The Adventures of Sam Spade: The Spanish Prisoner Caper 03/09/1951

Summary

Choice Classic Radio Detectives | Old Time Radio

Episode Summary: The Adventures of Sam Spade: The Spanish Prisoner Caper

Release Date: July 19, 2025

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Introduction

In this gripping episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade, listeners are plunged into the intricate world of detective work during the Golden Age of Radio. Hosted by Choice Classic Radio, this episode titled "The Spanish Prisoner Caper" showcases Sam Spade’s sharp investigative skills as he navigates through deception, danger, and deceit to solve a sophisticated con game.

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The Spanish Prisoner Scam Unveiled

The episode opens with Sam Spade at his detective agency, engaging in a lively exchange with his assistant, Effie. Their conversation is abruptly interrupted by a distressed woman named Marjorie Sage seeking help.

Notable Quote:

Sam Spade [03:25]: "Do please sit down, Mr. Sturge. May I fix you some tea?"

Marjorie explains that she was approached by a man claiming to represent his uncle, Don Luis Alvarado, who is supposedly imprisoned in Mexico City. According to Marjorie, this Don Luis is unable to secure his release without a financial bribe, promising a share of the family's hidden treasures in return.

Notable Quote:

Marjorie [02:31]: "Dear, dear Margaret, when they made you darling, they threw the mole away."

Sam, initially skeptical, decides to take on the case for $840, unaware that this is a classic "Spanish Prisoner" scam—a confidence game dating back to P.T. Barnum’s era.

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Investigation Deepens

Effie, ever the perceptive assistant, recognizes the signs of the scam and begins to dig deeper into the legitimacy of Marjorie’s claims. She advises caution, hinting at the possibility of deceit.

Notable Quote:

Effie [06:49]: "The truth of the matter, Marjorie, was that you'd fallen for the Spanish prisoner swindle."

Sam, however, becomes entangled in the investigation, driven by the urgency of recovering Marjorie’s lost funds. He delves into the background of Pedro Rodriguez, the man who initiated the scam, discovering his association with Lolita Montoya and the enigmatic Simplex Printing Company.

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Confrontations and Revelations

As Sam and Effie trace Pedro Rodriguez to the Simplex Printing Company, they uncover a web of counterfeit operations involving Mexican pesos. Their investigation leads them to confront Lolita Montoya and the lighthouse keeper, revealing Pedro’s true intentions and his involvement in the fraud.

During a tense encounter at the Lighthouse Bar, Effie bravely attempts to extract information from Lolita but is met with resistance and physical assault, underscoring the perilous nature of their quest.

Notable Quote:

Effie [16:22]: "Stupidity? He ought to know better than to try to get by with a Spanish prisoner."

Sam realizes the depth of the scam and the sophisticated measures Pedro has employed to deceive victims like Marjorie. The duo collaborates with local authorities, including Homicide Lieutenant Dundee, to dismantle the counterfeit operation.

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Climactic Resolution

The investigation culminates in a dramatic revelation: Pedro Rodriguez is not only orchestrating the scam but is also involved in forging high-value documents from the Spanish Mint. The discovery of Raymond Montoya, a former chief engraver who vanished under mysterious circumstances, ties the counterfeit scheme to a larger criminal network.

With Effie’s resourcefulness and Sam’s detective acumen, they successfully expose the fraudulent activities of Simplex Printing Company. Marjorie, however, faces the harsh reality of her被骗情, reflecting the emotional toll of such confidence games.

Notable Quote:

Effie [24:30]: "Call Lt. Dundee at the lighthouse on the Embarcadero. Also call the Treasury Department."

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Conclusion

"The Spanish Prisoner Caper" masterfully illustrates the quintessential elements of a Sam Spade mystery—cunning schemes, resourceful protagonists, and a relentless pursuit of truth. While Sam and Effie triumph in unveiling the scam, the episode serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of trust and the sophistication of deceptive practices.

Notable Quote:

Sam Spade [27:14]: "It must be awful to be gullible like that. Dear, sweet little soul."

The episode concludes with Sam reflecting on the lessons learned from the case, reinforcing his commitment to protecting the innocent from similar deceptions. As always, listeners are left on the edge of their seats, eagerly anticipating Sam Spade’s next adventure.

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Production Credits

• Produced, Edited, and Directed by: William Spears
• Sam Spade: Stephen Dunn
• Effie: Loreen Tuttle
• Additional Cast: Verna Felton, Lou Merrill, Shirley Mitchell, Ed Max, Jerry Houser, Nestor Piva, and Tony Barrett
• Script: Harold Swanton
• Musical Scoring: Lud Gluskin, conducted by Robert Armbruster

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This episode not only entertains but also provides insightful commentary on human psychology and the art of deception, hallmark traits that define the enduring legacy of Sam Spade in the annals of detective fiction.

Transcript

[Sam Spade]

Your message amplified.

[Effie]

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[Sam Spade]

Podbean.

[Effie]

Podbean. Podbean.

[Sam Spade]

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[Effie]

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[Sam Spade]

Launch your podcast on podbean today.

[Effie]

My school uses Podbean. My church too.

[Sam Spade]

I love it.

[Effie]

I really do. Welcome to Choice Classic Radio, where we bring to you the greatest old time radio shows like us on Facebook. Subscribe to us on YouTube and thank you for [e-mail] the National Broadcasting Company presents the Adventures of Sam Spade Detective.

[Sam Spade]

Sam's Pay Detective Agency.

[Effie]

Me sweetheart.

[Sam Spade]

Oh, Sam. Miss Sam.

[Effie]

Now, F. All is forgiven, like I told you.

[Sam Spade]

How can you forgive me, Sam? I almost killed you.

[Effie]

Well, why kick yourself? F. You would have done the private detective profession a great favor.

[Sam Spade]

Oh, don't say that.

[Effie]

By removing from its role the only operative in San Francisco stupid enough to shake an apple tree for an entire evening trying to pick up an apron full of bananas.

[Sam Spade]

But they all can't come out right in the end.

[Effie]

F. But you haven't heard the postscript, angel. Postscript Script indeed. Batten down the hatches and warn all within earshot that they're about to catch stupid Sam the Incomparable in a new act. For during the next 29 minutes and 30 seconds, I shall down the mantle of Don Quixote, shoulder my battered lance and tilt at windmills in an object lesson to the gullible entitled the Spanish Prisoner Caper. Transcribed for NBC. William Spear, Radio's outstanding producer director of mystery and CR Drama, brings you the greatest private detective of them all in the Adventures of Sam Spade. Oh, now, there, there, angel. Don't cry, little girl. Don't cry.

[Sam Spade]

I'm so stupid. You might have been.

[Effie]

We'll have no more of it here. Not a word.

[Sam Spade]

Not a word.

[Effie]

Book. Pencil. They fill it into Ms. Marjorie Loveland Brock Haven Apartments. From Samuel Spade. Still license number 137596. Down. Fade down Subject. The Spanish prisoner caper. Dear, dear Margaret, when they made you darling, they threw the mole away. In this day of the emancipated self sufficient, 100% confident female. It came as a fresh breeze and a boost to my masculine ego to run across a lady, white haired and fragile, with all who needed protection. After meeting you, I knew what the fellow had in mind when he wrote heaven will protect the working girl. As a matter of fact, you could have been the very girl since you and the song were about the same vintage.

[Sam Spade]

Do please sit down, Mr. Sturge. May I fix you some tea?

[Effie]

No, thanks.

[Sam Spade]

I planned to come to your office, but I. I decided I just couldn't risk going out at this time.

[Effie]

Oh, why, that?

[Sam Spade]

Well, he might come, you see, and I'd never forgive myself if I was out.

[Effie]

Who's that?

[Sam Spade]

Senor Palmer. Oh, he's more than a week overdue now, and I'm on pins and needles. I gave him our address here at the Brockhaven. But there's the Brocklebank and the Brockhurst and the Brockmorton and. And it would be so easy for him to become confused being a stranger in town.

[Effie]

Well, I'm a native. I'm confused myself.

[Sam Spade]

Well, I thought perhaps you could locate him. He should be back from Mexico by now with Don Luis. Dear me, so many things could happen to them, walking the streets with all that money.

[Effie]

What money?

[Sam Spade]

The gold and the precious gems.

[Effie]

How about starting all over again?

[Sam Spade]

Why? Haven't I Made myself clear, Mrs. Sage?

[Effie]

Well, I have the end fairly straight. Yes, but if you give me the beginning, we'll have everything. Oh.

[Sam Spade]

Oh, well. Well, I suppose the beginning was three weeks ago.

[Effie]

Where?

[Sam Spade]

In the lobby of the Grand Hotel for Women.

[Effie]

I see.

[Sam Spade]

I was staying there temporarily while I was waiting for this apartment, you see.

[Effie]

So.

[Sam Spade]

So the day I got word I could move here, I packed up and had them take my things out to the taxi. Then I went to the desk and got my money from the boy.

[Effie]

Oh, how much?

[Sam Spade]

$840.

[Effie]

Cash?

[Sam Spade]

Yes, in bills. My annuity money had just come to me. Well, I just put the bills in my purse and was starting out the door when it happened. This voice came over my shoulder. A soft Latin voice saying, senorita, I come to you on a matter of terrible agency.

[Effie]

And lo and behold, it was Senor Palmeira.

[Sam Spade]

How did you know?

[Effie]

Oh, I have a feeling for those things. Go ahead.

[Sam Spade]

Well, his uncle, Don Luis Alvara, was in terrible trouble, he said. In prison in Mexico City on some sort of trumped up political charm.

[Effie]

Ah. And the family, though noble, was financially impoverished.

[Sam Spade]

Yes, except.

[Effie]

Except for a casket containing the family jewels and an assortment of priceless heirlooms, all hundreds of years old, hand wrought of the finest virgin gold. Mr. Spade, however, said caskets and its precious hoard being hidden away in a secret place known only to Don Luis. All he needs is a paltry $840.

[Sam Spade]

It was a thousand. I went to the bank.

[Effie]

A paltry thousand dollars to bribe a jail official and presto, Don Luis goes free. Unearths the casket and rewards you with an ample share of the family treasure.

[Sam Spade]

Mr. Spade, you've talked to Senor Palmera?

[Effie]

Nope. How badly do you need the dough?

[Sam Spade]

Oh, neither. Why? Good heavens, Mrs. Spade, it's all I have until next June. There's a small pension from the school board in Kirkuk. But, dear me, I don't know just how. Mr. Babe. You mean he. He isn't coming back with my money?

[Effie]

The truth of the matter, Marjorie, was that you'd fallen for the Spanish prisoner swindle. A hoary old chestnut that goes back to the day of P.T. barnum and before. But you look like if I gave you an honest answer, you dissolve into tears. As I said, I was in one of my heaven and Spade will protect the working girl mood, so I made up a dishonest one. 1. I'll try and look him up. Maybe it's all a terrible misunderstanding.

[Sam Spade]

Oh, good. That's nipto and snip two, isn't it, Dorothy?

[Effie]

Effie Bree. What you say, Ms. Perrine?

[Sam Spade]

Oh, Sam Spade Detective Agency.

[Effie]

Mr. Spade is this is Mr. Spade. Charming one.

[Sam Spade]

Oh, Sam, I'm sorry.

[Effie]

Yes.

[Sam Spade]

Darcy's here and I'm trying to learn to knit argyle socks.

[Effie]

Well, fine. Drop all stitches and look in the file for me, will ya? I remember getting a circular a while back on a con man who was running the Spanish prisoner around here.

[Sam Spade]

What would it be under, Sam? Spanish prisoner.

[Effie]

Con games. Obsolete. Get out the file.

[Sam Spade]

Oh, just a minute, Sam. Dorothy, come to sister. So I look in the file. Confidence game. Oh, here. You told me to nip two and flip two. I'm sure. Sam. Yeah, I found it. His name's Pedro Rodriguez.

[Effie]

Rodriguez.

[Sam Spade]

There's no address, but it says he habitually associates with somebody named Lolita Montoya. Sounds Spanish.

[Effie]

Slightly. Slightly.

[Sam Spade]

Any address for 615 Mason Street?

[Effie]

Fine, fine.

[Sam Spade]

And that's all there is there. Oh, golly, I'm so mixed up with these darn argyles.

[Effie]

What's so tough about that?

[Sam Spade]

You ought to try it sometime.

[Effie]

What row are you on?

[Sam Spade]

27. Knit three and slip one, she says, and I.

[Effie]

She's wrong. Wrong, wrong. Knit two, slip one, knit one, pass one and knit one. You got it. Bam.

[Sam Spade]

How versatile.

[Effie]

Nothing. Nothing at all. I've been going out with a gray lady. 615 Mason street was a very large apartment building with the usual brass plate in the entry listing the inhabitants, among which, I was happy to note, was Lolita Montoya, apartment 408. I pick up the house phone and press the button. Yeah? Telegram For Lolita Montoya. Lolita isn't here.

[Sam Spade]

Lolita? My Lolita? Who is calling?

[Effie]

Just the telegram, Pop. Stick it in the box, eh? Money order. Somebody has to sign for it, but it may be important. I always take care of it. Understand? Yes.

[Sam Spade]

Yes, I understand.

[Effie]

Sonny? Yeah? Climb back into that cab. I saw you get out of Hustle over to Western Union and tell the president Lolita's on a vacation. Get it going for you now. Hello? Hello? Nothing Daunted, I pressed a few bells until one of the less suspicious tenants gave me the front door buzz walked in and took the automatic elevator to the fourth floor. Or I should say toward the fourth floor, since halfway between the third and fourth she quit cold. The elevator, that is, but there are devices for such things. I pushed the button marked emergency and it took me only 50 minutes to get out, assisted by the janitor, the manager and 12 tenants. The doors on the fourth floor it's had been carelessly pried open and held that way by a magazine carelessly stuck in a crack. Continuing my stealthily approach to 408, I found my man and his pal had somehow sensed I was coming and run off without stopping to close the door. The apartment was filled with cigarette smoke and not much else. A bed, an empty dresser and a table on which were one pot half full of foul black coffee, a little pointed gadget that looked like a nut pick and a handful of metal shaving. I was contemplating what connection, if any, this had with your missing thousand bucks when young. This is St. Pedro. I just wanted to inquire how everything is coming along. If it all the. How much? Well, there's a thousand. Is it good? What do you think? A Pedro to save his joyous nose. Like you said, Pedro, our Spanish prisoner is a valuable man. I must hustle over to the lighthouse and inform the leader. Lighthouse? She has been very conscientious in the rural peso. See, Gray, it's not every girl who would sell out her grandfather so readily. Pedro. Nope. We must not take Lolita for granted. I will give it a new rumble and we'll see you tonight at Simplex by see. Right. Au revoir, Pedro A Revor. The only lighthouse I knew was a gin mill perched midway down the Embarcadero south of Market, surrounded by shoals strewn with human wrecks of all description. A place you might find shell game men and Carnegie grifters, but hardly a habitat for a con mance. Moving up the wind worked a Spanish prisoner, the lighthouse keeper, who looked like he'd retired from the Sea, after a losing battle with Moby Dick, was bent over a pinball machine next to the door. As far as I could see by the one light in the joint, it was empty. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Get up. Too bad. Lighthouse keeper. Yeah, yeah. What do you have? Well, a beer when you're ready. Do you know Pedro Rodriguez? Yeah, it worked for me once a couple years ago. I canned him. Why? He's a swab. Only honest nickel he ever made was when he was here. All right, get up. Get up, get up, get up. Thanks. Yeah. Crooked squab is Pedro Rodriguez. He's up to something right now, if you ask me. Spanish prisoner. You mixed up with it too, huh? Nope. I just want to be. How does it go? Well, I don't know much about it, only it seems to smell. See, Pedro was sitting at the bar the other night with another swab talking about old Spanish jet who's gonna make him a million dollars. Just come over from Spain. Nice shot. Ah, body English, pure and simple. So what about the Spanish, then? Well, I didn't hear no more about that. Hey, I'll tell you what you do. You ask Lolita about it. Anything Pedro is mixed up in, she generally knows about. Good. Where do I find Lolita? Let's see. I ain't sure whether it's the third or the fourth. Third or fourth what? The booth from the back there. Oh. She's been sitting there all night writing letters. You better be careful, though. She got an awful temper. Thanks. Lighthouse keeper. How about the beer? Sure. Hey, Larry, draw one. So Larry drew one, and I took it down to the bar to a point opposite booth number four, which indeed contained Lolita, a fragile little thing wearing a turtleneck sweater marked Stillman's Gin. The table was covered with writing paper and her alabaster brow was a mass of unsightly wrinkles as she chewed the end of her fountain cap. I'd no sooner settled down when the front door opened and what appeared to be the reincarnation of Gargantua the gorilla, only with clothes, steamed down the aisle and slid in next to Lolita, who was not alarmed at all. Lolita, I dare tidy.

[Sam Spade]

Listen to this. I am making progress. Grandfather, dear, you cannot know how dire is the peril into which I have been thrust. Okay. Or maybe, maybe. Grandfather. Beloved, as I take up my pen in hand, I am overcome with fear. Things look very black indeed. I have fallen into the clutches of a garbison. What are you grinning at?

[Effie]

I have just conversed with Pedro in The telephone we are in.

[Sam Spade]

Really? Hey, you mean no more letters?

[Effie]

No, no. Pedro is exalted. He says.

[Sam Spade]

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[Effie]

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[Sam Spade]

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[Effie]

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[Sam Spade]

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[Effie]

Use PodBean AI to optimize your podcast.

[Sam Spade]

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[Effie]

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[Sam Spade]

Launch your podcast on Podbean today.

[Effie]

Are we interfering with your train of thrift? What's this? No, no, no, no. Go right ahead. I'll just sit here and drink my beer.

[Sam Spade]

Wait a minute. Now look, George. There is plenty of bar down near the front door.

[Effie]

He's just as schmoo.

[Sam Spade]

I'm not so sure. He's got an honest look about him I do not like. What is on your mind, George?

[Effie]

Pedro. Pedro, huh? Yeah, yeah. He's getting careless. Shortchanged a friend of mine. A thousand bucks.

[Sam Spade]

I just take it this man is supple. Sty, you are anxious to put the bite on Pedro for a grand, right?

[Effie]

That is, unless Pedro wants to take a five year rap. It's up to him.

[Sam Spade]

Five year rap for what?

[Effie]

Stupidity? He ought to know better than to try to get by with a Spanish prisoner. Honey, Spanish prison.

[Sam Spade]

He knows what I tell you. It's a shakedown.

[Effie]

Relax, I. Violence will get you nowhere. Out of my way.

[Sam Spade]

I'll show this kid once.

[Effie]

Lolita, not the gr.

[Sam Spade]

Get out of my way.

[Effie]

You better let me have it, baby. Lolita. Temper, temper. I got hold of the gun with one hand while Lolita chewed on my other one. Meanwhile catching my head under his arm like a nutcracker and kicking me in the stomach with his knee. This went on for some time. Then I became vaguely aware of Sty's fist, as big as a ham coming up from the floor. He caught me on the side of the head and I skitted down the marble floor past the row of booze like a ball in a bowling Alley, scoring a 10 strike on the pinball machine which leaned drinkingly over me, stuck out its coin drawer and flashed a red light in my face reading power ball. Try again. Stupid me. I did. You are listening to the weekly adventure of radio's most famous detective, Sam Spade. Three chimes mean good times on NBC. There's music and mystery tomorrow on NBC. For music, your hit parade brings you the top tunes in the land as selected by you and presented by Raymond Scott's orchestra, Eileen Wilson and Snooki Lanson for mystery. Herbert Marshall stars as the man called X, an intrepid adventurer in international intrigue who travels to all corners of the world. Wherever there is danger, romance and mystery, There you will find the man called X. And now back to the Spanish prisoner caper. Tonight's adventure with Sam Spade. I came to with my head jammed between the brass rail and the bar next to what proved to be the lighthouse keeper's left shoe, parked, as always, in front of the pinball machine. Larry. Mess up, Fred. Get up. Get up, get up, get up, get up. Where are they? Top holes all filled with three balls to go. Congratulations. How about Lolita in the mag. Oh, dad. All right, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up. Oh, Deb took off. Blast them. I had 780,000 points run up and they had to go and throw you at the machine cause a tilt and Larry. I sat until the buzzing in my ears quieted down and tried to hide to the phone conversation with Stivey in the apartment. It came eventually and I pried mine host, the lighthouse keeper, away from the pinball machine and sat him down next to me with the yellow and standard sections of the telephone book. Simplex Bar supply. No. No. Simplex Easy do garden furniture? Nope. How About Simplex Printing Company? 509 Sadom Street? Nope. Simplex Office File? Simplex Service Station 12? No, no, no. Well, how do you know, mate? There's 42 simplexes in this book alone. You can find one that' sounds like the front for a con operation. I'll buy it. Simplex Cleaners. Nope. Nope. Simplex Associates. No. What's that? Nothing. Nothing suspicious. Simplex Associates. Business opportunities, Investments, Gold, oil and mining, securities marked cards loaded, dice and Las Vegas real estate. Nothing. Well, that just sounds like it might be a possibility, though. Hey, Sam. Dundee, do me a favor, will you, pal? What? Run across the hall and check the bunco files. There's an outfit called Simplex Associate. What's it about? It started out as a con game. A grifter took my client for a thousand bucks on the Spanish prisoner. Spanish prisoner? Yeah. What's that got to do with me? Call Bunker yourselves. They're closed down at this time of night? Dundee. Be a sweetheart now, sweetheart, I'm a homicide lieutenant, and I don't run a service agency for private detectives unless there's a corpse in it. You can take your business elsewhere. Dundee, look, hold it, will you? I can't hold it. I got it.

[Sam Spade]

Lorita. Where is she?

[Effie]

Where is my. I got him. I'm down on the floor. The couch at the back. No, no, no. Don't pull me. Easy, Aaron. That's it.

[Sam Spade]

I know she's here. They must free her. You must call the police. And Freya.

[Effie]

Why? Why was Pedro holding her? To make me do this thing, this terrible thing.

[Sam Spade]

And I have done it. But you must stop him now.

[Effie]

He will let my Lolita go now.

[Sam Spade]

Then you must stop him.

[Effie]

Millions.

[Sam Spade]

Millions of pesos in my honor.

[Effie]

You must. You must. Where is he? He's in a bad way. Baked? Not anymore. He was an aristocrat. Thin face, silver hair, and the look of a bourbon. It stopped me, Marjorie, because here it was just like your Senor Palmera told you. The nobleman in the ragged clothes and dangling from one of his ankles, the broken chain of a leg iron. In short, the complete Spanish prisoner. Only it's legitimate now you've got your corpse. There was nothing on him to indicate who he was or where he came from, but I had a feeling I'd seen him before. After making the lighthouse keeper promise me he'd lay off a pinball game until Dundee arrived, I took off from my office on a very practical errand.

[Sam Spade]

What are you doing?

[Effie]

Buckling on my.45, sweetheart. And if I had a light tank and a bazooka, I'd take them, too.

[Sam Spade]

Oh, I know. I know, sweetheart, about the Spanish prison.

[Effie]

Well, there's a real Spanish prisoner in this one F. He's dead now, by the way. And from the cheap grift of a thousand bucks from a poor retired school teacher, we're now up in the million dollar bracket. They got a murderous ex, Chlorine playing like she's been kidnapped and writing extortion notes to her grandpa. And a mug who looks like a monkey's nightmare and nut picks and metal shavings and someplace or somebody named Simplex. Not to mention.

[Sam Spade]

It'S all my fault. I was so mixed up with the Argylls.

[Effie]

What are the Argyles got to do with.

[Sam Spade]

When you called about the file, the circular on the confidence man?

[Effie]

Yeah.

[Sam Spade]

I was looking under call under the seas. I got off the one next to it by mistake.

[Effie]

No.

[Sam Spade]

Yes. The one. My counterfeiter.

[Effie]

Only then did I remember where I'd seen the old man before. The paper was still on my desk and his picture was still on the front page over an article that ran something like. Like this search on for ex Spanish treasury officials. Police today were still without definite leads in the Search for Raymond Montoya, former chief engraver of the Spanish Mint. Montoya, who arrived in San Francisco three weeks ago to visit his granddaughter, vanished from his hotel room shortly after checking in, etc. Etc. Etc.

[Sam Spade]

Yes, Sam?

[Effie]

Call Lt. Dundee at the lighthouse on the Embarcadero. Also call the Treasury Department. Tell him both Pedro Rodriguez and his two assistants are even now busily running off currency from plates engraved by Raymond Montoya at The Simplex Printing Company, 509 Sansom Street.

[Sam Spade]

Yes, sir.

[Effie]

Mexican pesos it was by the basketful and the treasury dicks agreed it was a happy thing for Mexico that Raymond had kept his engraver school on the right side of the law up to now. As to the matter of your Senor Palmera and his Spanish prisoner, I had excusably, I hope, lost my enthusiasm. And so it was Marjorie that I walked into the Palisot lobby a couple of hours later to call you.

[Sam Spade]

Yes, sir.

[Effie]

I'd like some nickels to phone, please. Shall I? No, no, no, no. They're phoning Mexican Bill.

[Sam Spade]

Oh, dear, dear.

[Effie]

Leo.

[Sam Spade]

Oh, good heavens. You shouldn't show money around like that.

[Effie]

I just stuck them in my pockets forever and forgot to turn them over to the Treasury. Ah, here we are. Here's a dime.

[Sam Spade]

Yes, sir. And here you are.

[Effie]

Hey, seor, you drop some, huh? Back in my pocket. Excuse me, please, Senor John, look, I want to talk. Hello, Marjorie, this is Sam Spade.

[Sam Spade]

Look, senor, I got to talk. Oh, Mr. Spade, did you find him?

[Effie]

I'm sorry, Marjorie. I beg your pardon. Just a minute, Marge. Look, buddy, you can have the phone in a minute. Now, will you relax?

[Sam Spade]

You mean my money is gone?

[Effie]

I'm afraid so, Marge. It's an expensive lesson, but it's worth it. If you remember, honey, from now on, never flash your money in public places. I'm almost through. Will you wait a minute? And never trust strangers, Marge, the world is full of sharks. Looking around for easy middle aged ladies with bankrolls.

[Sam Spade]

But he seems so honest, Mr. Spade.

[Effie]

That's the trouble.

[Sam Spade]

The way he came up to me and said, senorita, I come to you on a matter of terrible urgency.

[Effie]

I know, I know. He saw your bankroll and he figured you on a matter of terrible origin. Figured? You look like an easy mark, Marge. So. Hello. Just a minute, Marjorie. What did you say? I say I come to you on a matter of terrible urgency. My uncle, Don Luis Alvarado, he's in awful trouble. Oh. Oh, there's going to be great rewards, senor, if you help us. You know, we just Might be able to work something out. Well, Marjorie, he had $1,358, from which I deducted your thousand and closed herewith. Plus $58 representing my standard retainer period, end of report.

[Sam Spade]

It must be awful to be gullible like that. Dear, sweet little soul.

[Effie]

Yes.

[Sam Spade]

Imagine her falling for a transparent swindle like that. That's one thing I've learned from you, Sam. I had my savings in a. In a real good, solid thing.

[Effie]

What's that?

[Sam Spade]

An avocado mine.

[Effie]

An avocado mine?

[Sam Spade]

Where in Nome? That's in Alaska, you know.

[Effie]

Well, nevertheless, and notwithstanding, go type that up. Three chimes mean good times on NBC. For something new about the army, hear the Phil Regan show every Sunday on NBC. Coming from a different service base every week, Phil Regan brings you songs and fun and brings prizes to talented GIs. It's an exciting newcomer in your Sunday chime lineup on NBC. And Sunday also means Cary Grant and Betsy Drake as Mr. And Mrs. Blanding.

[Sam Spade]

Here it is, Sam. I'm Sam.

[Effie]

Knit two, purl three, slip one and knit one. You see?

[Sam Spade]

How many rows did you do?

[Effie]

I'm on 57.

[Sam Spade]

Are you sure you're right, Sam?

[Effie]

Well, look at it. Have you ever seen such eyeglasses?

[Sam Spade]

Well, that's what I mean, Sam. They sort of billow out, don't they?

[Effie]

Well, who cares? That guy you're making them for probably won't appreciate him anyway.

[Sam Spade]

But they have to fit, Sam.

[Effie]

Well, look at that. It'll make a perfect sleeping bag for a fat. Tell him your boss lost them up.

[Sam Spade]

But, Sam. Oh, dear.

[Effie]

What's the matter?

[Sam Spade]

There going to be a surprise, therefore.

[Effie]

No.

[Sam Spade]

Yes.

[Effie]

Well, I'll treasure him, sweetheart. They're the beautiful. Just what I wanted.

[Sam Spade]

That's my boss. Good night, Sam.

[Effie]

Good night, sweetheart. Tonight's transcribed adventure of Sam Spade was produced, edited and directed by William Spears. Sam Spade was played by Stephen Dunn, Loreen Tuttle as Effie. Also in the cast were Verna Felton, Lou Merrill, Shirley Mitchell, Ed Max, Jerry Housner, Nestor Piva and Tony Barrett. Script for tonight's adventures by Harold Swanton. Musical scoring by Lud Gluskin, conducted by Robert Armbruster.

[Sam Spade]

It.

[Effie]

Join us again next week, same time for another adventure with Sam Spade. For more mystery excitement tomorrow, it's the Man Called X on NBC.