From Hollywood, Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys, brought to you by Quaker Oats, the Giant of the Cereals. The Giant of the Cereals is Quaker Oats. The Giant of the Cereals is Quaker Oats. Delicious, nutritious, makes you feel ambitious. The Giant of the Cereals is Quaker Oats. Out of the West and into your home, riding the range of adventure and mystery, blazing a trail of Western song and story. Day 11's Gabby Hayes and America's King of the Cowboys, Roy Rogers. Today's adventure, the case of the mysterious puppet. And here is Roy Rogers. This adventure I'm going to tell you about began on a Sunday morning in our little church at Paradise Valley. It was just about like any other Sunday, you know, quiet and peaceful. And as usual, before Reverend Smith began his sermon, Dale and I were singing a hymn. I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses. And the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known. I have taken my sermon today from the passage and it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer. Dear friends, as I sat in my study the other day reading over these words, composing my thoughts, oh dear me. Oh, Roy. Yes, Reverend. Someone seems to be ringing the church bell. There must be some mistake. Would you mind? Sure, Reverend. There must be some mistake. I'll get to the bell tower pronto. I reckon I'd better mosey along with you. All right, Gabby. Brand meat with a cold iron, Roy. Who'd be doing a local thing like this? Ringing the church bell, yes, is the Reverend Smith. Start this sermon. Don't know, Gabby, but it sure isn't my idea of a joke. Well, mind another. We'll corral this hombre, whoever he is, and turn him over to sheriff masters. Hanged if this don't mind me of the time that... Hold on. Roy, stand in there by the door that leads to the bell tower. Why, why, it's Luke Peabody that runs the general store. He looks sick. He... Come on. Luke. Luke Peabody. What? Don't go in there. The thing I saw, I... He's fainted. Roy, what in the name of Rowells and Jingle-Bobs is in that bell tower? Only one way to find out, Gabby. Let's get in there. Now, what in the... Appeal me for a bronc. It ain't possible. Do you see what I see or do I need specs? I'll be dogged going, Gabby. The thing that's ringing that bell, hanging under the rope and yanking it up and down, it's... Why, why, it's a doll. Not exactly a doll, Gabby. It's a puppet. And so on a Sunday morning, this strange mystery began for Roy and our friends when they found a puppet, a marionette made of wood and cloth, ringing the bell in the tower of the little church. Stranger things than that would happen, though, as we'll learn in a few moments. Now, listen. The giant of the cereals is Quaker Oats. The giant of the cereals is Quaker Oats. Delicious, nutritious, makes you feel ambitious. The giant of the cereals is Quaker Oats. Yes, Quaker Oats is a giant in nutrition. That's right. To protect the health and growth of youngsters, don't skimp on breakfast. See to it they get delicious whole grain Quaker Oats every morning. For doctors say the more often youngsters eat a good oatmeal breakfast, the better they grow. Yes, nourishing whole grain oatmeal gives you boys and girls more growth and endurance than any other whole grain cereal. As for you, Mom and Dad, a nourishing Quaker Oats breakfast helps avoid mid-morning fatigue, because here again, good whole grain oatmeal gives you more energy and endurance than any of the others. Yes, truly, Quaker Oats is a giant in nutrition. Quaker Oats is a giant in economy. Yes, Quaker Oats still costs less than a penny a serving. Quaker Oats breakfast save you up to $4 a week for a family of four as against scarce expensive foods. Saves precious minutes in the morning, too, because it cooks so fast. Quaker Oats is a giant in flavor. Yes, Quaker Oats is so delicious, so good to eat, people eat more of it than any other cereal in the world. Delicious, nutritious, makes you feel ambitious. The giant of the cereals is Quaker Oats. Well, there they were in the bell tower, Roy and Gabby, staring at just about the weirdest sight they had ever set eyes on. A puppet working the rope of the church bell. Roy, this is the only thing I ever did see. That thing's alive. No, it isn't, Gabby. Look here, somebody's attached the hands of this puppet to the bell rope. When the bell started ringing, well, the puppet went up and down with the rope. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. But if the puppet ain't ringing the bell, who is? The maverick up there in the bell tower above us. All right, you, come on down. He ain't a-coming. Hang to this, don't mind me, or the time will... Wait a minute, Gabby. Come down, I said, or I'll come up there and get you. Roy, Roy! In here, Dale. Roy, what happened to Luke Peabody out there and... Oh, Roy, what's this? It's a puppet, one of them harriettes that you work with strings. You mean marionette? Well, I know that it was some gal's name. That ombre's still playing possum up there in the tower, Gabby. I'm going up after it. You better let me, you know, you ain't carrying no six guns. Neither are you. Gabby, who does Roy think's up there? No, Dale, there must be somebody up there. First, it looked to us like it was this here, Henriette. Marionette, Gabby. Yeah, well, it looked to us like the thing was pulling on the rope, you see. But of course, that ain't possible. Some coyote tied it to the bell rope, then got up above there, started pushing the bell to make it ring, and here comes Roy now. Roy? I don't stab you this thing at all. There's nobody up there. But there's just gotta be somebody up there. Well, there isn't. But, Roy, a puppet couldn't ring a church bell all by itself. Sure as shootin' couldn't, but if the puppet want ringin' it, how is it rung? That, Gabby, is the mystery we've got to solve. The following day, down at one of the corrals of Roy's ranch, the Double R Bar, Roy had just finished peeling a bronc, and he and Dale and Gabby were sitting on the top rail of the corral fence when... What's that? Roy, have you figured an answer yet to that low-code business in the bell tower yesterday? Gabby, I can't seem to ride a straight trail on that. Somebody played a trick on us, of course, but don't ask me how I did it. No hidden wires attached to the bell, nothing to show how it was rung. But a bell certainly can't ring by itself. Well, it sure begins to look like this one did. Roy, you say you questioned Luke Peabody real close? Yeah, I figured maybe he would be behind it, but, well, you know what a practical joker Luke is. Well, we didn't find him right outside the bell tower when he was... Well, looks like we've got visitors. Yeah, Lindsay Lockridge and Phineas Salt. Wonder what them two want with us. Maybe Lockridge wants to sell Roy some of that stock they're interested in. What is it again, Roy? Oh, some new chemical and dye company. Roy, Dale, Gabby, Roy, look at this thing. Look at it and then I employ you. Explain it to me. There isn't any explaining it. Please, Phineas. Roy. Well, it's a puppet just like the one we found in church yesterday. Then that story is true. I didn't attend Sunday services. I had one of my distress and sick headaches, you know. That Marionette you found ringing the church bell, did it talk to you? If it had, I wouldn't be here now. They'd be scraping me off in the walls of a padded cell. Well, this one spoke to me. It spoke to you? He imagined it, of course. I did not imagine it. I'm not an imaginative man. I'm not a well man either. Well, now, now, just try and steady down, Lindsay. Steady down and tell us what happened. Yeah, don't get yourself in an uproar. Well, ill, as I felt this morning, you know, sick headache, I reached my office on time and I tell you I nearly collapsed. For there, sitting in my chair, behind my desk was this, this thing. After a moment I realized there was nothing more than a Marionette and an articulated figure that... What? An articulated figure, Gabby. That's what a Marionette is. An articulated figure motivated by a vertical controller, I believe it's called. All right, all right. I know what you was talking about. And at that very moment I realized that. It talked to me. Uh, what did it say? It said, tell Roy Rogers to leave $5,000 in the hollow stump at Three Pines by midnight tonight or suffer the consequences. Now, don't look at me that way. I'm telling you, it did. You know, this here business is getting waster and waster. We better do something about it. Hanged if it don't mind me the time that I was forced to sew up my watch with a needle and thread. You what, Gabby? Sewed up my watch with a needle and thread. You see, I was guiding the party hunters, eight of them there was, on a trip up in the mountains. I warned them we might have trouble with the Redskins, but they wanted to go hunting in the worst way. The second day in camp we were set on by a band of Indians and they took us prisoner. My goodness. Well, come the time when we was to be burnt to stake, I knowed something had to be did and did pronto or the nine of us was dead ducks. Right then and there I took out my watch, took a needle and thread. I always carry one for emergency, you know. And I began taking stitches in the works of that watch. And that's what saved us all. But Gabby, how could sewing up your watch save you? Why, ain't you never heard the proverb, a stitch in time saves nine? No, Gabby, no. It's the gospel, so help me Bob. It seems just like an ordinary puppet, Lindsay. I sure don't see how it could have spoken to you. Roy, you must believe me, it did. Maybe you're sicker than you think you are, Lindsay. Oh, I tell you, what's the sense of telling you anything? Roy, I've got to get back to my office. What are you going to do about this thing? Do? About the money, the $5,000. Look, Lindsay, I can't believe this thing talked to you. You must have imagined it. But anyhow, just forget the whole thing until you hear from me. Very well, Roy, very well. Now come along, Phineas. Yeah, go on home, Phineas. You allow maybe he's been taking too many of them medicines he's always dosing himself with? Dale, Gabby, there's something mighty peculiar about this. Man, me, I'd like to know how that bell could ring with now nobody up there to ring it. Well, I want to know more than that. I want to know what's behind all this. Who attached the puppet to the church bell yesterday and why? And as for this one, well, we can't believe it actually talked to Lindsay, but who propped it up in the chair in his office? There's something behind all this hocus pocus and I... Roy, well, warp my backbone and call me a bronc. Look what's heading this way. Oh, no, a horse with a puppet riding it. By Hoot and Harry, you're right. That is a puppet riding that horse. Did you hear that? Did you hear that? The thing talked. Roy, I feel faint. Steady, Dale. Steady? How can anybody be steady with that thing? Sitting there in the saddle staring at us. Worry, Roger. Worry, Roger. Well, answer the dreaded thing. Yes? Take warning. Leave $5,000 in the hollow stump at Three Pines by midnight tonight or suffer the consequences. Get up there. Come on. Roy, Roy, now we've got to believe it. We just hear the puppet speak ourselves. We heard it speak all right and I'm finding out how right now. Trigger, come here, boy. We've got to catch those two Trigger and it's up to you. Let's go. Come on, Trigger. Come on, boy. They've got a good start and that puppet's a lot lighter than I am. We've got to stop him, Trigger. We've got to stop him. That's it. You're gaining on him. You're gaining. They'll be close enough to rope in a minute. I've got the rope clawed now, Trigger. Ready to throw it just as soon as we get... Now! Got him. Got him, Trigger. Hold him now. Hold him while I get that puppet in the saddle. Hoo, hoo, hoo, boys. Steady down now. I just want to have a close look at that puppet on your back. Let's see now. Well, I'll be. So that's it. That's how this thing talked. Good work, Trigger. Good work, boy. I know Trigger can beat that critter. Well, I see you got the Henrietta. Oh, shucks. That Henrietta puppet. I got it all right. What's the answer to it, Roy? How did that thing talk? There's only one answer to that, Dale. And if I'm not mistaken... If you ain't mistaken what? Hold it, Gabby. Looks like we've got another visitor. It's Reverend Smith this time. Yeah, and he sure is racking into the double R bar. Reverend, Reverend, what in tarnation... Roy, Roy, I need your help. The strangest thing has happened. What is it, Reverend? The poor box. The poor box at the church. It's been robbed. Oh, who would do a terrible thing like that? I don't know, Dale. I discovered the robbery less than an hour ago. What's more, Roy, I found these inside the box. Strings. Marionette strings. Yes. Roy, what is the meaning of these puppets? I thought that affair of yesterday was someone's idea of a joke. Joke in very poor taste, but still a joke. But this robbing of the poor box... There's no joke. I agree with you, Reverend. It's a trick and a mighty serious one. Dale, take this puppet to my office, will you? All right. When I get back, I'll show you how it managed to talk. Meanwhile, Reverend, Gabby and I will go back with you. We'll pick up Sheriff Masters on the way. You're going to have some hombre arrested, Roy? No, Gabby, but Sheriff Masters may be able to find fingerprints on that poor box. Let's get going. Come on, Trigger. Get the trail, boy. About an hour later, in the study of the Reverend Warfield Smith. Oh, boys, would you mind very much if I went on writing my sermon for next Sunday... while you look for fingerprints on that poor box? Of course not, Reverend. Go right ahead. Oh, thank you. Oh, I think I'll light the fire in the fireplace. I feel a little chilly. Let me do it for you, Reverend. It'll ease my chilly today. It reminds me of the time I... Gabby. Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, there's your fire, Reverend. Once she gets going, she'll be real nice and warm. Oh, thank you, Gabby. I really don't know what I'd do without you and Roy sometimes. Well, I must get back to my sermon. What's it going to be about? Your sermon, I mean. Oh, the handwriting on the wall, Gabby. Handwriting on the wall? Oh, yeah, I remember now. That's about how a finger appeared in the air and began to write a message on the wall... of some king's palace or something. Uh, yes, Gabby, yes, that's right. Well, how you doing at the poor box, Sheriff? Appears to me like the thief wore gloves. There's an aria sign of a fingerprint on this box they tall. What do you make of these marionette strings, Roy? Well, I've been going over them carefully, Sheriff. They're made of shoemaker's thread, I'd say. Shoemaker's thread, it's been thoroughly whacked. Shoemaker's thread? Well, hog-time me with a pigging string. Uh, beg your pardon, Reverend. Oh, what is it, Gabby? Well, you reminded me of something, Roy. Oh, now, Gabby... No, no, no, I don't mean a tall yarn. I mean something that happened just the other day. I took a pair of boots to Tony Alturas, our shoemaker here in Paradise Valley... and he just happened to mention he was running kind of low on thread. Said he'd have to order some more from Luke Peabody. Well, what about it, Gabby? What, it's shucks, don't you see? Roy and me, we found Luke outside the belfry door yesterday... when somebody had tied that puppet to the bell rope. And these puppet strings, they're made of shoemaker's thread that comes from Peabody's general store. They ain't no double gate about this horse. Peabody's the ombre behind all this hocus pocus, and I'm gonna... Roy, Roy, what is it? What are you staring at? Look, look! What? Great Caesar's ghost, there on the fireplace wall above the Reverend Smith's head. Do you mean, what is it? Why, my soul and body... Writing, handwriting, beginning to appear on the wall, and there ain't nobody there writing it. Look at it, a message appearing on the wall, as if a ghost... Roy! Steady, all of you, it's a trick. It says, Roy Rogers be warned. Five thousand dollars and the holler stump by midnight or you will regret it. Roy, what does it mean? What does it mean? It means that... I'll take that. Hello? Roy, Roy! Yes, Dale? What is it? Roy and Heaven's name come quickly. Dale, what? Roy, here in your office, the puppet... the puppet's talking to me, threatening me. Dale, now steady down, listen to me. That's just a trick, it's a trick. Yes, I know, I know, but Luke Peabody... Yes, yes, what? Luke Peabody... Hello, Dale, Dale! What in tarnation? No time to lose, Gabby, something's happened to Dale. We're hitting the trail for the double R bar pronto. Dale! Dale! More likely in the office, Roy. Yep, in here, Gabby. What in the... Roy! There on the floor, Luke Peabody, and look, a puppet laying across his body. Luke, Luke, come on, snap out of it. Roy? Luke, what happened here? Where's Dale? Dale? Oh, Roy, Roy, you gotta save her. You gotta save her. Yes, but where is she? They... they took her. They got her, Roy, and then you... Who's got her? The puppets. The puppets, they came and... Roy, listen to me. No, you listen to me, Luke. On your feet, Luke. But, but, Roy... Start talking and talk fast. So he... he's the ombry behind all this, is he? Let me at him. I'll smoke him up with a six gun. Go, Gabby. I'll send him to heaven to hunt for a harp. I'll shoot him so full of holes he'll sink when he takes a bath. Oh, boys, no, no, no, please. Look, Luke, let's write a straight trail on this. Robbing the church poor box was bad enough, but now that something's happened to Dale, you'd better come clean with me pronto. All right, Roy, all right. Now, the puppet ringing the church bell... Don't waste time. I know all that. I know how the bell rang even though there was nobody there to ring it. I know how these puppets were made to talk, and I know how the handwriting appeared on the wall in Reverend Smith's study. You know all that? Yes, but I don't know where Dale is. And that's what you'd better tell me, Luke Peabody. That's what you'd better tell me right now. Do you know? Do you know how a bell could be made to ring with no one there to ring it? Do you know how a lifeless puppet can be made to speak? And what's the answer to the handwriting on the wall? We'll know the answers to all these questions in a very few minutes. But now, friends, Roy Rogers has something he'd like to tell you. Roy, thanks, Art. Today is a big moment in my life, believe me. Sucks my folks brought me up on Quaker Oats. Quaker Oats has been a pal of mine since I was knee-high to a duck. So I am mighty proud that we're teaming up together. I'm going to sort of be the Quaker Oats ambassador to your house. I'm not going to be backward about telling you to eat Quaker Oats, because I know it's mighty good eating and mighty good for you, too. So from now on, folks, when you think of Roy Rogers, don't go on to think of Quaker Oats. Thanks, Roy. And friends, remember the wonderful benefits to everyone in delicious whole grain Quaker Oats for breakfast. Yes, there's more energy and endurance for you grownups, more growth and health for you youngsters in good wholesome oatmeal than any other whole grain cereal. That's because Quaker Oats is so much richer in vital food elements like protein, vitamin B1, and iron. Remember to buy Quaker Oats, the giant of the cereals. Quaker and Mother Oats are the same. Delicious, nutritious, makes you feel ambitious. The giant of the cereals is Quaker Oats. Our scene changes now to the Sheriff's Office in Paradise Valley. Well, that about does it, Roy. You feeling all right now, Miss Evans? Yes, thank you, Sheriff. I don't savvy it. Don't savvy it at all. How'd you know, Roy? How did you know? Well, there was only one way that a bell would ring. It was a bell that would ring when you were a child. And that was the bell that rang when you were a child. And that was the bell that rang when you were a child. Well, there was only one way that a bell could ring, Gabby. Someone stationed in a window across the street from the church must have been firing at the bell with a rifle. Of course, a rifle with a silencer. Yes, but what about that puppet at the top? That was a wire recorder, Dale. There's a new wire recorder on the market now. It's so small they call it the watch case recorder. Well, there was a watch case recorder inside that puppet. And the handwriting that appeared on the fireplace wall in the Reverend Smith's study, that was invisible ink, was it? Invisible ink that started to appear when the heat of the fire brought it out. Exactly, Sheriff. And all the time I thought that Luke Peabody was the ornery culprit. It couldn't have been Luke. He was in church yesterday. So he couldn't have fired a rifle at the church bell from outside. As I fessed up to you, I suddenly realized that the material used to make the puppet we saw in church yesterday had come from my store. And I remembered who'd bought it. I scallyhooed it out to the ranch to tell Roy, but he followed me. He told me he'd kill me if I didn't give you that low-code story about puppets kidnapping Dale. I was scared. I was mighty scared. But, Roy, I still don't savvy how you know it was Lindsay Lockridge. The first clue, Gabby, was that Lockridge used the words articulated figure and vertical controller in describing a puppet. That made me realize he knew something about puppets. The second clue was the stocks that he's been trying to get me to buy for a long time. That made me figure he was kind of hard up for cash. Shucks, I knowed all them things, but I just never put them together. That's all. Well, Roy, Lockridge is locked up safe, and the folks of Paradise Valley are mighty beholden to you. You've done it again. Ain't nothing unusual about that, Sheriff. It was my partner who done that, my partner, Roy Rogers. And now Roy Rogers, Dale, and the gang sing Carry Me Back to the Lone Prairie. Oh, carry me back to the lone prairie Where the coyotes howl and the wind blows free And when I die, you can marry me Meet the western sky on the lone prairie Give me back my saddle, give me back my gun Give me back my bronco that I used to run Let me spread my blanket by a peaceful stream Hear the cowboys singing by the campfires gleam Oh, carry me back to the lone prairie Where the coyotes howl and the wind blows free And when I die, you can marry me Meet the western sky on the lone prairie Oh, carry me back to the lone prairie Where the coyotes howl and the wind blows free And when I die, you can marry me Meet the western sky on the lone prairie Meet the western sky on the lone prairie Well, folks, it's time to hit the trail. Before we go, though, I'd just like to say to all the boys and girls listening in that I'd take it kindly if they were mighty careful about accidents. You know, kids, on the double R bar, every cowboy is always on his guard against accidents. I want you to be like that, too. So you do that for me, will you? Fine. And in the meantime, don't forget... Smiles are made out of the sunshine And the frown from a rainy day You'll be more than repaid if you remember That a smile goes a long, long way Well, now, until next Sunday, don't forget, this is Roy Rogers saying for Dale Evans, Gabby Hayes, and myself, also Quaker Oats. Goodbye, good luck, and may the good Lord take a liking to you. Don't forget, smiles are made out of the sunshine And the smile goes a long, long way This has been a recorded audition created by Sherman & Marquette for its client, the Quaker Oats Company.
