The Long Way Home

Get this and get it straight. Crime is a suckers road and those who travel it wind up in the gutter the prison of the grave. There's no other end, but they never learn. From the pen of Raven Chandler, outstanding author of Prime Fiction, comes his most famous character in...

The Adventures of Philip Marlow. With Gerald Moore, starred as Philip Marlow, we bring you tonight's exciting story. The long way home. A valley floor gave off the kind of heat that ate into you, stayed.

I wondered why some 800,000 people voluntarily made the San Fernando Valley their home. That was their problem. My problem at the moment was to make a right turn off Riverside Drive, and I did. Four or five blocks north I saw the name on the Redwood Post by the driveway.

Mr. and Mrs. Enis Hopper. Yeah, this was it. I drove in the drive into the cool oasis, an orderly wilderness of pepper trees, palms evergreens, and everything else I'd ever seen grown in Southern California.

The house sat well back on the lot very neat, also Redwood to match the post by the driveway. I got out of the car and walked across the grass toward the slightly stooped figure clipping their heads on the far side of the lot.

I didn't hear you coming. Sorry, I hope I didn't frighten you. I'm Philip Marlow, you Mr. Harper. Oh, yes, yes indeed, Mr. Marlow. I'm glad you're here. Here, I'll pull up this chair. Oh, I'm sorry, I'll get it.

It's all right. I've got it now. No. Eh. Eh. Sit down, Mr. Marlow. Oh, how about you? Well, if you don't mind, I'll keep on flipping the hedge here while we talk. I feel better doing something, you know.