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Picture of a corporation attorney enjoying his job.
That rare day away from the office, looking over property for a client.
No phones, no buzzers, no conflicting appointments,
nothing but wide open spaces and unexpected company.
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Nothing like a little country air to relax those tense, jangled city bred nerves.
Well, I've been looking all over the county for you.
And you lost my trail here?
That's not funny. I hiked all over those hills.
Why don't you try the valley?
What was the name of that guy from the bottom that looked you up last night?
Jessup Brothers? He was a school friend of my father's.
I thought I remembered. He didn't try to sell you any mining stuff, did he?
No, but he told me about his mine.
Wait a minute. He's not in any trouble.
The worst kind of, he's dead.
He was down in his mine with Nasseh when the roof caved in.
And about a week later, the roof caved in on those 19 investors of his here in the east.
The mine was salted or had been planted in it.
Now the investors are yelling for their money back.
I can't believe it.
Of course, there's always the possibility that somebody misled him about the value of the mine.
So the department's sending me out to Nevada to work out with the local sheriff there.
Father always spoke highly of Jessup Brothers.
I can't believe that he's a slender. If he were only here to defend himself.
Well, he isn't.
But I am.
You're glad, huh?
Well, good flying weather.
When do we leave?
We?
Well, I've been working too hard, John.
It's remarkable what a change in scenery can do to relax you.
Excuse me.
Please.
This is it. Gloucester, Nevada.
Lost Star.
Lost Star.
Well, Herb, this is Lost Star, right?
This is the middle of nowhere.
I wonder how we'd have been able to get here if we hadn't been able to rent the car at the airport.
Hike, I guess. Your favorite sport.
If I can make those hills, that'll be the day.
I've had my leg exercise last me a week.
All right, you two, just stay where you are.
Not a move now.
I get your dead to right.
Sheriff, I ain't been calling you.
You violated Statute 87, Section B, Paragraph 4.
Illegal hitching of a wagon or any other moving vehicle
to obstruct the normal passage of traffic on the main street.
Sheriff, we didn't hitch a wagon. This happens to be an automobile.
It's still a vehicle, ain't it?
Your statute pertains to obstructing the normal flow of traffic, and there isn't any.
Around here, that's normal.
You talk like one of them Philadelphia lawyers.
My name is Herbert Marris, attorney at law, and this is Lieutenant Weston.
Weston?
Oh, yeah, yeah, Weston.
You were the fellow who was sending me them telegrams, huh?
Yeah, that's right.
How did you come right over to the office here?
No, you must be mistaken, Lieutenant.
No, my uncle couldn't afford the stock, huh?
Everybody around here knows that mine is worthless.
That's just the point, Miss Corotta.
If he didn't sell his stock here, he went back east to do it.
You say the mine was worthless,
yet your uncle said that you've been staking him for the past five years.
I've taken a few dollars at a time, enough for a grub stake and some tools.
Did he ever say that he'd made a strike?
No, but he hinted at it.
About six weeks ago, he showed me some new specimens.
Oh? Do you have them here?
In back.
When he showed them to you, did you give him some more money?
No, I didn't.
Well, isn't that a little strange, Miss Corotta, to hear you've been staking him for five years without any result,
then when he finally came to you and hinted at a fine, you refused it.
Why?
Because I...
Go ahead, Laura, tell him.
You don't tell him I will.
Who's he?
Fred Regan.
He runs the filling station for me.
We're engaged to be married.
Only Laura kind of forgot about it
until her uncle came along and started asking for more money.
That's when I put my foot down.
You forbid her to give it to him?
That's right.
Ever since I've known Laura, she's been shelling out her hard-earned money to that uncle of hers.
It had to stop sometime.
And you didn't give your uncle the money to go east and set up the mining stock company?
Why, just Nick Hawkins.
There's his office.
He's the guy with the capital in this town.
All right, Mr. Regan, thank you very well.
For sure, that's right.
Well, I finally asked Mr. Crothers for a piece.
Mr. Hawkins, $1,000 is a lot of money.
All I can afford.
The cattle business has been good this year.
Still a lot of money.
What made you so sure that Crothers had struck it rich?
I wasn't sure.
She gave him the money.
I'll look you now.
I don't have to answer a lot of questions.
Mr. Hawkins.
All right, I did it for Laura.
Crothers' niece.
Yeah, my father.
Now, if it hadn't been for that harebrained drifter Fred Regan showing up and taking over the filling station,
I'd have...
Now, what's to take her profits and open up a chain of stations?
Money down the drain.
I reckon I just don't understand women.
Of course, you know that mine was salted.
Now you're out $1,000.
I don't care about the money.
It's Laura I'm worried for.
She's labeled her uncle's creditors.
As a matter of fact, I'm considering buying her share of the mine.
But you'd be responsible for paying off the investors.
It would be worth it.
Just to show Laura how I feel about her.
You know, I just might do that.
Aren't you interested in finding out who salted the mine?
Well, if I take it over, I'll make it my business to be interested.
I got a pretty good idea right now.
Mr. Crothers?
No.
Now, Crothers was more swindling about that friend of his at, uh, Loco.
It's all a pack of lies, I tell you.
I had nothing to do with salting that mine.
I ain't even had my foot inside it.
No, never.
But you said you were Crothers' best friend.
You mean to tell me you never even visited the mine with him?
Now, you see here, mister, I don't know who you are,
but I know who I am.
I'm Loco.
Old Jesse Crothers' best friend.
And any time he went hunting, I went hunting.
And if he wanted to go fishing, I went fishing.
But I never dug in no spooky old mine.
No, sir.
You mean you were afraid of the mine, is that it?
No, it wasn't the mine I was scared of.
It was the digging.
I don't like exercise of no kind, except this kind.
He he he.
Cheers.
Hope I ain't interrupting nothing sociable.
I got to talk to you, lieutenant.
Okay, what is it?
Private like Loco.
Oh, I can take it easy.
Nobody's buying any drinks.
Lieutenant.
I'm buying.
I'm afraid we aren't making any progress, sir.
Didn't think you would.
Anyway, it ain't important.
Not important?
Listen to me.
My department sent me 3,000 miles to investigate a swindler.
Lieutenant, lieutenant.
There's some other things you've got to investigate.
I just got back from the mine.
I told you I had a hunch.
From now on, we ain't after a swindler.
We're after a killer.
Come on, I'll show you.
I had more respect for Tom Hurley's hunches when he showed us the marks on the timber.
It looked as if a wire had been attached to it and rubbed splinters through the wood.
You see this line running through the dust?
Yes, sir, I do.
Where?
It's too thin for rope.
That's where the wire was traced.
Trace it clear back to the entrance.
Somebody just stood outside and pulled and down she come.
And there was no trace of the wire?
No.
But I reckon the lieutenant here can find many more things.
Oh, you know, sheriff, I'm not much on reckoning.
Just exactly what do you think I can find?
Bloodstains, for instance.
Bloodstains?
Yeah.
You mean blood on the rocks?
That's the funny part.
There wasn't very much.
Them bodies, they was crushed pretty bad.
Should have been more stains.
Question is, if it weren't the rocks that did all the crushing.
Lieutenant?
Well, I found them tools, Laney, as well.
Now, sir, they look pretty clean to me.
Oh, sure, sure, the killer cheated that.
But if there's any blood on it, you'll find it.
I will.
Oh, sure, you can't fool me.
I read up on all them newfangled police methods.
You'll just examine it scientifically.
Oh, you mean microscopic analysis.
Yeah, yeah, that's a ticket.
Oh, and I know you must have brought all that scientific apparatus along with you.
You can use my office for a laboratory.
Oh, thank you very much, sir.
Thanks.
Well, how's it going?
Who wants to know?
This Eric?
Heard 20 times a day he puffs his head in here, it's always the same bit.
How's it going, how's it going?
He's proud of you, John.
Just think, a real honest, good, and scientific criminal laboratory right here in his office.
I haven't touched a lamp, John, since I was a rookie in the force and working with a makeshift setup like this.
Stick with it, John.
You can't let the sheriff down.
I've done all I can do here.
I matched those blood samples from the rocks, and then I wired some information off to Carson City.
The boys up in the lab are checking it out for me.
You matched the blood samples?
Then that means the sheriff was right.
You did find blood in that crowbar.
Yes, that's right, yeah, but there's always a possibility that it wasn't Crowberry's blood.
All you say is...
Well, what about the wire around the timber?
Anything on that?
I checked on the timber myself with both rope and wire.
The wire does leave a similar abrasion, but I'm not certain yet.
Well, the sheriff wanted a scientific investigation, and that's what I'm going to try to give him.
Well, how's it going?
How's it going?
Huh?
How's it going?
How's it going?
Well, uh, we're not certain yet.
Yeah, you silly fellas, you're all alike.
Me?
I'm pretty hungry.
Do you have any in mind right now?
Yeah, yeah.
I think it might be a good idea if you would just ask a few more questions.
You mean before news of the murder angle gets out?
I agree.
Only this time, we're going with you.
We?
Yes.
Me and my little helper.
Uh, sheriff?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, excuse me a little.
I want to talk to you.
Keep your hands off me now.
Will you leave me alone?
I want to finish this straight now.
Let me go, kid.
Now listen here.
You ain't going to drag me outside in that sunlight.
It ain't good for a fella's complexion.
We ain't aiming to give you no beauty treatment, loco.
We'd like to have a little more information.
Now I told you fellas I don't know nothing about that mine.
I didn't even talk to Crothers about it.
Everybody knows it was worthless.
Everybody?
Yes.
His niece spread the word, said putting money into that mine is just like pouring it down a rat hole.
How do you know what she said?
Crothers told me.
I thought you'd never talk to him about the mine.
Well, maybe I forgot.
I forget easy.
Well, you better start remembering.
And what did Crothers say about his niece?
Did they have a quarrel?
Well, I guess they did.
He asked her for more money, and she got pretty mad.
Said he better start paying her back one way or another.
One way or another?
What are you fellas ramrodding me for?
Can't you find somebody else to bother?
Yeah.
Maybe we can.
♪
Oh, Mr. Merritt.
Have you found anything yet?
Nothing definite.
I'd like to ask you a few more questions, though, if you don't mind.
Where's Reed?
In the service station, I guess.
I'll fetch him.
We've been talking to Loco.
Loco, that troublemaker.
Well, I'm afraid he feels the same way about you.
He hinted that perhaps the mine was salted so you could get some of your money back.
Oh, that's a lie.
Warren knows nothing about the swindle.
Now, if you ask me, Loco's your man.
I wouldn't be too sure about that.
Found him at the gas station, all right.
He was packing, all ready to ski-daddle.
But I told you before, I've been planning to leave for weeks.
I thought you two were engaged.
I asked her to come along, but she wouldn't because of her uncle.
The old man stood in the way, that itch.
And after you get rid of him, you figure to sneak off.
What do you mean by that?
Maybe he can tell you.
You hear from Carson City?
Yes, Sheriff, I did.
Squalor, I'm sorry to have to tell you this,
but evidence indicates that your uncle was not the victim of an accident
in the assailant murder.
No.
Fred, why would anyone want to kill my uncle?
Why?
Whoever sold us that mine would have been alarmed
when the assailant went up there to investigate.
Well, Regan?
I can account for myself at the time of the accident.
I was right here.
And you?
Certainly, everybody in town knows where I was that day.
The cattle sale over in Bingham.
Well, Lieutenant, you're the fellow with the scientific method.
What do you do whenever everybody has an alibi?
Find somebody who doesn't have one.
Like Loco.
He said he'd never been near the mine.
Oh, or to get the ore samples.
What samples?
Well, the bartender over at the saloon tells me
Loco tried to give him some ore in exchange for drinks.
Now listen, Sheriff.
You fellas have got me all wrong.
I don't know who put that sack under my bed.
Somebody must have snuck in and just planted it there.
Oh, sure, sure.
Why didn't you bring them ore samples to me
instead of trying to paddle them to the bartender?
Now how did I know that they was to be phony?
This is a phony, all right?
Look here.
Silver on this side, nothing on the other.
This piece of rock has been injected and the ore
is nothing on the other.
Get out of my way, will you?
Yeah, sometimes you shoot it in with guns.
It's funny.
Here's one of the ore samples that Laura gave me.
She said she got it from her uncle.
It's entirely different from the others.
Not even the same kind of rock.
And look, the silver runs clear through this one.
You know, ever since I saw that cave-in,
I've been wondering about something.
Crothers and the assayer weren't found
anywhere near the old vein.
They were in the tunnel alongside the wall.
Maybe they were on their way when the roof caved in.
But the roof didn't cave in by accident.
The killer pulled down a particular beam
because he must have known the victims would
be standing at that same spot.
Only one reason for them to be there would be to dig,
but Crothers wasn't digging.
He had a crowbar.
He'd use that to pry something loose.
Boards alongside the wall.
Well, maybe we better get up to the mine
and do some digging ourselves.
No, I got me a better idea.
Loco, come here.
What are you staring at me for?
That ain't none of my affair.
It is now.
Loco, by the powers invested in me
by this sovereign state of Nevada,
I hereby appoint you my deputy.
Me a deputy?
That's right.
And your first assignment is to haul yourself up to that mine
and start digging.
Uh-huh.
Me digger, you dig.
It's the real thing.
Crothers did make his stride.
Yeah, he could see all this digging behind those boards,
but somebody else found out.
Well, I know the secret wanted to keep to yourself
from finding out the real value of the mine.
Yeah, it's Laura's mine now.
She stood to gain the most once her uncle was out the way.
What about her fiance?
Reagan, he wanted money to build a chain of filling stations
along the highway.
Yeah.
And Nick Hawkins, he wanted to buy the mine, debts and all.
Suppose he knew?
Say, how do you say the detectives track down a suspect?
Do you figure they give him all their third degrees?
Well, Sheriff, I'm afraid that's not part of the scientific method.
Sheriff, if you'll cooperate, I think I know a way
to get the killer here to you within an hour.
I guess what I have in mind.
It was simple enough.
All we did was tell them that Loco was up at the mine
with some crazy notion of digging to try and find the real vein.
As for us, we were on our way over to Carson City
to confer with the officials about the murder evidence.
Whoever the killer was would have to act fast.
Our only chance would be if we acted faster.
Loco?
Loco?
Are you down there?
Don't be afraid, Laura.
I knew you'd come here.
You followed me.
Only to protect you.
That won't be necessary, son.
Just sit back.
I knew you'd be around here.
Find anything?
Tell us the truth, Sheriff.
Was my uncle lying about his strife?
Well, I reckon it won't hurt to tell you that much.
No, Miss Carthage, he wasn't lying.
He did find a new vein.
Of course, he couldn't dig much by hand.
He'd have to blast.
Drop your gun, Sheriff.
Now stand over there, Sheriff.
Now, that's better.
Next.
Now, that's funny.
You never called me Nick before.
Well, maybe if you had, we wouldn't be here now.
Now, I heard what the Sheriff said about blasting.
That's what I intend to do.
Yeah, I got the whole set up right here.
After I lay the wire in the mine, well, then I'll go on outside and...
And leave us down there, is that it?
Uh-huh.
It looks as though you got caught trying to blast from the new vein.
Well, accidents happen.
You killed my uncle.
That was no accident.
Now, there's no time to argue.
Hey, you ever see dynamite planted?
Kind of an interesting operation.
Now, the trick is not to drop it.
All right.
In you go.
Drop the gun, Hawkins.
I don't see it's going anywhere.
You set it all up.
You waited for me.
We knew the killer would show up to destroy evidence of the real vein.
That's why you gave Carlin some money, wasn't it?
Huh?
He told you about his find, and you tried to frame him by salting the mine.
Well, you got rid of him, you figured to buy the peep, didn't you?
Well, keep talking, Sheriff.
I'm not admitting a thing.
You don't have to, Hawkins.
Your murder attempt here before witnesses is all we need.
Huh.
That's for scientific men.
Go on.
Get going.
Roger.
Look, Hector, we have to take that shortcut again.
It's time to go in.
Yeah, Bye-bye.