Ranger Bill, Warrior of the Woodland.
Struggling against extreme odds, traveling dangerous trails, showing rare courage in
the face of disaster.
In the air.
On horseback.
Or in a screaming squad car.
Ranger Bill, his mind alert, a ready smile, unswerving, loyal to his mission.
And all this in exchange for the satisfaction and pride of a job well done.
Hear that?
Makes your hair stand on end, doesn't it?
It's a mighty ghostly, scary sound, and that's a fact.
Oh, by the way, I'm Ranger Bill, back again.
Most of you know me by now.
I've been the United States Forest Ranger out here in this part of the west for a long
time now.
My job is mostly conservation.
Taking care of our great natural resources, woods and waters, animals and birds.
It's a wonderful job that I have, and I like it.
Sometimes though, it can be dangerous.
That's all part of the day's work to a forest ranger.
Our work deals with real people and real things.
Wild animals and trees and mountains.
But once we had to deal with something that wasn't real, something that seemed to come
from another world, something unseen, unknown, supernatural.
That strange, wild, eerie wail you heard a moment ago was the signal for the uncanny
adventure I call the Abominable Snowman.
Shut that window.
Here we are in a skyscraper, 40 stories above the street, and yet that traffic noise will
drive you crazy.
Shut the window, I say.
Yes, Mr. Carstairs, right away.
That's better.
Now a fellow can think.
Let's see, where were we to hewn?
I was just about to read you more from the encyclopedia here about the Rocky Mountain
Big Horn Sheep.
Oh, yes, of course.
Well, go on, go on.
What am I paying you for?
Yes, sir.
Sorry, sir.
The Big Horn Sheep is thought by many experts to be the most difficult animal to shoot in
all the ranks of big game.
Ha, ha.
That's for me.
Go on.
Living as it does in the Rocky Mountains above the Timberline, and even in the area of perpetual
snow, it is a real hardship to pursue.
Snow country, eh?
That's what it says, Mr. Carstairs.
The immense animal with its huge curling horns nevertheless has an uncanny ability to run
and jump on steep slopes where even a man cannot possibly climb or crawl.
Sounds better all the time.
Keep reading.
Possessed of keen eyesight and hearing, the animal can almost never be approached to within
logical rifle shot.
The slightest sound or movement easily seen and heard in the bare open spaces above the
Timberline is enough to send the Big Horn Sheep out of sight in an instant.
Is that all?
It says here that the animal is very rare because it makes such a prize trophy that
big game hunters value it above everything else.
Hmm, big game hunters, eh?
Who's the most famous big game hunter you ever heard of?
Why, you, sir.
Yes, me.
Craig Carstairs, millionaire sportsman.
That's what the newspapers call me.
Why, I've shot every kind of big game animal there is.
Rhinostras, elephant, lion, in India, tigers.
I have the world's record of Kodiak bear, the world's record of African buffalo.
I have them all, heads and horns all mounted, hanging on the walls of this penthouse apartment
in New York.
Yes, sir.
But there's one I haven't got.
And that is?
The Big Horn Sheep.
And that's the one I'm going to get.
That's beautiful, Stuffy, beautiful.
Why the concerts so early in the morning?
Well, I'm practicing for our high tone visitor.
I figured a fellow response to him ought to be serenaded with a harmonica concert.
Might be a good idea at that.
But tell me, how did you know we were due for a visitor?
I can read the papers, long as the print ain't too small.
Look here, right on the front page there.
Bigger life and twice as natural.
Craig Carstairs, world famous big game hunter and millionaire sportsman planning to visit
Naughty Pine.
Mr. Carstairs will be in this year's territory sometime in order to incongerate a campaign
to shoot a world's record Rocky Mountain sheep.
Mr. Carstairs is the holder of many world's records for big game and wishes to incorporate
a pair of Big Horn Sheep horns into his collection of trophies.
What's a trophy?
Trophies, Stumpy.
The mounted head of some poor animal that's been shot to satisfy the ego of a man like
our friend Mr. Carstairs.
Well, he ain't my friend.
He might be...
Oh, it looks like he's coming now.
Hey, just feast your eye on that hat with the fancy feather in it, would you?
Here I go.
Come in, please.
Are you the forest ranger?
I am, sir, and at your service.
What can I do for you?
I'm Craig Carstairs.
You've heard of me, Craig Carstairs, a gentleman hunter.
Yes.
They told me down at the state capitol that you were the man to see.
Said you had to check my hunting license.
Oh, yes.
Then, too, we like to sort of get acquainted with anybody who's setting out for the mountains.
Why?
Well, they're pretty big mountains, you know.
Nonsense.
I know my way around.
I can take care of myself.
I see.
I'm out here to shoot a world's record Rocky Mountain sheep.
I wonder what the sheep will think about that.
What's that?
No, nothing, nothing.
May I see your license, Mr. Carstairs?
There it is.
Now in order.
I wish to hire a guide.
I pay top prices plus a bonus after I get the sheep.
I spend money, but I always get what I want.
Right now, I want the best guide money can buy.
Well, the best guide we have out here doesn't guide for money.
If I can persuade him to take you, you couldn't be in better hands, though.
Doesn't work for money.
Well, what's the matter with him?
Is he crazy?
No, he just happens to love animals, that's all.
Since this license here gives you permission to shoot a big horn, he'll go along to protect
your welfare up there in the mountains and to protect the big horn, too.
I don't need to be protected from a sheep.
No, but suppose you only wounded it.
I never miss.
But if you did, it would be up to the guide to see that the wounded animal was not left
to die in agony.
Very pretty speech, but let's get the guide.
Well, I'll talk to him and then let you know.
You let me know?
This character must be the world's greatest white hunter.
He ain't one of them high and mighty white hunters.
In fact, come to think of it, he ain't a white hunter at all.
He's an Indian.
How much farther do we have to go?
How much longer do we have to wait?
Not far and not long.
We go around this bend, maybe see a big horn up ahead.
You're there for sure.
I hope so.
We've been hunting a big horn for three weeks.
Three weeks not long to hunt big horn.
Some men hunt many years, never shoot one.
Well, not me.
What I hunt for, I find.
Find and shoot.
Well, let's go.
You got breath back now?
Sure.
Keep flat on ground.
Don't make noise.
Big horn see far and hear good.
All right.
Careful now.
Soon we get to top of ridge, we see big horn ahead.
You go first.
Move slow.
Ah.
What you see?
Yeah, a magnificent ram, a record pair of horns.
How far away?
700 yards, an easy shot with my scope.
You need not stay there too long.
Oh, what a shoot.
All right, big horn.
This is your finish.
I'm taking aim.
Now I've got your shoulder lined up.
Front and rear sights.
Oh, I'll just...
Hey, Rusty, there he is.
Hooray, we found him.
Big horn game gone.
We not find him for two or three months now.
In another half second, I'd have pulled the trigger and had his horns for a trophy.
That shouting scared him away.
Who was it that shouted?
Who was it?
I demand to know.
You sound like boy.
I'm not deaf.
Who was it?
I'll have him arrested.
I'll have him put in jail.
Boy not break law.
This free country.
These mountains, yours, mine, boy's.
Boy can come here and shout and yell and have fun.
But this is hunting country.
Ordinary people should be kept out.
It's God's country too.
Boy have as much right here as millionaire hunter.
Oh, is that so?
Well, we'll see about that.
Stalk an animal for three weeks and then have him scared away by some kid yelling like a
lunatic.
I'll see to it that everybody is kept out of these mountains until I get what I want.
Well, I'm sorry you lost your sheep, Mr. Carstairs, but that's the luck of a hunter.
I demand you do something about it.
Do something?
Yes.
I demand you issue orders to keep people out of these mountains, out of the whole territory
until I get my sheep.
That's ridiculous and impossible.
Those mountains are free to everyone.
They're not your mountains any more than they're mine.
Just because some boys on a hike happened to see that sheep just when you did.
Boys?
Then you know who did the shouting?
Of course.
They came in here all happy and excited to report they'd seen a big horn.
And did you arrest them?
Are they in jail?
I'll prosecute them to the full extent of the law.
What for?
Why for?
Well, for disturbing the peas, that's what.
Oh, that's nonsense, Mr. Carstairs.
You had some bad luck, but it's nobody's fault.
You mean to sit there and tell me you won't do anything about it?
There's nothing I can do or would do.
Hello?
Hello, Cuddler?
Yes?
This is Carstairs.
I'm calling from Notty Pine.
Did you get your big horn?
No, that's what I'm calling about.
I nearly got one, but some boys scared it away.
Too many people up in those mountains.
If I could keep the people out, I'd have a chance to get that big horn.
Now listen.
Oh, right here was where we were last week, Grey Wolf, when we saw the big horn.
I was here with the boys' brigade.
And we were on a hike, a nature hike.
You know what a nature hike is?
A nature hike, good thing.
Boys learn about trees, flowers, animals.
Yeah, yeah.
I guess that rich man was mighty mad at us.
Or at me, I mean, because I hollered to the other guys when I spotted the big horn.
How you find this out?
Oh, he's staying down at the hotel in town.
And he told the waitress that's Rusty's mother.
And she told Rusty, and Rusty told old Hank, and Hank told his little brother, and his
little brother told me.
But you're not worried.
No, not now.
I told Ranger Bill, and he said it was OK.
Say, what's that rich guy staying around here for anyway?
He want to shoot big horn.
He want record pair of horns.
Hmm, I see.
That's why he doesn't want anybody up in these mountains but him.
So he can be sure and get a shot at that big horn without anybody around to scare it away.
I think he'd go home.
No, no, no.
He's still here.
Hey, do you think that old big horn will show up in this mountain peak today like he did
last week?
Maybe so, maybe not.
Big horn sheep, very shy.
Get big scare and go back in far hills up in snow.
Don't come back in long time.
Yeah.
Well, it's always like this.
Lonely and scary up here, isn't it?
Yeah.
Lonely on timber line, no trees, grass, just rocks.
It's getting, getting towards sunset.
We wait.
You watch for big horn.
All right.
What's that?
I don't know.
Is it a mountain lion?
Is it a mountain lion, gray wolf?
No, not mountain lion.
Was it a bird?
No.
Gray wolf, maybe we better be heading for home.
I'm not much interested in seeing that big horn sheep after all.
I'm pretty sure he's not coming.
Gray wolf, let's go home.
Okay.
What's making that awful noise, gray wolf, some animal?
No, not animal.
A man?
Don't sound like man.
Indians call this barren land above timber line home of ghosts.
Ghost country.
Gray wolf, was that a ghost?
No such thing as ghost, but...
But what?
It sounded like ghost.
I've known you since we both were boys, gray wolf.
And I regard you as one of the most level-headed men I've ever seen.
Yet this story, you tell, it has me buffaloed.
Are you sure you heard that sound?
I sure, bro.
Now listen.
You've gone to college.
You're a sensible man.
Yet you stand there and tell me this wasn't made by a man, an animal, a bird, or the wind.
That's crazy talk.
That doesn't leave anything but the supernatural.
You're not right.
Man, don't tell me you believe in ghosts.
I think you not heard sound.
No, what next?
We at place now, where Boy and I hear bad sound yesterday.
Good.
Well, come on.
Let's wait here a while.
All right.
Oh, don't tell me that you're...
Oh, very well.
You might as well rest and catch your breath.
It's a tough climb up here and there's no...
We will...
We go home now, huh, Bill?
No.
Not right away.
That sound...
It beats anything I ever heard.
I think...
We not go ahead either, huh, Bill?
No.
Here, get the wooden box out of the knapsack on my back.
Right there.
Hand it over.
Thanks.
What you do?
What's that, Bill?
This is a portable tape recorder.
If that thing howls or wails or screeches again, I'll get it on this tape and I might be able
to study it and find...
There.
I've got it.
I'm obliging to it to serenade us again.
Here, slip this box back in my pack again.
All done, Sid.
Now what we do, Bill?
Well, to be truthful, I don't want to go looking for that thing any more than you seem to want
to.
Like to have some kind of an idea of what I'm looking for before I go rushing ahead.
All right, let's get back to the office.
I have some research reading ahead of me, Gray Wolf.
Then we'll come back with rifles.
What do you want?
I thought I told you not to be seen talking to me.
Well, I was going to slip a note under your door here in the hotel, but this was too good
to keep.
What's too good to keep?
I was down in the general store tonight getting some groceries.
There was a lot of people there.
So what?
Well, everybody was yapping about that terrible howling and screeching up in the big game
country.
It seems that kid's been talking his head off.
He heard it, and it liked to scare him to death.
Isn't that a pity?
More yet, listen to this.
Mr. Hot Shot Ranger and his man Friday, that educated redskin, they heard it too.
And the Indian.
The Indian just ain't talking.
He's scared too.
Hey, you certain sure that their high-powered portable cannon of yours is loaded?
This rifle?
Oh, it's loaded all right, Stumpy.
So on, freeze up, will she?
Man, it's snowy and cold up here above the timber line.
Man must be crazy to come up here, especially when he's hunting for a spook.
What are we hunting for anyways?
I'm not sure.
Well, you've come a long ways.
If all we're hunting for is nothing.
Hey, watch them up ahead.
Bar tracks?
Man, they high up for a bar.
Come on, let's find out.
Well, pound me down and call me shorty, if that ain't the peculiarist tracks I ever did
see.
Fresh snow must have fallen last night.
Fresh tracks, perfectly clear.
But what kind of tracks, Bill?
Well, looks like a huge bear.
Yeah, but them ain't no bar tracks.
Maybe a giant ape, a gorilla.
You daffy too.
No gorillas up here on this snow.
No benneed monkey tracks.
Could it be a man?
A man?
Look here, these ear marks.
Looks like something was dragging.
Like a tail.
A big tail.
Bill, I'm getting powerful cold.
Oliver shouldn't like it.
I'm getting the pneumonia.
I'm going back right out of here.
We gotta get home immediately, right now.
Say, boy.
Boy.
Who, me?
Yes, come on over here.
I want to talk to you.
What is it?
Do you know who I am?
Yes, sir.
Everybody in town does.
You're Mr. Carstairs, the million, the big game hunter.
Right.
I called you over to ask you, well, I've asked everybody else in town.
Do you know where I can get a guide to take me up into the mountains, into the big horns, sheep ranges?
No, sirree, I don't.
Nobody's going up in them mountains anymore.
Not nobody.
Not since...
Not since what?
Not since that wailing and screeching's been going on up there.
Oh, yes, seems I have heard something about that.
Do you mean to say people are afraid to go up there now?
Well, maybe not afraid.
They just don't want to go.
How about you?
Me?
I wouldn't go for a million dollars.
Why not?
Me?
Up there, where... where that thing is?
Not on your life.
The abominable snowman.
What did you say, mister?
Nothing.
Nothing of importance.
It doesn't make sense.
It just doesn't make sense.
Bill, plenty of people hear this and stay out of mountains.
It can't be possible, Grey Wolf.
Plenty of people see tracks in snow, tracks made by things.
See tracks.
Come back and stay out of mountains.
It can't happen here.
Boy, tell you that millionaire man tell him about snowman?
Yes, and it tallies.
It all adds up, but I still can't believe it.
Did you read that article in the encyclopedia that I marked for you?
Yes.
It bears out what we heard.
That recording we made parallels the description in the article.
What those hunters from Milk River say up there agrees with the article.
Let me see that again.
It just can't be.
For centuries there has been a legend that high in the Himalayan mountains, in India and the land of perpetual snow, there lives a strange creature, part bear, part ape, part man, shaggy, with a long tail, walks upright and has a piercing, ghostly cry.
People who hear it or see it are invariably terrified.
It has never been captured or shot.
The thing is known as the abominable snowman.
What do you think, Bill?
You think we have this snowman in our mountains?
People here think so.
What do you think, Grey Wolf?
I see.
What do you do now, Bill?
I'm going to go hunting.
I'm going to find this thing and end this reign of terror.
And one other thing, Grey Wolf, we're taking Mr. Millionaire Sportsman Craig Carstairs along with us.
No.
No? Why not?
He left for a mountain this morning with rifle and pack.
He left alone.
All right.
We can settle with him later if we have to.
Grey Wolf, my friend, we're going after the abominable snowman.
There it is.
Not far now.
We've trailed it to its den, I think.
We've been over a snow line three, four hours.
Followed tracks high up into the valley.
Yeah.
Nothing up here but snow and ice.
Let's go.
You got rifle ready?
Sure, but I don't want to use it unless I have to.
I want to capture this thing alive if I can.
You have the net ready?
Net ready.
This net like Animal Trainer used to catch wild beasts.
All right, come along.
Slowly though.
Oh, grace.
It goes closer now.
Yeah.
Can't be very far away.
Been trailing it at a fast pace.
Must be getting tired.
Or else.
Or else what?
Or else it's decided to turn and attack us.
We'd be ready.
Yeah.
Watch close now.
Lots of tracks here.
Must be near its den.
Easy now.
Let's go around this summit of snow very cautiously.
Bill.
Yeah?
That place where ice make roof.
Yeah?
Underneath.
Where it dark, you see?
You see it.
Yeah.
I see it all right.
Shaggy matted hair covering the body.
Yeah?
Long tail, big claws.
Big teeth.
The face of a prehistoric monster.
Get ready, Gryff.
We'll rush it.
It can't get out of this gorge.
It comes this way.
You take your end of the net.
Got it.
Now, I'll take this side.
And don't forget, I have the rifle.
Hey, you.
Whatever you are.
Are you coming out of there peaceably?
Who or what are you?
If you won't come out, we'll go and get you.
Okay, come on, Gray Wolf.
Fast and quick.
That's it.
Hurry up.
I got it.
He's not even tied.
He can't move.
All right.
All right now, monster.
I'll just get a good hole in the shaggy head of yours.
Pull.
And off comes your mask and wig.
I expose the abominable snowman.
It's a man.
Yes.
A man dressed in monster clothes.
Yes.
A man registered at the hotel as Mr. Cutler.
Did Carstairs put you up to this?
Yes.
Might as well let me up.
I won't try to get away.
Carstairs erred me to pretend to be mythical abominable snowman.
I've been a ski instructor and an actor.
I had this outfit made up.
It came here in his orders to scare people out of the mountains so he'd be free to hunt.
He paid me $5,000.
All this just so he could shoot a wrecked pair of horns.
What are you going to do to me?
You don't know yet.
Our next job is to find Carstairs.
He's up here alone in these mountains.
That's no good.
He said he was going to Rocky Ledge Ridge.
Two hours from here.
Come on.
You too.
See anything of him, Grey Wolf?
No, but I hear.
Listen.
I hear him.
Where is he?
This is rifle.
Down the ground.
Up there.
There he is.
Halfway up that steep, silver shale.
His heel's caught somehow.
He's hanging practically head-downward.
Nobody can get a foothold in that loose shale.
I try, Bill.
Stop fighting.
Get your foot loose.
Stop fighting.
If you struggle, you bring down more rocks.
Hold on up.
Head coming.
We'll sit here and rest.
We've got a long hike ahead of us before we hit the timber line.
Mr. Jefferson, Grey Wolf, I'm ashamed.
What can I do?
Your colleague Cutler is going to give the high school gymnasium the $5,000 you paid him to impersonate the monster.
It's the least I can do.
That and apologize.
I'll double that amount.
Triple it.
But I wish I could prove to you how repentant I really am.
Look.
You want record big horn ram?
Over there.
400 yards.
Perfect shot.
There he stands.
The world's record head if I ever saw one.
Go ahead, Carstairs.
You'll never get a chance like this again.
Go ahead.
If you want that ram, shoot.
No.
No, I've seen how you men spend your life saving animals and people.
Your way of life has taught me a lesson.
I'm going to let that big horn sheep go back to his mountains where he belongs.
Craig, I know you're supposed to be the world's greatest big game hunter.
But I found out just now you're more than that.
You're a man.
Well, that's about it.
Carstairs and his actor friend did help the gymnasium fun.
But what was really important, they learned that bragging and showing off don't help you when you're in trouble.
And incidentally, we have the costume in our little museum, the one worn by the fake abominable snowman.
Well, see you next week for more Adventure with Ranger Bill.