Jack Armstong, All American Boy

The Devil's Castle, Chapter 14

Date: Sep 19 1946


<p><span style="text-decoration: underline">CAST</span>:<br />
JACK ARMSTRONG<br />
BILLY, pal<br />
VIC, pal<br />
ROWERS, scientist<br />
SERGEANT, state trooper</p>

<p>(Fifteen-minute program presented over ABC Network five days a week)<br />
Script by Paschal N. Strong</p>(OPENING COMMERCIAL)

ORGAN AND VOICES: Jack Armstrong..... Jack Armstrong ..... Jack Armstrong.....

BOB: The All-American Boy!

ORGAN: THEME:

BOB: Wheaties ..... "Breakfast of Champions" ..... bring you the thrilling adventures of Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy!

ORGAN: THEME OUT:

BOB: Today we're saluting a baseball champion ..... a hard-hitting first baseman who's thirty-two years old today.

Who am I talking about, you ask? Well, I'm referring to Nick Etten of the New York Yankees ..... a fellow I think you'd like to know.

Nick is a quiet sort of a guy ..... not one to push himself forward. But at the same time, he does a terrific job. In fact, Nick is the only first baseman since Lou Gehrig's day who has held this job with the Yankees for two full seasons.

Now, Nick, like so many champions, is a Wheaties eater. And here's what he says about the famous "Breakfast of Champions" .....:

"When breakfast time comes around, just bring on the milk and the fruit, and the Wheaties, Breakfast of Champions, and I'm ready to go!"

So, why not take a tip from Nick Etten? Build your breakfast around big bowls of those flakes of one hundred-percent whole wheat, with plenty of milk and fruit.

Try 'em, won't you? That General Mills product -- Wheaties, the "Breakfast of Champions."

(LEAD IN)

ORGAN: DRAMATIC CHORD:

ANNOUNCER: And now, Jack Armstrong in "The Adventure of the Devil's Castle."

ORGAN: MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE:

ANNOUNCER: In the laboratory of the Devil's Castle, Vic Hardy and Billy are staring at Jack with amazement. For Jack has just told them that he knows who killed the brilliant scientist, Dr. Seybold. Many startling things have happened since they found Dr. Seybold's body slumped over his desk in that lonely stone house in the Pennsylvania mountains, the house which a fanatical hermit calls the Devil's Castle. First, they found the hidden dictograph which told how the crime was committed. They discovered that Dr. Seybold had perfected an outstanding device to use cosmic rays to unlock the electrical energy of the atom, and that the murderer had stolen half of the device but couldn't find the other half. Jack and Vic found the other half, and have it well hidden. But then Dr. Seybold's body disappeared before the police arrived, and was later discovered in the hermit's cave by the lake. Dr. Seybold's lawyer, Mr. Kent, arrived, and later Professor Rowers, who offered to help Jack reconstruct the missing half of the atomic device. And then the wild hermit came up with his superstitious mountaineers in a vain effort to destroy what they thought was the devil's workshop. But right now, a bit dazed from recent events, Jack and Billy and Vic are alone in the electrical laboratory, and Jack has sprung his great surprise. Listen:

BILLY: Jack! Did you say that .....

JACK: I said I know who the murderer is, Billy. And he'll be here in just a minute.

VIC: All right, Jack. Who is he?

JACK: Professor Rowers, Vic.

VIC AND BILLY: Professor Rowers!

JACK: That's right. And the lawyer, Mr. Kent, is his accomplice.

BILLY: Well, great whales and little fishes! I ..... I can't believe it, Jack. And here we were, talking to him just before the hermit arrived.

JACK: That's right. I wasn't sure until the hermit got here. Then, when Professor Rowers wouldn't stay to meet the hermit, I knew.

VIC: Are you just guessing, Jack? Or do you know?

JACK: Let's call it an educated guess, Vic.

BILLY: Well, go ahead. Tell us how you found out. And quick ..... before they come down from the tower.

JACK: You remember, Billy, there was something familiar about Professor Rowers. You noticed it too. We couldn't quite place it, but .....

BILLY: But it was as though we had met him before.

VIC: That's odd, Jack. I had that queer feeling too. But I didn't mention it. After all, Professor Rowers telephoned from Pittsburgh the morning after the murder.

BILLY: And I know I never met him before to-day.

JACK: You met part of him last night, Billy.

BILLY: Part of him?

JACK: Yes ..... his voice.

VIC: Jack ..... do you mean that his voice is the same voice as the one on the dictograph record?

JACK: That's right, Vic. It's the same voice we heard talking to Dr. Seybold ..... just before the shot was fired.

BILLY: But ..... but that voice was smooth and drawn out, Jack. Professor Rowers speaks with short, jerky sentences.

VIC: Of course, he might be disguising his voice now.

JACK: Not now, Vic. He disguised it when he killed Dr. Seybold. He had worked with Dr. Seybold before ..... years ago. He hadn't planned to kill Dr. Seybold at first. He wore a mask and disguised his voice so Dr. Seybold wouldn't recognize him.

VIC: Hmmmm. I do recognize a slight similarity between the two voices, Jack, as I remember them.

BILLY: But ..... but he came back and stole the dictograph record, Jack. He's destroyed it by this time. We can never prove it's the same voice.

VIC: Just a minute, Jack. There's something wrong with the picture. He couldn't have come back and stolen that record. We know he was in Pittsburgh about that time. We checked on the telephone call.

JACK: That's right, Vic. That's where Kent comes into the picture. He stole the record. He came in with the police, remember. He discovered about the record, in fact, he played it back. So he destroyed it after we went to bed.

BILLY: Then he ..... he was the one who tore up the study looking for the magnetic concentrator.

JACK: It had to be he, Billy. That's how I connect him with the case.

VIC: All right, Jack. Let's check your theory with the facts that we know. The body disappeared just before the police came. Rowers could have taken it away.

JACK: He took it through the underground coal mines to the hermit's cave.

VIC: All right. Maybe he wanted to throw suspicion on the hermit. After that, he would have to get back to Pittsburgh.

BILLY: He had plenty of time to do that. He didn't telephone until early this morning.

JACK: That's right. Said he saw in the papers about the murder ..... and wanted to help us with Dr. Seybold's invention.

VIC: Hmmm. And it was Mr. Kent who vouched for Rowers. Said he was a good friend of Dr. Seybold's.

JACK: Well, he used to be. But they parted company years ago.

BILLY: But where does the hermit come in, Jack?

JACK: That's where I'm guessing, Billy. We know that the hermit is a fanatic, but he's sincere. My guess is that Rowers has planned this thing for years. When he parted company with Dr. Seybold, he knew that the doctor might succeed. He had lived here with the doctor ..... somehow he discovered the old underground exit to the coal mine and the cave.

BILLY: But I don't see how the hermit .....

JACK: I've found out that the hermit only moved into that cave two years ago. That probably upset Rowers' plans to get into the house through the cave from time to time. But he made the best of it. He posed as a religious man. He told the hermit that evil was loose in this house. He probably convinced the hermit that Dr. Seybold was trying to destroy the world with an atomic bomb.

VIC: Hmmm. That could be. And he hoped to throw suspicion on the hermit by taking the body to the cave.

JACK: But then he couldn't afford to let the hermit see him in this house. The hermit would know he was a fake.

BILLY: Now I get you, Jack! That's why he made some excuse and left this room ..... when you said you'd bring the hermit in.

JACK: That was all I needed to make sure, Billy.

VIC: I believe you're right, Jack. But we haven't a shred of evidence. If the police get hold of him, we'll never find where he's hidden that energizer. And we've got to find it.

JACK: No use even telling the police, Vic. They'd laugh at us. Rowers has a reputation as a well-known scientist. We've got to keep this to ourselves for a while.

BILLY: You mean, we've got to work with those two murderers, and pretend they're our friends, and .....

JACK: That's just what I mean, Billy. It'll be a game of wits between us. We're after that energizer which Rowers has, and he's after that magnetic concentrator which we have.

VIC: Jack is right, Billy. It's going to be a dangerous game. But whoever wins will have the complete cosmo-tomic energizer.

JACK: And if they win, they can't dispose of it in this country. They'd have to do it abroad.

VIC: And some foreign country having all the electrical energy they want for nothing. We'll be reduced to a pauper country.

BILLY: Golly! We are playing for big stakes! Jack, I don't understand one thing. Why is the lawyer, Mr. Kent, mixed up in this with Rowers? He's got power of attorney for Dr. Seybold. He could demand that we give over the concentrator.

JACK: Right. But then he couldn't use it for himself. He's in cahoots with Rowers because they've got to get the device without anyone knowing that they have it.

VIC: We've got to plan our campaign, Jack. First of all, we've got to find out where Rowers has hidden the energizer.

JACK: Correct. And that'll be a tough job.

BILLY: Why, it might be right here in the Devil's Castle.

VIC: Or it might be anywhere in the old coal mine under the house!

JACK: And he might have taken it to Pittsburgh after he killed Dr. Seybold.

BILLY: We could hunt for it for years!

JACK: We've got to find it quickly, Billy. Or he'll beat us to the punch.

VIC: Here's what we'll do, Jack. I'll arrange to have the police sergeant come in and tell us that his men have found the energizer.

BILLY: But what good will that .....

JACK: I get you, Vic. Rowers will find that hard to believe. But he'll be worried just the same.

VIC: He'll be so worried that he'll go back to where he hid it, just to make sure it's still there.

BILLY: And if he goes to Pittsburgh, we'll know he took it home.

JACK: Listen! I think I hear Rowers coming down now.

VIC: I'll go and find the sergeant, and ask him to break in on us with the news.

JACK: But don't tell him why.

VIC: I won't. We'll have to dig up more evidence before we tell him about Rowers. (GOING) I'll go now.

BILLY: Jack, I don't know if I can talk naturally to Rowers ... when I know he's the murderer.

JACK: You've got to, Billy. If he suspects that we know about him, it'll make our job a lot harder.

BILLY: Yeah, and he'll bump us off at the first chance. (DOWN) Here he comes now, Jack.

JACK: (UP) Hello, Professor Rowers. Feel better now?

ROWERS: (COMING) Much better. Wonderful thing, mountain air. Hermit gone, I see.

BILLY: (SOTTO VOCE) It is the murderer's voice, Jack!

JACK: (WRYLY) Yes, the hermit is gone, but not forgotten.

ROWERS: Eh? How's that?

JACK: He destroyed the secret drawings.

ROWERS: Destroyed the drawings! Can't believe it!

BILLY: Well, he did, just the same. He snatched them off this table and threw them into the fireplace.

JACK: He did it so quickly we couldn't stop him.

ROWERS: Terrible. Quite a fanatic, the hermit.

JACK: So now we can't reconstruct the energizer. Unless you know enough to build one without the drawings.

ROWERS: Difficult. Very difficult. Dr. Seybold worked for years. Only one thing to do.

JACK: What's that?

ROWERS: Catch the murderer. Catch the murderer and find the energizer.

BILLY: You're right, Professor Rowers. We've certainly got to catch the murderer.

ROWERS: Could be the hermit, you know.

JACK: Yes, it could be.

ROWERS: After all, found the body in his cave.

BILLY: Do you think he's the murderer, Professor Rowers?

ROWERS: Don't know. Seems likely. Queer sort of fellow.

JACK: But he wouldn't have stolen the energizer.

ROWERS: Who knows. Wants to destroy it. Suggest we look in cave.

BILLY: (SLYLY) You wouldn't want to come with us, would you?

ROWERS: Hardly think so. Matter for police. I say, Mr. Armstrong ..... or Jack. Don't mind my calling you Jack, do you?

JACK: All my friends call me Jack.

ROWERS: Good. Proud to be your friend. I say, Jack, if you'll show me the magnetic concentrator, may help. May get some ideas for the energizer. After all, did work with Seybold, you know. Years ago.

JACK: I'd rather not just now, Professor Rowers. Too dangerous for you.

ROWERS: Dangerous?

JACK: I'll say. Don't forget the murderer is still around loose. And he may be right here in the Devil's Castle.

ROWERS: (STARTLED) Eh? How's that?

JACK: He may be hiding here in the house. After all, he seems to know this place like his own home. He'll kill to get that energizer.

BILLy: (INNOCENTLY) And you're much too valuable to the country, Professor. We couldn't possibly risk your life until we catch the murderer.

ROWERS: Ridiculous. If I'm to help, must insist on seeing concentrator.

JACK: I promise you can see it, Professor Rowers, just as soon as we catch the murderer.

BILLY: (SOTTO VOCE) And a lot of good that'll do you, Professor.

ROWERS: Can't agree, Jack. Must see it now. Hate to do it, but will ask Mr. Kent. He has power of attorney.

JACK: Not power of attorney over the police, Professor Rowers. And the police are taking care of it. By the way, where is Mr. Kent?

ROWERS: Oh, roaming around somewhere.

BILLY: (SOTTO VOCE) Yeah, looking for the concentrator.

JACK: Here comes the sergeant now, Professor Rowers.

BILLY: And here's Vic too, Jack! Say, he looks as though he has important news!

JACK: (UP) What's up, Vic? You look pleased as Punch.

VIC: (COMING) We're getting somewhere, Jack. The energizer has been found.

ROWERS: (STARTLED) The energizer! Found? Why, why that's wonderful!

BILLY: (SOTTO VOCE) Boy! That threw the Professor for a loss!

VIC: Tell us about it, Sergeant.

SERGEANT: Not much to tell. I had my men looking, here and other places. One of them found it.

ROWERS: But I say! He wouldn't know what it looked like.

SERGEANT: We got a description of it from the drawings.

ROWERS: Where did they find it?

SERGEANT: Right where the murderer hid it. And I'm not telling anything more until we pick him up.

ROWERS: Then, then you don't know who he is yet?

SERGEANT: Not yet. But we'll find him.

ROWERS: Splendid. Jack, when you get the energizer, let me know. I can help set it up.

JACK: But aren't you staying here until we find the murderer, Professor?

ROWERS: Waste of time. Matter for police. Go back to Pittsburgh until you're ready for experiment.

BILLY: Aw, don't go back to Pittsburgh, Professor. Wait till we catch the murderer.

ROWERS: Sorry. Important matter to attend to. Take Mr. Kent with me. He wants to get back, settle the estate, you know. (GOING) But I'll come back soon.

SOUND: DOOR CLOSING:

JACK: (DOWN) Boy! He couldn't wait to get away!

SERGEANT: Now look here, Mr. Hardy. I did what you asked me to. What's it all about?

VIC: We'll tell you later, Sergeant. It's nothing you can act on now.

SERGEANT: (DOUBTFULLY) Well, if it weren't for the reputation you and Mr. Armstrong have .....

JACK: When we can prove who the murderer is, Sergeant, we'll tell you at once.

SERGEANT: All right. I'm going to the hermit's cave. I've got some questions to ask that guy. (GOING) He knows something he won't tell.

VIC: We're getting places, Jack. We know that the energizer is in Pittsburgh.

JACK: Right. Rowers is going back to check on it. We'll follow him in and see where he's hidden it.

VIC: And I'm going to be armed, Jack. If he finds us in there, he'll know we're on to him.

JACK: I'll say. He'll have to kill us then. Come on, Billy, let's get our things. We're going to march right into the lion's den!

MUSIC: ORGAN: DRAMATIC TAG:

(LEAD OUT)

ANNOUNCER: Right into the lion's den! And you can bet that there is going to be plenty of fireworks in that particular den when Jack and his friends arrive. You won't want to miss it, so listen in, all of you, to the next thrilling episode of "The Adventure of the Devil's Castle," with Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy!

(CLOSING COMMERCIAL)

JIM: This is Jim Butterfield, and I'm wondering ..... are you satisfied with the progress you're making in sports? Are you sold on the game of football or baseball you're playing? Or do you figure, with some expert coaching, you could play a heck of a lot better?

Well, look. If you want coaching, I'd advise you to find out about the Wheaties Library of Sports. These seventeen books are especially written for kids like us. They're full of action pictures, and hot coaching tips on almost every major sport, tips that will help you play a better game.

It's a swell deal, this Wheaties Sports Library. What's more, it ties right in with the Breakfast of Champions idea ..... that eating right, and the right kind of exercise, are mighty important in helping you and me grow up strong and healthy.

Now, eating right means putting away three good meals a day, starting with a nourishing breakfast. Say, one built around big bowls of those whole wheat flakes, Wheaties, with lots of milk and fruit.

As for the right kind of exercise ..... well, you'll read about the Wheaties Library of Sports on your orange and blue package of Wheaties ..... Breakfast of Champions.

Why not check up on the Wheaties Sports Library today?

MUSIC: THEME:

JIM: This is Jim Butterfield .....

ANNOUNCER: (CUTS IN FAST) and Bob McKee .....

JIM: ..... for General Mills, makers of Wheaties, Breakfast of Champions ..... who invite you to listen again tomorrow to another exciting episode of Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy!