks, Annie, why start there? We all know and we've all been saying that Bill didn't go fishing. I know that, but where else is there to start? All we know, Joe, is that Bill left the silo's house last night, intending to come home. He didn't come. Least-wise, he didn't go in the Wigglesworth's house. Sure, but he might have disappeared anywhere along the road here, Annie. And my aunt might have got him. Doggone, I wish I knew what you two was talking about. It's like this, Walter. Bill was threatened. He was told to leave town. And he was warned if he didn't, something would happen to him. Well, I'm a sad Sammy. What do you know about that? Bill was threatened? Why didn't he call me? Anybody that threatened a friend of mine, I'd twist right around in my hand. You weren't there, Walter. Well, doggone, I wish I had have been there. Here we are at the river. There, see? There's the dock, Annie, just like I told you. And the rowboat's gone. Just the Wigglesworth's fishing tackle that he keeps on the side of the shed here, that's gone too. I know, because he always had a big bamboo pole there. Yeah, I can see it's gone, Walter. Shucks, you don't suppose Bill really did take the boat, do you, Annie? No, but I think it's got something to do with him disappearing like this. Why? I don't see where... Because that boat's never been missing before. It's been tied up there for years and nobody's ever taken it. Why should they take it now? Don't you see, Joe? The two of them missing together, Bill Corwin and the Wigglesworth's rowboat. They got some connection and we gotta find out what it is. I wish we knew how. There's only one way to find out. How? Well, there's only one place a boat's any good. Oh, sure, I can figure that out on the water. Yeah, a rowboat's no good on land. So wherever that boat is, it's gotta be someplace on the river. And we're gonna find it right now. Shucks, good for you, Annie. Let's go. We're gonna. We're gonna follow right along this river bank until we find that boat. Come on. I'm with you. Shhh, Annie. What's the matter, Joe? We've gotta search in the other direction, too. Suppose somebody took the boat up the river. That's right, Joe. Maybe you better search upstream and Walter and I'll go down the river. Sure. Keep good watch on both sides of the river, Joe. All right, Annie. So long. There goes Joe. Walter, you better watch the other side as we go down the river. You bet, Annie. And I'll keep watch on this bank. Sooner or later, we're bound to find it. Come on, Walter. Let's move right along. Yeah, there's some bushes ahead there. I'll push them down so you can get through. Here we are. Gosh, Annie. What, Walter? You don't suppose. Suppose what? That Bill got scared and left town, Annie. You and Joe said he was threatened. He might have got real scared and got in the boat and rode across to the other side of the river and run away. No, Bill's not that kind. He wouldn't run away from anything. I wouldn't run away from a swell job like he had on the bridge. But some awful funny things have happened to Bill around here. And he might have run away, Annie. No, Bill had a special reason for staying. He was going to report today to the authorities and Mr. Flint. You can just bet he didn't run away. You can just bet... Say, there's the boat. Where? Right ahead there. Right close to the bank. That's the Wigglesworth's boat. I see it. But leak the lizards. There's no one in it. Nope, not a soul. We've got to call Joe. He can't be very far yet. Joe! Oh, Joe! Oh, Joe! Come on back. We found the boat. Okay, I'm coming. Come on, Walter. Let's get closer to the boat. Yeah, I guess Bill did go fishing after all, Annie. There's the fish pole. I can see it hanging out over one side. Yeah, the line's in the water too. But that doesn't prove Bill went fishing. Looks awful lonesome, don't it, that empty boat? Did you find it, Annie? Where is it? Right there, close to the bank, Joe. It's drifting there. Just sort of moving lazy with the current. Gosh, and no sign of Bill. Suffering sunfish! What, Annie? Look, Joe. Look on the seat of the boat there. What do you see? Well, I see a little fish. It's a little fish. Look at the boat there. What do you see? Well, I see a hat. A hat, yeah. It's a gray hat with a black band. Its brim's sort of turned up on one side. Do you know whose hat that is? It's Bill Corwin's hat. Gosh, then he was in that boat. It looks like it. Annie, don't go. If he was in that boat and only his hat's there now, you don't suppose... You don't suppose he's been drowned? Well, so Bill Corwin was in that rowboat last night after all, because there's his hat lying there in that boat. Well, what could have happened to Bill? I have a hunch we're going to be finding out soon, so be sure and keep listening from now on. And now, if you're one of those boys and girls who haven't got one of the latest hot ovaltine mugs yet, listen carefully and I'll tell you exactly how to get one. Lots of orphan Annie's friends have these mugs, you know, and if you've been missing out on it all along, you certainly want to get one now because it's great to use for drinking your hot ovaltine. It's all made out of genuine beetle ware, and right on the front there's a beautifully colored picture of Annie and Sandy. And it's a good sized mug with a big comfortable handle on it, and so it makes the best kind of a mug to have for your very own personal use. You know, this mug is our regular 50 cent value, and it's not for sale in the stores anywhere. So if you're a friend of orphan Annie's and are drinking your ovaltine regularly every day, now you can get one for only 10 cents and coin and just one ovaltine aluminum seal. So if you haven't got your mug yet, or if you've lost yours or anything's happened to it, you certainly want to send it and get one right away. Now, you just print your name and address plainly on a piece of paper and say, send me the hot ovaltine mug, and then send your letter in together with all of the thin round aluminum seal from underneath the lid of a can of ovaltine and also 10 cents and coin. Mail the whole thing in to little orphan Annie, Chicago, Illinois. Or if you live in Canada, mail it to Ovaltine Peterborough, Ontario. That's all there is to it. But before you mail your letter, be sure you put in the ovaltine seal and also 10 cents and coin and say you want a hot mug. And then Annie will send you your new hot ovaltine mug just as fast as she can. And don't forget, be right here at Orphan Annie time tomorrow because I have a feeling we're going to see some strange new developments in the mysterious disappearance of Bill Corwin. We'll be hearing more about that tomorrow at this same time. But until then, goodbye.
