Auto Light and its 98,000 dealers bring you Mr. Dick Hames in tonight's presentation of
Suspense.
Tonight, Auto Light presents the story of a man who watched a murder committed and couldn't
get away to tell about it.
It's called Pigeon in the Cage, our star Mr. Dick Hames.
This is Harlow Wilcox, and I would like...
Hey, Hap, stop horning in.
But Harlow, that horn is part of my car's electrical system.
And Hap, that electrical system goes to work the instant you press the starter button and
continues every second your engine runs.
In addition, whether your engine is running or not, it works every time you blow your
horn, turn on your lights, radio, heater, or electric windshield wiper.
Must be right at all times, eh, Harlow?
It sure must have.
So, friends, that's why it's so important to treat the electrical system of your car
to a periodic checkup.
Regardless of the make of car you own, make it a point to see your authorized Auto Light
service station or your car dealer regularly.
You can quickly locate your nearest authorized Auto Light service station in the classified
section of the phone book under Automobile Electrical Service.
Or call Western Union by number and ask for operator 25.
And remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right with Auto Light.
And now, Auto Light presents transcribed Pigeon in the Cage, starring Mr. Dick Hames, hoping
once again to keep you in suspense.
I'm Gerald Brewer and I'm 31 years old.
I'm a paper hanger and I've got a wife.
I got a kid on the way and I'd like to be home now.
I wish I were out of here.
Right under the button here it says for emergency ring, but nothing happens.
I've been ringing this bell for the last hour and nothing happens.
Nobody's home, I know that.
But I don't know what else to do except ring this bell.
I'm stuck in an elevator between the first and second floor.
The overhead light went out a few minutes ago.
I can hardly see.
This elevator isn't very big.
It'd hold three or four people.
There's a lever here for floor stops.
But something's gone wrong.
The elevator won't move.
There are two buttons here, one that rings the bell, the other for emergency stops.
Overhead maybe about eight feet from the floor is a little door, maybe about six inches square.
I don't know what that's for.
It's a pretty old elevator in a pretty old house.
I can't squeeze out of it, that's for sure.
Three walls of this thing are cherry wood.
In front of it is a folding iron gate.
I got on it on the fourth floor where I was papering.
It was five o'clock, I was putting work.
Then the elevator got stuck and nobody's home.
Been yelling my lungs out, ringing on the bell, calling for Mrs. Rogers who owns this
house pounding on the wall, but nobody's home.
Nobody's home and I'm stuck.
The elevator's stuck right on the first floor above the living room.
So lying down like this, I can see into it through a gap no bigger than a quarter inch.
I'm worried a little about my wife because she'll worry.
But there's nothing I can do but wait and relax and wait.
That's what woke me.
Someone was home and talking and I was going to yell out and let them know I was stuck in
the elevator right above their heads.
Killer, you're satisfied now, aren't you?
That's the only way to do it.
All right, all right.
You're nervous, you agree to it once.
Killer, I'll kill her when she gets home.
You all right?
You all right, Janice?
When your wife's dead, I'll be all right.
Hey, I'll put on some records, relax you.
Help the waiting.
Harry?
Yeah, what?
What about the gun?
Oh, don't worry.
Do me a favor, will you, Harry?
Let me worry.
Let me know.
Ah, no.
Oh, sure, I'm nervous.
The gun's upstairs, second floor, my bedroom.
Listen, I'm going to go get it.
I'm going to go get it.
Oh, listen, Janice, you don't even have to be here when it happens.
When's your wife coming home?
Soon.
Look, want a drink?
Baby, I don't know.
Come on, let's go to the kitchen.
Mix it up.
I don't know who the girl is.
I never saw her before.
What I could make out of her looking through the gap is she's a lot younger than Mr. Rogers.
Oh, that was Mr. Rogers.
I knew that right away without looking at him.
I remembered his voice because we'd had a discussion about wallpaper pattern 1216B, Sunday strollers
in the park for the library on the fourth floor.
Well, if he was going to kill his wife and I just heard about it, what do you think he'd
do to me?
All I had to do was yell out and let him know I'd heard.
Listen, I got a wife and a kid on the way.
I'm a guy who figures on hanging a lot more paper before he dies.
My family expects it of me.
Besides, what am I supposed to do?
Yell out?
I'm hanging up here in the elevator and I just heard what you said.
How do I know Mr. Rogers wouldn't kill me?
What do I do?
Just stay here and hope I can think of something.
Betty?
Betty Jamson?
The drink, Janet.
I'm fine.
What should we do?
What do you mean?
Waiting.
No, I don't mind.
I feel fine.
We left the party.
We were dancing.
I feel fine, Harris.
Come on.
I'm not going to wait.
I'm going to wait.
Come on, honey.
Come on.
You remember the...
Hey, hey, Janice.
What's the matter?
Nothing.
Let's not laugh, that's all.
Let's not do anything to make the other one laugh.
Now who's nervous?
She ought to be coming home soon.
Let go of me.
Now look.
Nothing wrong, Harry.
Just right now, let go of me.
Okay, okay.
I'll go upstairs.
And I'll go to the other room.
You're going to have to wait.
I'll go upstairs.
I'll go upstairs and get the gun.
Come on.
That thing's stuck again.
What?
Oh, the elevator.
The door down the basement keeps swinging it open and stops it.
Darn, thing's stuck.
I'm sure it's stuck.
Look, right over your head.
Oh, yeah?
Harry.
What?
Suppose someone's in that elevator.
Oh, you kidding?
Suppose someone's in that elevator.
Well, how could anyone?
Well, tell me how it got stuck.
How do I know how it got stuck?
Someone's on that elevator and heard everything we said.
Oh, look, it's happened a hundred times before.
Suppose the elevator were upstairs,
and I stood here and rang for it.
The elevator'd start, but if the basement door swung open,
the elevator'd stop, you see.
All right.
You satisfied?
All right.
Happened to my wife.
She walked instead of closing the door in the basement.
Happens all the time.
All right, all right.
Gun's in the bedroom. I'll walk upstairs and get it.
Mr. Rogers went to get the gun.
I could hear him go into his bedroom,
where yesterday I papered with the hunters on horseback pattern.
I watched the girl he called Janice.
She sat on the sofa for a little while,
and she got up, folded her arms,
and walked around the room.
She stopped in front of the elevator.
Anybody in there?
She kept looking at the gap where the floor of the elevator
was a quarter inch above the top of the door.
But the light was out in the elevator, and it was black.
And I hugged the far wall, and she couldn't see me.
Mr. Rogers came back then.
Still not satisfied, are you?
What do you mean?
Looking at the elevator.
I'm not satisfied.
What do you mean?
Looking at the elevator.
I'm satisfied.
I tell you, I'm okay.
Would it make you feel better if I went down to the basement
and shut the door down there and start the elevator and you'd see?
Forget it.
Leave me alone, will you?
Janice.
Stop it, Harry, please.
You want to forget it, Janice, do you?
Go back to the party?
No, no, no, no.
Harry, I told you.
There's someone in there.
Why didn't you say so instead of all...
Please go downstairs and close the...
Harry.
That's her.
You wait.
Yes.
depressed music
gun fire
I'm sorry.
Janice, Janice, we're going to have to hurry.
Make it look like a robbery.
All right, Harry.
She keeps her jewels in the safe.
Watch out, Janice.
Don't push me.
Look, it's standing in the way.
It's safe behind that picture.
Just tell me to move and I'll move.
Don't push me anymore, Harry.
All right, I'm sorry.
12 to the right.
18.
Yes.
Harry, the phone.
I know it's the phone.
Go on, answer it.
What?
Answer it.
Say you're Mrs. Rogers.
Get rid of whoever it is and hurry.
Go on, say you'll call back.
Hello?
Yes?
Yes, this is Mrs. Rogers.
Who?
Paper hanger?
No.
I'm sure of it.
Yes, yes, goodbye.
Harry?
What is it?
Was there a paper hanger here?
The place is being papered.
Why?
That was his wife, Mrs. Brewer.
He's not home.
She expected him home hours ago.
She knew he was here.
Harry?
Hey, Brewer.
You in there?
What about it, Brewer?
You in there?
Okay, Brewer, don't bother to answer.
I'll find out whether you're in there.
And if you are, you're dead.
Auto Light is bringing you Mr. Dick Hames in Fidgin' in the Cage.
Tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theatre of thrills, Suspense.
See, Harlow, Auto Light has had a lot of experience in building electrical systems, right?
Only 42 years, half.
42 years?
That's right, back in 1911, Auto Light developed the first two-unit, six-volt electrical system ever used as original equipment.
And today, Auto Light designs and builds modern and complete electrical systems for many of our finest makes of cars, trucks, tractors, airplanes, and boats.
That's a lot of electrical systems, Harlow.
It sure is, half.
And yet every unit is precision-built to operate as a team.
That includes the generator, starting motor, distributor, coil, voltage regulator, spark plugs, battery, and all their thousands of component parts.
They're all related by Auto Light engineering design and manufacturing skill to give you the finest performance money can buy.
And that's a lot of performance.
Right you are, half.
So friends, be sure you get the best for your Auto Light-equipped car.
Always insist on Auto Light original service parts when replacements are needed.
And remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right with Auto Light.
And now, Auto Light brings back to our Hollywood soundstage, Mr. Dick Hames, in Elliot Lewis's production of Pigeon in the Cage,
a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Well?
I don't know.
I'm not sure.
He's in there.
He's in that elevator and he knows what we did.
Wait a second, will you?
Hey, Brewer.
You heard what I said, didn't you?
If you're in there, I'll kill you.
Janice, get me a chair.
Maybe if I stand on it, I can see him.
Brewer.
Brewer, you won't be able to hide in there for very long, Brewer.
Can you see him, Harry?
I don't know.
It's black in there and there's a slit I have to look through.
Turn off that music, will you?
What's the music?
Turn it off.
Harry.
What?
Listen, Harry, we're getting panicky, both of us.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe you're wrong.
Maybe the paper hanger just stopped at the corner bar and got loaded and never got home.
Maybe...
We've got to find out.
We've got to...
We've got to get out of here, Janice.
Get back to the party.
I'll walk down to the basement, close the elevator door and bring it down.
All right.
You wait here.
Harry.
Come on, pour yourself a drink, Janice.
You look terrible.
Why don't you just wait to hear what I have to say?
Take the gun with you in case he's there.
Go on, go on.
Okay, okay.
Sometimes...
Sometimes, well, when I was going to say it was my wife's fault for calling, for being
worried, for being such a good wife.
If she hadn't called Mr. Rogers, that girl would have gone away.
Isn't it a shame the way we always blame somebody else when we're in trouble?
One thing I was sure of, Mr. Rogers had a gun in his hand, and the other thing I was sure
of, he wasn't kidding.
Positive he wasn't kidding.
A man who's just killed his wife in the garage isn't a kidding type.
And here's what he was about to do.
Close the basement elevator gate, push the button and bring the elevator down.
And he was going to open the door, see me and shoot me.
I'm a man with a family, like I said, and I got a going business, paper hanging.
There are a lot of things I enjoy in life, so I don't want to die.
You know what my life depended on in that instant?
The button marked emergency stop.
Mr. Rogers closes the gate and tries to bring the elevator down to the basement.
And me inside the elevator, I keep my finger on the emergency stop button.
And nothing happens.
The elevator doesn't move, I mean.
Janice?
What's the matter?
You doing anything up there?
What? What do you mean?
Well, pressing a button or anything.
I'm not doing anything, Harry.
There's something wrong.
What?
Oh, the motor, I don't know.
Just in case, I'm going to leave this door open.
Yeah, I'm coming up.
Mister?
Mister, if you're in there.
Mister?
If you're in there, in that elevator, and you know what's happened,
and if there's some way the three of us can get together so that nobody has to get hurt anymore.
Listen, all right, we killed his wife.
You don't know what she was.
Janice?
Janice, what do you do?
Maybe we can reason with him if he's in there.
Maybe all we have to do is explain why it happened and maybe tell him we're not so bad.
Look, look, you know what, Janice, there's no one in there.
There is, there is.
I know it, Harry.
All right, I'll find out for sure.
Come on, we'll go upstairs up to the second floor.
I got a way to make sure.
How?
I'll climb down into the elevator from the second floor.
There's a little trap door on top.
I'll open it, strike a match, I'll find out.
Come on.
You got matches, Harry?
I'll use my lighter.
My lighter.
I got the trap door open.
Can you see him?
No, wait, I'll...
No, I'm going to have to...
Harry!
Harry, what is it?
What's the matter?
Harry!
He's in there, Janice, he's in there.
He grabbed my arm.
I reached him with the light.
He's in there.
Kill him, kill him, kill him.
You've got to kill him.
Just leave me alone.
Get away from me.
Leave me alone, will you?
He knows we've got to.
Get away from me!
Harry!
All right, all right, all right now.
Janice, Janice!
I'll try to.
It's all right now.
It's all right that he's in there.
What do you mean?
We killed my wife.
We were going to take her jewelry.
It'd make it look like robbery and murder.
It'd make it look like she surprised a thief.
She was coming home when the thief was leaving.
Don't you see?
I'll bring my wife up here, up here to the bedroom.
Then I'll throw the jewels in the elevator, empty the gun, throw it in.
And he'll be the thief, the murderer trapped in the elevator.
Hey, how do you like that, Brewer?
You'll be the murderer.
How do you like that?
Just do it, Harry.
Yeah, it's going to be all right, Janice.
Just do it.
Mister?
We know you're in there, mister.
Just a couple of feet below.
Listen, mister.
What do you want?
Hello, Mr. Paperhanger Brewer.
If you think...
What?
If you think you can get away with this...
I tried to reason with you.
All I wanted you to do was go away.
I talked to your wife.
She was worried, wasn't she?
If you'd listened to me, you could have been home now.
How could I listen to you?
What you did?
I tried to explain it to you and you wouldn't listen.
Mr. Rogers was a married man.
You carried on with him and what you did.
You know what?
What?
He shot his wife.
But you're as much a murderer.
I know.
How can you expect me to listen to you?
I don't want anybody else to get hurt.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
Honest.
The way you said, kill him, kill him, meaning me.
What about that?
Because you had to act so smart.
Because you didn't answer when I talked to you.
I saw you.
What do you mean?
When you were downstairs in the living room.
I was lying down on the floor in here and I saw you.
I can't understand how anybody who looks like you can do what you did.
What does your wife look like?
Why?
What do you look like?
See, you don't even know.
You don't care what a man looks like.
You're going to do what you're going to do.
Yes, I am.
Mr.
Mr. Paperhanger, I'm talking to you.
I'm talking to you, talking to you.
Give me a hand, Janice.
Hey, Janice, what's the matter?
Nothing.
It's almost over.
Just put her right down here.
I got the jewels.
Here, hold them a minute.
No.
No, just put them down someplace.
All right, all right.
Take the rest of the bullets out of this gun, that's all.
Yeah, wait a minute.
Stop acting like a baby.
What did you have to do that for?
Now, there are no more bullets in the gun.
Bullets in the wall.
You make this place look like a mess.
Makes you put up a fight.
There.
You okay, Janice?
Now, what do you have to do?
Just climb down there again on top of the elevator, that's all.
I told you it would all be over in a minute.
Hey.
Hey, you, Brewer.
Not talking, huh?
Well, I don't mind.
I'm going to give you something, Brewer.
Here, jewelry, bracelet and a necklace.
Worth a lot of money, Brewer.
And here's a gun, too.
Empty.
Because it's the one you killed my wife with.
Goodbye, Brewer.
So now look what's happened to me.
I was papering a house and I got caught in an elevator.
Now they're going to blame me for a murder.
Mr. Rogers and that girl.
And here I am stuck in an elevator and there's nothing I can do about it.
They're on the first floor now and he's helping her with her coat.
She still looks shaky.
I can lie down on the floor and look out through that gap and I can see them.
And hey, they're starting to leave.
Hey, Mr. Rogers.
You're not going to get away with it, Mr. Rogers.
Before you go, you'd better think about something.
What about the fingerprints?
What about the fingerprints on the gun, Mr. Rogers?
I guess you did, huh?
Guess you forgot to wipe them off.
Else you'd have walked out of here instead of...
Hello, Mr. Rogers.
I'm lying down on the floor of the elevator and I'm looking out of the gap and I can see you.
Hello, Miss.
I'm in here and you're out there.
But you're the one who's trapped now.
What is it you want, Mr. Rogers?
Mr. Brewer...
Harry, he's right, isn't he?
Your fingerprints are on the gun.
Mr. Brewer, I guess we'd better make some arrangements, shouldn't we?
Janice, go down to the basement and shut the elevator door.
Then Mr. Brewer will be able to bring the elevator down.
Go ahead, Janice. Go on, hurry.
How does it feel?
The first thing I want to tell you is that you can keep the jewels...
How does it feel to be trapped?
Oh, really? Now we'll talk this over.
It feels terrible, doesn't it?
When you come out of the elevator...
I don't think so.
I don't know whether I'm going to come out or not.
Not now.
It's closed, Harry.
Well, come on up.
All I have to do is keep my finger on this emergency stop button and you can't move this elevator an inch.
Now, let's be reasonable.
You killed your wife, Mr. Rogers.
How do I know what else you got down there you might kill me with?
Do you think I'd...
Now, you know what a silly question that is, don't you?
Look, I got this gun of yours and it's proof you killed her.
No amount of arguing you can think of can change that.
Money. Do you want money?
I don't think money's important right now.
Well, why is he...
He won't come out.
What?
No, sir. I'm not coming out.
I got you two where I want you and I'm not moving.
Janice, tell him how rich I am. Tell him what I can do for him.
Harry.
Come on, tell him, tell him.
Harry.
All the things I can do for him.
Harry, Harry, Harry.
Now, shut it out.
All the things you can do. Look at what you can do.
Stop it. Stop it.
Shut up.
Janice, shut up.
Janice.
Janice, dear, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hit you.
You're all right, aren't you?
Dad.
Oh, are you dead, Janice?
Dead, Janice.
Dead, dead.
No, no, no.
No, no.
No.
Hello, Norma.
Jerry, dear.
No, no, everything's fine.
Yeah.
Just a little while.
No, really, everything's fine.
I'll tell you about it when I get home.
Well, I got stuck in an elevator zone.
I said I got stuck in an elevator.
No, really.
Suspense.
Presented by Auto Light.
Tonight's star, Mr. Dick Hames.
This is Harlow Wilcox speaking for Auto Light,
world's largest independent manufacturer of automotive electrical equipment.
Auto Light is proud to serve the greatest names in the industry.
They are members of the Auto Light family,
as well as other 98,000 Auto Light distributors and dealers in the United States
and thousands more in Canada and throughout the world.
Our family also includes the nearly 30,000 men and women in 28 great Auto Light plants from coast to coast
and Auto Light plants in many foreign countries,
as well as the 18,000 people who have invested a portion of their savings in Auto Light.
Every Auto Light product is backed by constant research
and precision built to the highest standards of quality and performance.
So remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right with Auto Light.
Next week, a terrifying tale about a man who was able to foresee the future
and found in it his own violent death.
It's called Vision of Death.
Our star, Mr. Ronald Coleman.
That's next week on Suspense.
Suspense is transcribed and directed by Elliot Lewis,
with music composed by Lucian Morawick and conducted by Lud Gluskin.
Pigeon in the Cage was written for Suspense by Morton Fine and David Friedkin.
In tonight's play, Charlotte Lawrence was Janice and Joseph Kearns was Harry.
And remember next week, Mr. Ronald Coleman in Vision of Death.
You can buy Auto Light electrical parts, Auto Light stay-full batteries,
and Auto Light resistor or standard type spark plugs at your neighborhood Auto Light dealers.
Switch to Auto Light. Good night.
This is the CBS Radio Network.