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About this Episode
Presents tales filled with suspense and intrigue, each episode unraveling mysteries that keep listeners engaged and guessing until the end.
Hosts & Guests
Transcript
Listen to Herbert Marshall as the man called X.
Wherever there is mystery, adventure, intrigue.
In all the strange and dangerous places of the world,
there you will find the man called X.
From the oil fields of Iran to the fertile delta of the Nile,
the smoldering coals of ancient hatreds of militant nationalism,
threatened to burst into a fiery inferno that could well be the start of World War III.
And who would there be to say whether such a flaming holocaust came into being accidentally?
Or was deliberately ignited as a weapon of destruction aimed at the Western democracies.
The time is 9.45pm.
The place, a dark crooked alleyway near the dark area of Cairo.
The fertile figure of a man moves cautiously,
hesitatingly through the black and colourful shadows of the Egyptian man.
Oh, why do I do these things anyway?
A guy could get his throat cut out here and for what?
A few measly bucks.
Believe me if it wasn't for that I'd never do it.
Where is Uncle Ahmed anyway?
He said he'd meet me here.
Where is he? Where is cousin Ismail?
Oh, where is anybody?
The eye of a friend is.
Oh, oh, Uncle Ahmed, it's so dark for a minute I thought you were somebody else.
Oh, you cure somebody else.
Quiet, Zilshmi, that is the blade of a knife you feel pressing against your throat.
It is?
Listen, there is a certain man aboard the British cruiser Hellenic out in the harbor.
A certain pusher can't thirst him.
He must board the Cairoport Saeed Express at midnight.
Compartment C3.
Within, he must have 100,000 pounds sterling.
Repeat that.
Cairoport Saeed Express, midnight.
Compartment C3, 100,000 pounds sterling.
You will see that he is there with the money.
Otherwise, your life will be fulfilled.
But what if he don't pour to go?
He will go, Zilshmi.
When you tell him that with the 100,000 pounds he will be able to purchase a half-penny stamp.
This story of Zilshmi sounds rather like a weirdy doesn't it, Kim?
It could be a trap, you know?
I doubt it, Jim.
I have a hunched pig on his uncle Ahmed could help us out on this.
I think they had done it.
Zilshmi said this knife-wielding character did mention the half-penny stamp.
Is it the one we're after?
It has to be.
What other stamp could possibly be worth a 100,000 pounds?
There's plenty of times that if it contains the data we want, then are we to find out?
Easy.
I'll be aboard the Cairoport Saeed Express at midnight.
It might take a bit of doing.
The Egyptians are very partial to us at this moment, you know?
I don't know a bit of this guy.
It's changed clothes.
Go on.
Go as an Egyptian merchant.
And I'll wait you your throat's cut before you leave the station.
I'll let you know how I come out.
No, no, no.
Hold on, Kim.
It might be decent enough to wait until I got my hat.
I'm going with you.
Are you sure this is the right car, Kim?
Yeah, there's no problem to see five.
Here we are, C3.
Come in, please, gentlemen.
Come in.
There's more than enough room for all of us.
Who you?
My name is Turos, gentlemen.
The Metro Turos.
This happens to be a private compartment, Mr. Turos.
Or in general.
Oh, yes, yes.
I was quite aware of that fact.
I have been waiting for you, Mr. Tristan, and for Commander Stevens.
How do you know who we are?
We have connections, sir.
But that is not important now.
What is?
The fact, sir, that I am a philanthropist, a STEM collector.
And my reason for being here is the same as yours.
A certain hip and a stamp.
What stamp is that?
Gentlemen, some five years ago, a British intelligence agent
managed to infiltrate into a certain organization,
a Middle East Strategy Committee, whose orders came from a city
which might well be called Moscow.
Am I correct, Commander Stevens?
You were saying something about a stamp, Mr. Turos.
Yes.
That agent managed to acquire quite a fund of information
about this committee, such as its concern with the Iranian oil situation.
It's interesting the anti-British riots in Egypt,
and he inscribed it all every fact, name, place,
upon the back of a hip and a stamp.
Well, come now, Turos.
One could hardly write a phone number on the back of a stamp.
Let alone all that data you'll mention.
As you know, the agent was a specially trained calligraphy,
one who could inscribe the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin.
So?
The agent was arrested by the committee and murdered.
The stamp disappeared.
It is now somewhere in Egypt,
evidently being sought by Russian agents,
by British agents, by certain Arabian potentates.
And by Demetro Turos.
Yes.
As you say, Mr. Turos, by Demetro Turos.
What's your interest in it?
Strictly financial.
That stamp is what a great deal of money to the interested parties I have mentioned.
Here, one of my cards.
I trust you will visit me one day soon at my home in Port Said.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Good night.
Well, now that you make of that, Ken,
one thing's for sure.
Our friend Turos is what informed about that hidden stamp.
She's not the man we came to meet.
Oh, that makes you think that?
Those blood stains on the carpet.
Blood stains on the...
Yes.
Right next to that window seat.
What in the world?
There's luggage space under that seat.
Let's take a look.
Yes.
Yes, indeed.
You think he was the man we were going to meet?
Yes.
And who slipped at knife into him?
Turos.
Could be.
And Turos must have the stamp.
I got it.
Why?
He would try to make a deal with the thought.
He would claim he entered the compartment by accident.
And there must be somebody else aboard the train.
You're being anybody.
Yeah.
May we come in, gentlemen?
No, you're in.
What do you want?
I am Edward Osmond Canal.
Egyptian military police.
The men in the corridor are my agents do not attend resistance, please.
What's your interest in us?
The cops under that seat makes the answer superfluous.
However, you are both under arrest for murder.
Raise your hands, please.
Can you raise them?
Better do as he says, Jim.
After all, it makes it easier to reach the emergency call.
Not for that if they do not...
No!
What about the major?
Not for this reason.
Are they sure he stays that way?
Judge Eugenius Kim, fully in emergency call.
There's certainly no time to mess around with the murder charge.
But where do we go from here?
Fort Saeed.
Fort Saeed.
The stamps aboard this train.
That's where it's headed.
The window, Jim.
Look out that way.
Come on.
Lovely city, Fort Saeed.
Despite the trouble we had getting here.
Though I must confess, I don't feel one bit closer to that stamp.
That's why I want to visit our friend, the Metro Taurus.
He's the only lead we have.
Yes, well...
According to the address in his car, there should be a zone.
Yes.
You'll go on and contact your agents in town.
See if they've learned anything.
I'll talk to Taurus here and we'll meet at the El Akba Hotel tonight.
Right.
Hello, Mr. Thurston. Welcome to Fort Saeed.
Well, loud.
And surprise to see me, Mr. X.
I should have known you were aboard that train last night.
What did you do?
See Taurus leave that compartment and follow him here?
That's right.
Only stood to reason you'd be showing up here, too.
So when the Taurus character left the house, I got in.
Yeah.
How long we've been here?
Only a couple of minutes, Mr. X.
Nobody else in the house?
No, not at all.
Well, what do we do now?
Look for a heap in the stamp.
The one worth a hundred thousand pounds.
Steering?
Yeah.
Well, that looks like a dental library over there.
Let's try it.
Hey, it's a piece of cake.
It's a piece of cake.
It's a piece of cake.
It's a piece of cake.
It's a piece of cake.
Hey, it's blacker in here than my ounce in obvious heart.
It's a lamp on this desk.
Hey.
Hey.
Huh?
Some joy, Mr. X.
I'll be plenty of dough in this stamp business.
And look at that painting of that cute cookie dancing.
Where are you?
Well, interested in stamps, not dancing girls.
Remember?
Oh, sure, sure.
So?
Where do we start, Mr. X?
I suppose we, uh,
we try those albums on this desk.
Hey.
Look at those books.
All covered with leather and stuff.
Artificial diamonds and stuff.
Oh, those diamonds are real paper.
Oh, sure.
I knew it all the time.
Would they ever put diamonds on the book?
That was real.
That's right.
Then what are we waiting for?
Let's grab those books and scrub out.
Oh, shut up.
Hmm?
Find something, Mr. X?
Yeah.
Take a look at this page.
What's that to look at?
Just stamps.
Hapen stamps.
Hey.
Hey, maybe one of them is that, uh,
the one that Joker said you should meet him on the train
so you could pay him often.
And it's worth almost a half a million bucks.
Yeah.
Let's check him.
But, but how are you going to do that, Mr. X?
What are you going to look for?
There are little plastic envelopes.
We can see both signs.
Look for writing on the back.
Writing or what kind of writing?
No, no, any kind of writing.
It just...
Shit.
My eyes.
I mean, it's a metal figure.
Mr. X.
Sleepy.
I'm sleepy.
Sleepy.
Sleepy.
Sleepy.
The lamp is the smog.
It's turning.
Turning up from the lamp.
Drug.
Been drugged.
Got to get out of here.
Oh.
Sure, Mr. X.
Gotta get...
Oh.
Hey.
Get up.
Get the lamp.
Drug's turning from the lamp.
Got it.
I got to turn it out.
Sorry.
Sorry.
We'll return to the man called X in just a moment.
Countries like people have their economic ups and downs.
And like people, the countries that cut to the roots of their problems
were the greatest ease, progressed the farthest and the fastest.
Our own country has become the envy of the world in this respect.
And why?
Because the better we produce, the better we live.
Throughout our history, living conditions have been geared to productivity,
improving with industry's vast strides, bringing shorter work hours,
more leisure time, and greater well-being to us.
And American production has taken place in a setting of liberty,
the liberty to work where one desires to profit from initiative and enterprise.
The American way has brought more benefits to more people than any other system in the world.
So that's what we mean when we say, the better we produce, the better we live.
And now act two of the man called X, starring Herbert Marshall,
with Leon Balasco as Pegon Zelchmit.
It is only a little colored piece of paper, a half-and-a-stand,
but on its back it contains information that could quench the rising flames of unrest in the Middle East,
or could lead to World War III.
And now Ken Thurston is in Port Saeed, Egypt,
searching for the stamp in the home of the Metro Turos,
a search that is suddenly terminated when he and Pegon come under the influence
of some strange drug.
So, first and ascended, you are regaining consciousness at last.
Yes.
Yes, looks as...
Well, who are you?
I am known as Erdery.
Does the name mean anything to you?
That picture on the war in Turos library.
For dancing.
I am flattered that you recognize me, ascended.
Hey, young, where is Greta here?
Your companion is sleeping comfortably in the cabin next to this one.
So we are about ships.
The Abdullah Bay, encoded in the harbor of Port Saeed,
it is my husband's yacht.
Husband?
You have already met him.
The Metro Turos.
That is quite correct.
Why bring me here?
Is it so difficult to fathom it, Andy?
We are all after the same thing.
The hip and the stamp.
No, it still doesn't make sense.
Unless you work with your husband Erdery or against him.
The Metro is a pig.
Does that answer you?
It gives me a general idea, yeah.
Well, then let me give you more specific ones.
On the Port Saeed waterfront, there is a cafe known as the Star of Heaven.
Tonight, in the Star of Heaven, you may be able to find the hip and the stamp that you seek.
That's interesting. Anything else?
I understand. It will be in the custody of one I have heard referred to,
only as the man with the third green eye.
Well, now for you enlightening, is it?
It will have to do. I have told you all that I know.
Yes, but why?
I wish that stamp to be in the hands of its rightful owners.
Not in the metros.
And I intend to make certain of that personally.
Oh, how?
If you succeed in obtaining the stamp, you will come back here to the yacht with it.
What should I come back?
There are two men wanted for a murder committed aboard the car of Port Saeed express.
A certain major Osman Kemal is in Port Saeed at this very moment.
He might well be interested in the whereabouts of one of those men.
Not very subtle about your threats, eh?
There is nothing very subtle about war, first on a Sunday.
Well?
I'll try to be back tonight.
No, these characters have cut your throat for nothing, even less maybe.
Why don't we give this person a couple of quick parties?
No, not until we find the things we're looking for.
What things?
I hate this stamp.
A man with the third green eye.
I don't know what kind of talk is that.
They're bad and they're fiendies, you're either.
For you are fiendy, the best coffee, black peak and hot coffee.
Thank you.
And for you are fiendy, highly milled pure and sweet from the cow.
Milled?
But I ordered a triple scar.
I changed the order.
What are you waiting for?
Not in your fiendy.
It has been paid for.
How do you like that?
First reloading, I get in six months and I'm hung up with Mill.
I didn't know his fiendy.
Who arranged it?
The proprietor.
Abdul, how've he's been?
How've he's been?
Yet that is his standing near the rear door.
Famous, the first one.
Yet how've he's been Joker?
He's there, yeah.
Thank him for us, waiter.
And here for you.
Oh, Sergeant, thank you, fiendy.
May the blessing of Allah be with you.
But Mr. X, look at that have he's been guy.
What sort of trouble he's wearing?
I see a tailor.
A brilliant green emerald.
Sure.
And it's sitting almost in the middle of his forehead.
A guy with a couple of drinks or two under his belt could even think maybe it was a third green eye.
Mr. Welshman?
That's right, the third green...
Better guest to us?
What do you know?
I know.
I can assure you that Abdul Harpysburn is the man with a third green eye.
And the man who has the stamp?
Quite nice of you to invite me so cordially to join your table gentleman.
The gun you've got inside that napkin says we have much choice.
Quite right, Mr. Toaster.
Though it is only 22 caliber, it would be quite deadly if aimed properly.
Well sir, shall we indulge in some friendly conversation regarding a hip and a stamp?
You must realise by now that I want it sir.
Want it very badly.
And before this evening is out, I shall possess it.
Then why waste time with me?
My dear sir, it is hardly a waste of time to remove the last obstacle from one's path.
You will notice that the band is playing louder.
And the music will shortly reach a pitch where the sound of two shots muttered in this napkin.
You will go entirely unnoticed.
Just like that eh?
Just like that sir.
Well at least the time for me to finish this coffee.
My face, my face!
Let's have that gun door open.
We'll get you first.
Let's have it for us.
I will...
What was the first one?
Come on that weird doll.
Yeah, but where are we going?
We've got a date to hang on.
The man with a third green eye.
What?
But why do we still hang around with Join's mysteries?
The rest of those jokers will be after us any minute.
How has Ben still got that hip and stamp?
And you think he's back here somewhere?
He's got to have an offer someplace.
Maybe this is it.
Mr. X.
Yes.
But who?
Why?
Take a look at his turban.
Mr. X.
The emerald.
The third green eye.
Yes.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
Missing.
So the man with a third green eye is there.
The first on a Sunday.
And I hope his stamp is missing once again.
Looks like it heard me.
Ah, this is too bad.
But at least there is one consolation.
The Metro did not get his filthy hands on it.
Yeah.
Well, I've kept my promise.
I was going to be going.
Well, well.
Major.
And you remember me, herstenefendi?
Sure.
Looks like you pulled a neat double closet.
Perhaps it would not have been necessary if you had returned with the hyponist stamp first in Fendi.
So you're in on this too.
What about that military police gag?
Melius, after a few years, to question you on Commander James Stevens at leisure.
Circumstances prevented that for both the train.
Nothing shall prevent it now.
What do you think you'll find out from me?
The present whereabouts of the stamp?
You think I'm the one who killed Havis Bellon to put a stamp on it?
No other explanation will fit the circumstances.
Major Kamal, stop questioning him.
He will tell us where it is hidden quickly enough.
Oh, you don't have to bother.
I don't tell you where it is.
But I won't get something straight first, huh?
What?
As I see it, Havis Bellon spread the word that he'd sell the stamp to the highest bidder.
And the vulture started gathering around.
Touros who had the money to buy it.
And the two of you sent me to the cafe to get it for you, so?
But you didn't figure that one of you would double cross the other.
What do you mean?
While Touros and I kept each other busy, one of you killed Havis Bellon to put a stamp.
Didn't you, Errie?
Well, you're lying.
Better not wear such spicy perfume.
The scent was still in Havis Bell's office.
Now, where's the emerald?
The one that's got the stamp concealed inside.
In your purse?
No.
No, no.
See you be from there.
No.
Okay, Major.
It's your move.
Sir, you did double cross me, Errie.
I should have known.
No, it's not.
Put away that gun.
You can't shoot me.
You can't.
Errie.
Gary.
Everything okay, Ken?
It's under control, Jim.
Thanks.
You heard everything?
It didn't miss a word.
Oh, they're very exciting at the end there.
And I must say we run up against this unsavory character of crew of characters.
It's ever been my misfortune to me.
Who are you to talk?
You filthy, capitalistic pig!
Some day we will prove to the world who the truly superior people saw.
Oh, sure.
You're certainly trying hard enough.
Using the double cross.
Murder.
Even war.
Or maybe someday you'll learn that there are no superior people.
Only a couple of billion human beings who want to live together in peace.
Who pray they won't have to fight to get it.
Now here's our star, Mr. Herbert Marshall.
Thanks for being with us.
And my thanks to Lucille Meredith,
John Dana, Ed Begley,
John Stevenson,
and Rue Krugman.
Next week, South America.
The baston of the Aronoco River,
where I believe it on,
a turn of dynamite,
and one Pegon's ultimate,
produce an explosion of fittings of whole country.
Pegon?
They're on the desk, of course.
So join us, won't you?
When next time I return,
as the man called ex, good night.
The man called ex starring Herbert Marshall is a J. Richard Kennedy production
with music by Milton Charles.
Tonight's story was written by Sydney Marshall.
This program is directed by Jack John Stone.
All characters and incidents on this program are fictitious.
And any resemblance to actual characters or incidents is purely coincidental.
And now until next week, same time and station.
This is Hal Gippney saying,
good night for the man called ex.
This is NBC, the national.
