The Tom McRothen straight shooters are on the air from coast to coast.
So let's get going!
Up, Tony, up, boy, up!
The mystery of the day of Wales!
Tom Next is face to face with one of the strangest and most startling mysteries of his career.
Sent by the government to the Bay of Wales to investigate the mysterious disappearance of hundreds of valuable whales,
Tom, Wrangler, Pecus and Jane find themselves in the midst of a thrilling adventure.
Right now, in a small motorboat, we find them out on the ocean where a number of whales killed that day have strangely vanished.
It is night. There's a heavy fog.
Suddenly, they hear the eerie moan of a foghorn very close to them and see coming straight at them through the mist, they...
But wait!
First, here's your pal, the old Wrangler.
Howdy, street shooters, howdy!
Every now and then, somebody tries to tell me a cold breakfast is just as satisfying as good old Ralston.
Now can you tie that?
Why, shut!
Just plain common ordinary horse sense tells me that during cold weather,
what we all want is a good hot nourishing cereal to warm us up from head to toe and start us off right for the day.
Now, your ma and pa don't drink their coffee cold, do they?
Of course they don't.
They drink it hot, and that's just the way you want your cereal.
Hot? Yes, sir.
So take a tip from an old cowhand who's bucked many a blizzard.
Saddle up every morning with a hot dish of nourishing Ralston for breakfast.
Now, Ralston isn't just an ordinary cereal, no, sir.
Ralston actually gives you more natural vitamin B1, the cowboy energy vitamin,
than any other nationally popular brand of wheat cereal.
And is it delicious?
I hope it is the most tangy it is.
I'll ask you more to get your written white checkerboard package tomorrow.
And now, let's join Tom, the Wrangler, Pecus, and Jane in a small boat out on the Bay of Wales.
Coming toward them through the night in the fog is the weird sound of a foghorn.
Listen.
Tom, I'm scared. Do you think...
Now, steady, Jane, steady. Just hold on to yourselves, all of you.
Any minute now, we may...
Look home. There she is. By that great corral, there she is.
I don't believe it. But she's coming straight for us.
Full rigged sails billowing in the wind that isn't there.
It's the Flying Dutchman.
Tom, you mean to say that scooter's sailing toward us out of the fog?
It's a ghost ship.
What else can it be, Wrangler? Everyone knows the Flying Dutchman is a ghost ship.
Shunrishan.
This year must be one of them our mirages, Tom.
A minute ago, we couldn't see nothing in this fog.
And now, now we can see that ship as plain as a Mark and Dota pinnacle.
Yeah, you're right. It just doesn't make sense.
There's a strange light about that boat. It kind of glows white.
I reckon it's on account if it's a ghost ship.
Look, it's coming straight for us. Another minute and the ship's crashing into us.
Tom, don't you think we'd better start the artboard and get out of here?
Chuck, yes. Let me at it. I'll start the darn thing.
Better be quick about it, Pegasus. We ain't got much time.
I've never seen a ship like that. It's not making any noise except for that fog horn.
You can't even hear the bow cutting through the water or anything.
Ghost ships don't make no noise.
Now, I got it going.
Hey, let's get the trail out of here. Can you make it go faster?
Wait a minute. Cut that motor.
What did you say, Tom?
Cut that motor, Pegasus.
But, Tom, that ship is a-hitting straight for us. It'll run us down.
If it's a ghost ship, it won't. We're staying right here.
Tom, have you gone loco?
Please, Tom, let's go.
Now, take it easy. There's nothing to worry about.
That boat isn't going to run us down. In a minute or two, it's going to disappear.
Disappear?
Yeah. I've got an idea what that flying Dutchman is.
What is it, Tom? What is it?
I won't say until I'm certain, Pegasus.
Tom, look at it.
Yeah. The tower and the hour above us.
It's going to be down on top of us any minute.
Jim, I'm mad.
Wait, I said. Wait.
We're going to crash. We're going to crash.
Steady. Steady all of you.
Hold your head. Here we go.
Look. See there? She's turning. She's turning broadside toward us.
Man alive, Tom. I ain't never seen nothing like this.
The sails are billowing out like a gale is blowing.
And Tom, flying from the stern is a pirate flag.
Yeah.
A skull and crossbow.
Great Josephine. It's a skull and crossbow showing up.
Now, what do you know about that?
Look. She changed her course. She's moving away from us now.
Yeah. Yeah, she's getting smaller. Smaller.
Okay, Pegasus. Now you can start up that motor. Let's go.
That suits me just fine.
After the flying Dutchman.
That's the way I like to...
What?
I said we're going after the flying Dutchman.
Tom, did you say we're going after the flying Dutchman?
That's right. I did.
Quick, Pegasus. Follow that ship.
Tom, if you knew what to tell me to fall open my horse in the middle of a stampede, I'd do it.
So here we go.
Flying Dutchman is disappearing past.
Tom, why do you want to chase it if it's a ghost ship?
It's not a ghost ship, Jane. And what we just saw was a...
Now it's gone.
Great, Tom. Ain't nothing now but the fog.
There's a sign of that fog.
Wait a minute. Listen.
There.
There she's gone.
All right, Pegasus. We'll head back to the factory ship.
Now you're going, you old man.
Here we go, Aunt Marlowe.
And now, it's early the next morning,
and we find Jane talking to Captain Johnson aboard the factory ship.
And you mean to say, Captain Johnson, that there's more than one kind of whale?
I always thought whales were whales.
Oh, there are many kinds of whales. Let me see.
Well, there's the Greenland whale, the Atlantic Light whale, the Humpback whale, the Fin whale,
the Bottlenose whale, the Blue whale, the Pacific Grey whale,
and the kind of whale we catch down here, the sperm whale.
My goodness. Well, what makes the whales blow the way they do?
Every time they come to the surface, they blow a big cloud of spray into the air,
like a geyser at Yellowstone Park.
Well, that's exactly what it is, a geyser.
You see, Jane, when the whale dives under the water, he's got to hold his breath.
When he can't hold his breath no more, he comes to the surface.
And the blowing of the whale, or the spouting, as we call it,
is caused when the whale lets his breath go after holding it so long.
Oh, I see.
Now, while we are getting off the subject, I was going to tell you about baleen.
Oh, yes, yes. What is baleen, Captain Johnson?
Baleen is the whale's name for whale bone.
Now, whale bone has many uses, you betcha.
For example, oh, hello, Mick.
Hello, everybody. Well, I see you're up early, Janey.
Yes, Tom, I had breakfast with Captain Johnson in his cabin.
Well, what do you know?
And Tom, do you know what we had for breakfast all the way down here at the Bay of Whales?
It couldn't have been Ralston, could it?
Tom, how did you know?
Well, I just figured whalers probably like something for breakfast,
and they'd warm them up and stick to their ribs.
Yeah, that is right.
You know, Mick.
Yeah?
I can't sleep all night thinking about what happened to you with Flying Dutchman last night.
I didn't sleep much myself thinking about that.
It is all over the ship already.
My men talk about nothing else.
You see, Mick, there is something to a sailor's superstition after all.
I don't think so, Captain.
What we saw last night was something that wasn't actually there at all.
Of course. You saw the ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman.
No, no, you don't understand what I mean.
Well, never mind. The important thing is this.
I want to investigate the cove of the Flying Dutchman as soon as possible.
Now, Mick, I warn you.
I'd like to have some of your men come with me on one of the chaser ships right now.
That is impossible.
Yeah?
They're not one of my men who will go with you.
You don't seem to understand.
The cove of the Flying Dutchman is haunted.
Everybody knows that.
That is why no one will go there.
Well, I don't believe in ghosts, Captain.
I'll tell you what we'll do.
Vegas and Wrangler and myself will take the small boat, the one we used last night,
and we'll go by ourselves.
I can't let you do that, Mick.
But, Captain, I...
Mick, you listen to me.
You represent the government, yes,
but I am the captain of this ship and I give the orders.
If you try to get into the cove of the Flying Dutchman in one of the small boats,
you will be smashed to bits from the rocks.
You will all be killed.
Even an ex-first sailor wouldn't stand a chance.
You may be right, Captain, but if we're going to clear up this mystery,
we've got to investigate the cove of the Flying Dutchman.
But how can we do that?
Tom will do it all right.
If he says it has to be done, he'll do it.
There she blows!
Look out!
He's sighted a school.
Far away!
Four points off the port beam!
Well, we must be off.
You wish to come with us again, Mick, or do you want to stay behind?
Oh, no. We'll come, Captain.
I'm particularly anxious to go on this whale hunt.
Yeah, particularly anxious.
This is foul weather, Mick. Foul weather.
Yeah, thank heaven that bail ahead of us is the last one.
I agree with you, Captain.
Blast my father if my stomach ain't beginning to feel like it's sitting on a bucking grove.
That fair whale ahead of us on the shore is a mighty big one, ain't it?
Yeah.
But we was hurry to mark the bail, so we picked them up in the morning.
If they're still here.
They'll be here.
If they're not, my friends and I won't be here either.
What are you saying?
Captain, Pegas, Rangel and myself are going to stay out here again tonight.
Only this time we're not going back to the factory ship first.
We're staying here when you leave.
No, no. That is not possible, Mick.
There's a storm coming.
You know, listen to the rain.
Look at the wave. I can't see you alone here in an open boat.
We've got to stay here, Captain.
We take the time to go back to the factory ship and then come out here.
As we did last night, I'm positive those whales will be gone.
You are right.
Very well, then. We stay with you.
Oh, no. You don't do that.
This chaser boat's much too big.
Pegas, Rangel and I will use the dory with the outboard motor attached to it.
Whoever's stealing the whales won't notice a boat that small,
but they'd spot a chaser boat at once.
If you get caught out here in the storm, the storm that is coming...
We'll have to risk that.
But this is our one chance to find out how those whales disappear.
And we've got to take it.
Mick, you have great courage.
There's a storm on the way,
and yet you will stay out here in an open boat
waiting for heaven knows what to happen.
We've got a job to do, Captain, and we're anxious to do it. That's all.
You think maybe tonight you'll find out how the whales disappear?
I think so.
As I said before, when you get back here in the morning with the factory ship,
the whales will be here.
If they're not...
Yeah, if they're not...
I think we may have at least some idea of how they disappear.
With a storm coming on,
Tom, Mick, the Wrangler and Pegas
are planning to risk their lives in an open boat
alone at night upon the sea.
What will happen to them?
What will they discover about the mystery of the vanishing whales?
For a thrill a minute, don't miss Tom Mick's tomorrow at 5.45
when exciting things happen.
And great day in the morning,
don't miss the mouth-watering flavor of good old roasting another day.
If you didn't enjoy roasting this morning, then enjoy it tomorrow.
Believe you me, it's an honest to goodness Western dish-a-go plum loco over.
Served up steaming hot with plenty of cream and sugar, yum, yum, and double yum.
It's the tastiest dish your taster ever tasted.
Yes, sir, it is.
And roasting, it'll make a straight shooter out of you.
You bet your boots it will.
Now ask your mom to get you a written white checkerboard package of Roelston tomorrow.
Tell her it puts the B1 in breakfast.
Well, sir, I'll be a baggier baboon with bushy eyebrows.
Look at, it's roundup time.
So let's get going.
Up, Tony, up, boy, up.
This is the old wrangler reminding you to fight for victory by buying defense bonds and stamps.
Don't forget to listen to Tom Hicks tomorrow at 545.
Good night.