And now, tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of frills, Suspense.
Tonight, we bring you the story of a fantastic theft of a million dollar pearl necklace.
We call it, The End of the String.
So now, starring Stacey Harris, here is tonight's Suspense play, The End of the String.
The necklace consisted of 61 perfectly matched pearls.
It was insured for 650,000 dollars and was probably worth about a million.
I got to know about the deal because Sam liked me, I guess, because in Boston, I wasn't
competition.
Just a nice young fellow who was trying to get ahead in costume jewelry.
That's why I happened to be in his private office when the parcel containing the pearls
arrived.
I told you young fellow, you were going to see something this morning.
That's what you said, Sam.
Yeah, I like you.
You call me Sam.
Since I've been a big high finance, you know, I got to be Mr. Hyla.
You're not impressed.
I like that.
I should have had a son like you to pass the business.
Go ahead, pass it anyway.
I'm up for adoption.
Hey, smart.
Come over here to the window.
Do you ever see a million dollars?
Like in the necklace you told me about?
Really?
In the package?
Yeah, the same.
How come you have it delivered by mail, Sam?
Isn't that risky?
Uh-uh.
Sam Hyla's no dope.
You get a messenger to carry it from Detroit to Boston, what happens?
Somebody gives him a crack in the head.
Registered mail?
This they don't touch.
Yeah, I'm glad to know about that.
I'm just liable to send myself a million bucks.
Don't worry.
Someday maybe you will.
Hand me the scissors there, will you?
On the desk.
Sure.
Here you go.
Thank you.
Hey, you're welcome.
Here you go.
Hey, fancy sealing wax, stamp.
I'm very impressed.
Sam Hyla, SH, impresses the customers and I don't get anybody fooling with the parcel.
That's something you've got to learn, Mark.
In this business, you've got to pick and choose your agency, you know, in the other cities.
Mine I know like sons, all bonded.
What was the necklace doing in Detroit?
Customer.
Couldn't make up his mind.
So I had my boy there send it back to me.
You see, tomorrow, the next day, the customer will be screaming for it.
I'm better off in costume jewelry.
It's too much strain with that stuff.
Switch on the light, will you?
Okay.
Now, young man, what do you think of this?
You are going to see something.
What is it, Sam?
He keeled over.
For a minute, I thought he was finished, but he'd only passed out from shock and I knew
why.
Inside the box wrapped in cotton and enclosed in part of a newspaper were eight cubes of
sugar, a million dollars worth of nothing.
In half an hour, the office was alive with uniforms.
Poor old Sam just sat on the couch, a wet towel on his head staring over at the box
on his desk.
I felt really sorry for the old guy.
I figured it was about time for me to go, but that's when Sam woke up a bit and so did
a Dartmouth-type cop from headquarters.
Mark, you're going?
Well, unless there's something I can do, Sam.
I was going to say, before you go.
Yeah?
What did you say your name was, sir?
Hendricks.
Mark Hendricks.
Do you know anything about this?
No, not much.
I was here when Mr. Hyler opened the box and that's about it.
You in this business, too?
Costume jewelry.
I have the office downstairs in the front.
Oh.
You were in here when the mail came?
No.
No, I came up a couple of minutes later.
Didn't see anybody around in the hall?
No, not at all.
Mr. Hyler, you say that the same postman's been on the route for five years?
Every day.
Yeah.
Mark, you go ahead.
Thanks for staying.
I'll look at Sam if there's anything at all I can do.
Well, maybe you could wait a little.
Sure, Sam.
I'll stick around.
How do you feel now, Mr. Hyler?
I'm all right.
I'm fine.
I wish I was dead.
Okay, I want to get a couple of things straight.
You took the mail, Miss?
Miss Cummings.
Yes, same as usual.
The mailman come into the office?
Nobody with him?
That's right.
Nobody else in here?
Only Mr. Hyler.
Mr. Hendricks arrived a few minutes later.
You'd already given the package to Mr. Hyler?
Yes.
Okay.
I want the name and the address of the sender, and then when the Postal Inspector gets here,
we'll go on from there.
The cop's name was Colley, the Postal Inspector's shirer.
Between the two of them, they covered everything.
I hung around because Sam wanted me there, and though nobody said anything, I had the
feeling that until they got through, I was going to be around because they wanted it.
About 12 o'clock, the mailman was brought in.
He was really shaky.
The kind of guy that looks guilty just for living.
I tell you, I don't know.
I'm sorry.
Listen, nothing like this has ever happened.
Mr. Hyler, you tell him.
I told him already.
Mr. Hendricks.
Sure, I'll give you a clean bill.
You see.
Well, looks like nobody said you switched packages.
All we want to know is where you stopped between the office and here.
I made all my stops.
Okay.
We'll start in this building.
Did you put the mailbag down anywhere?
No.
How many offices?
Four.
No, three.
No, four, five, but next door is empty.
All right, it's four.
Where'd you stop first?
Mr. Hendricks.
He's in the front.
Yes.
You put your mailbag down?
Well, maybe just for a minute.
We talked about the game last weekend.
But nobody was around.
Nobody touched the mailbag.
That went on for another half hour.
They tried to catch him up on the point of leaving his mailbag unattended.
But he swore up and down he hadn't taken his eyes off it.
At three o'clock, they quit.
I went back to my place and caught up on my own mail.
A couple of bills, a free dog food coupon.
I saw Sam a lot in the next couple of weeks.
He took the dropping into the office before going home and taking me out for a drink.
No, no, no.
You're my guest.
I pay for the drinks.
Now look, Sam, it's embarrassing.
You never let me take a picture.
In the hour of need, you were there.
I can trust you.
These are bad days for me, Mark.
I need a friend.
Sure, Sam.
I know.
The insurance company called today.
Huh?
Yeah, they're offering a reward.
Fifty thousand dollars for information.
I added ten of my own.
Sixty thousand?
Mm-hmm.
Ah.
Still nothing on it, though, huh?
Nothing.
The post office traced the package from the time it left Detroit.
Nobody touched it.
What about while the necklace was in Detroit?
Well, like I told the police, I trust my boy there.
He put my seal on it.
He mailed it.
We checked.
I trust him, but we checked, too.
Sam, what about that seal?
I mean, you're sure the one on the fake package was yours?
It's my seal.
The same.
The police examined it.
I don't know.
Somebody got a hold of it, I guess.
But yet they couldn't.
It's only me and the Detroit firm that's got one, and they're kept in the safe.
Ah, my boy, you know, I'm gonna retire.
Come on, Sam.
Insurance will cover the loss.
You're not too badly off.
It'll take years.
I know that company.
Mark years.
It's a funny thing about money.
You don't have a lot, so you wish you had more.
Then when you've got more, you want more than that, so you won't go back to not having any.
The trouble is, where do you stop?
The next day I caught Sam's secretary as she was leaving the office.
Oh, Jeannie.
Hi.
Where have you been?
Oh, Brown.
Ah, you in a rush?
No.
Want to take me to dinner?
Yeah.
I got a date.
But I'll break it.
Oh, great.
You know, you must be one of the compensations for being broke.
Can I use your phone?
Sure.
Come on in the office.
He's a Harvard boy.
I've taken terrible advantage of him.
I'll just bet you have.
Will you tell him you've got homework tonight, huh?
I will.
Well, that's enough homework for a while.
Huh?
You know, I think you've got something on your mind.
I mean, you haven't been concentrating at all.
I'm sorry, honey.
Ha.
I want to ask you something.
Yeah.
This isn't a proposal.
You want to make $100,000?
Well, you have got something on your mind.
If you say no, it's okay.
If you say yes, you can't back out.
I love to say yes.
Come on, Jeannie, I'm serious.
So am I.
It's about Sam Hyler's necklace.
Oh?
Who do you like more, your boss or $100,000?
I'm loyal.
You know that.
Yeah, I know.
To which one?
Money.
Sam, too, depending.
Okay, I'll take a chance.
I want to show you something.
What?
Well...
How did you...
The deal's still on?
Mark, it's the necklace.
Yeah.
Beautiful, isn't it?
You are listening to The End of the String, tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding
theater of thrills, Suspense.
Chances are the average man in jail would be pleased and reassured to learn that his
wife was safe at home, but not the gentleman in the pokey in this week's episode of 21st
Precinct.
Having jammed the lock on the door to his home prior to his arrest, he is startled and
not a little dismayed to realize that his long-suffering wife cannot get out of the
house to bail him out even when she wants to.
For engrossing drama with an extra good measure of human interest and humor, don't miss this
diverting story on 21st Precinct when it is broadcast this Friday night over most of these
same stations.
And now we bring back to our Hollywood sound stage, Stacey Harris, starring in tonight's
production, The End of the String, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
She sat looking at the necklace and her mouth opened and shut like a beautiful blonde fish.
Then she noticed me staring at her and she got ahold of herself, reached for a cigarette
and lit it.
Funny, Mr. Hyler is the only one I've ever seen hold that necklace.
Uh-huh, it's not heavy.
Here.
Are you interested?
What are you going to do?
What I've been trying to do ever since I got ahold of it, pedal it.
Oh.
Trouble is I don't know where to start.
That's where you come in.
Here, take it back.
No.
What do you mean, no?
I couldn't help you.
I mean, I don't know anymore about where to get rid of it.
Well, then you.
But if you did know.
I couldn't.
It wouldn't make any difference.
I just couldn't.
It's worth a million.
I figure we could get 200,000, maybe more.
Split down the middle, that's, that's $100,000, Jean.
Tax free.
You'll be caught, so will I.
No, no.
Worst of it's over.
How'd you do it, Mark?
Well, it seems to me I've told you an awful lot already.
If we can't make a deal, let's forget it, huh?
Aren't you afraid I'll tell Mr. Hyler?
No.
No, because if you did, you'd have to prove what I've told you.
That wouldn't be easy.
They wouldn't find the necklace around here.
And besides, you, you wouldn't get $100,000.
Why'd you pick me?
Well, Sam works with people in the business.
You get his phone calls, answer his mail.
Wouldn't be hard to find out who handles this kind of stuff.
You could even ask him if you're careful.
That's all I'd have to do, find out where to sell the necklace?
Not another thing.
All right.
Good.
Now, so I won't keep you up tonight.
I'll tell you how I worked it.
This wasn't done overnight.
Sam has been telling me for a long time about that necklace.
But how'd you know he was sending it to Detroit?
And when it'd come back?
Empty office next to yours.
Did you ever hear of wall mics, induction coils to pick up phone conversations?
Oh.
That's it.
Now, let me turn that thing on.
But you couldn't have got ahold of his seal.
All the packages have a seal on.
I didn't have to.
I got friendly with the mailman.
He always stops to gab when he brings my mail.
About a month ago I saw a package addressed to Sam.
That wasn't the necklace.
No.
It was an important package.
Had Sam's seal on it.
So I got the mailman interested in some costume pieces for his wife.
And when he was looking at them I took a wax impression of the seal.
Had a stamp made from that.
Just like that?
Just like that.
I heard Sam talking to his agent on the phone two days before the necklace was mailed from
Detroit.
I knew when it was going to arrive so I made up my own package with the seal.
Switched them when the mailman stopped by.
Well, how'd you know what the box looked like?
I was in the office when you were wrapping it to mail out to Detroit, remember?
And I thought you hung around because of me.
Well, sure.
You're pretty good in Sam.
We agreed not to make any contact with each other until she had some word for me.
I'd worked it out pretty well.
I hoped that she wouldn't be suspected if she did ask questions about fences in Boston
or New York.
And I hoped she wouldn't lose her nerve.
For the next five days I sweated it out along.
The necklace was safe.
I didn't have to worry about that.
But you're never really happy when a million bucks is lying around and you've got to borrow
a hundred to pay rent.
Then one evening just as I was getting home.
Hello?
Hello, Mark.
Oh, hi.
Where are you?
Downstairs.
Oh, come on up.
I wanted to see if it was all right.
There's somebody with me.
Oh.
I thought I'd do a little work to earn the money.
I found a man, called him myself.
Does he know what it is?
Not yet.
Are you sure he's all right?
I think so.
Yes.
Okay, come on up.
Hi, Jeannie.
Mark, this is Mr. Larkin.
Mark Hendricks.
How are you?
I'm Hendricks.
Can I fix your drink?
Never drink, thanks.
Oh, sit down.
Jeannie, you want to get me a scotch and water?
Yeah, all right.
Thanks.
Well, Jeannie tells me you're interested in jewelry.
I represent an outfit that buys and sells.
In the market to buy right now?
Might be.
Depends what's being sold.
Sure.
From folks we don't know, we usually take stuff on consignment.
No, that's out.
This is a cash proposition only.
Uh-huh.
Do you have much call for pearls?
Not much.
Of course, for special customers, once in a while we buy them.
How about a pearl necklace?
Might be interested.
You got it?
Not on me.
I can get it, though.
How much you want?
$200,000.
For pearls?
It's worth a million.
You're crazy.
It's insured for over $600,000.
The Hyland necklace?
You got that?
Or might.
You're a pretty foolish boy.
What do you mean?
You're working backwards.
You should figure how to get rid of it before you lift it.
Nobody's going to touch that necklace.
Well, wait a minute.
What's the matter?
You didn't tell me what your boyfriend had, honey.
You're wasting my time.
Well, just take a look at it, huh?
Maybe you'll change your mind.
What do I want to look at it for?
I wouldn't get it.
I'm not going to touch it.
You better get rid of that thing anyway you can.
I'm telling you.
Nice to have met you folks.
And I'd like to ask you to please forget my name.
He was gone, just like that.
Jeannie stood there holding a couple of glasses, looking at the door.
There wasn't anything to say, so we didn't try.
After a couple of drinks, though, we felt better.
So one guy was afraid to handle a big item.
There were others.
We'd go after them.
Jeannie and I got to know most of the fences in the East during the next month.
We'd only have to say, Pearls, and the door would slam.
It gets around.
I was getting a little scared, so I decided on another plan.
We had to be even more careful about getting together.
So Jeannie met me on her lunch hour in the public library.
We went to the reference room and walked down to her back aisle.
Listen, Mark, let's forget it, huh?
What do you mean?
We can't sell it.
We've tried.
Let's forget it.
What are you going to do with it?
Just drop it in the bay?
I don't care, just so we get rid of it.
Look, we've gone this far.
We can't just...
Excuse me.
Yes, certainly.
Thank you.
Now, you look.
We've gone this far.
We can't just get rid of it.
Then what do we do?
The reward.
What?
What happens if we find it?
We get the reward, don't we?
That's $30,000 apiece.
No, I won't do it.
Now, you listen to me.
I'm not going back to those $1.98 earrings.
I don't care about you.
You do what you want.
But I know we can get $30,000 each out of this.
That's a lot better than nothing.
Is it better than prison?
We won't get caught, Jeannie, I promise you.
I've got it all figured out.
Like you had it figured out to sell.
All right, I was wrong.
I admit it.
But this time I'm right.
I'm afraid.
No, now, look, it's simple.
There's nothing to it.
They'll never know.
Are you sure?
Let me give you the idea.
Then you decide.
Okay?
Okay.
I guess a deal like this is something like poker.
It's hoping you'll pull an inside straight flush, which doesn't happen very often, and
the stakes are a lot higher.
I made it sound real easy to Jeannie, though.
I was to go to Hyler, tell him I'd been doing a bit of private eyeing on my own, and that
I'd had a tip.
Some punk had seen a guy put a small package in one of the lockers at the South Station.
That was what I was supposed to know.
I'd paid said punk fifty bucks for the information.
We set it up like that.
Jeannie took the necklace and a package to the station on her lunch hour.
I thought it best not to see her after that, and I waited until the next morning before
I went to Sam and told him the news.
The college boy-type cop, Collie, was at the office ten minutes later.
Who was this fellow, Hendricks?
Well, I told you, I don't know.
I was snooping around.
I made a couple of contacts.
Yeah, and the pearls are at the South Station.
Well, if they're not, I spent fifty bucks for nothing.
Mr. Collie, why do you waste time?
Mark is doing me a big favor, and you're asking questions.
Let's get over there.
And don't you worry, my boy.
If I get my necklace back, you'll have your fifty dollars, and everything else is coming
to you.
Let's go.
Which locker is it, Mark?
Thirty-six, that's what the guy told me.
We'll find out.
Look, Collie, I don't like the way you talk.
I'm just trying to help.
If you didn't get the reward first, that's not my fault, you know.
Thirty-six?
Thirty-six.
I'll get the attendant over.
He'll have a key.
No, wait a minute, look.
It ain't locked.
Well Hendricks?
Mark, think.
Maybe you forgot the number.
No, I didn't forget.
That's what he said, thirty-six.
But there's nothing in it.
It's empty.
Well, Hendricks?
Well, I guess I'm out fifty dollars.
Yeah, too bad.
What had she done with it?
I couldn't get to the office.
I couldn't be seen with her, but I had to know.
What had she done with it?
I waited all day until she finished work.
Then I was waiting outside her apartment when she got home.
Jean, now listen, I want to know-
Where do we get inside?
Okay, okay, where is it?
Here, take it.
Why didn't you do what I told you to do?
Why didn't you put it in the locker?
I did.
Why didn't you put it in the locker?
I can't put it in.
Yesterday.
Then this morning I heard Mr. Hyler talking to Collie about you and me seeing so much
of each other.
I was afraid they were beginning to suspect, so I went back to the station and took it
out again.
I was trying to do you a favor and you slapped me.
I'm sorry, Jeannie.
I'll bet you are.
Go away.
I don't want to see you again and I don't want to see that necklace again, but you'd
better get rid of it.
Go throw it in the bay and you go with it.
Get rid of it?
Lose it?
A million dollars burning a hole in your pocket and you throw it away?
No.
No, don't throw it away.
It's too beautiful.
Put it back where you got it.
Give it back to Sam.
Go back to Sam Hyler's office and in the morning old Sam will be so happy to find it on his
desk he won't ask any questions.
And maybe Collie won't either.
Ah, it's so beautiful.
A million dollars and so beautiful.
That's a good boy, Mark.
Collie.
You know, I was getting awfully tired of following you around.
Well, it was a great idea anyway.
Starting with a million dollars, sure, you have to take a loss or you settle for 200,000.
But nobody buys, so then there's the reward, 60,000.
Turns out nobody's going to get that.
That takes care of the reward.
Anybody got a dime for a lawyer?
They're tablecomers, they're
a baby. We call it the cellar door. That's next week on Suspense.
Suspense is produced and directed by Anthony Ellis. Tonight's script was written by David
Williams. The music was composed by Lucian Morrowek and René Garagang and conducted
by Wilbur Hatch. Featured in the cast were Benny Rubin, Mary Jane Croft, Larry Thor,
Jim Nusser and Jack Crouchon. There may be two sides to most stories, but where a story
of crime is concerned, there's only one place to be and that is on the right side of the
law. Unfortunately for him, the nice looking boy finds himself on the wrong side of the
law when the FBI in Peace and War next goes into action to track down an impulsive killer.
How they link the handsome youth to the ugly crime is a story in itself. A story you want
to hear tomorrow night over most of these same CBS radio stations on the FBI in Peace
and War. Stay tuned for five minutes of CBS News to be followed on most of these same
stations by the Jack Carson Show. You hear America's favorite shows on the CBS Radio
Network.