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It's
always a chancy business to give a lift in a car to
a pretty girl hitch-hiker and even chancier to give
one to a released prisoner. Jason King finds the plot
for his next Mark Caine novel when he does so!
Jason
King (PETER WYNGARDE) is not the sort of man
to ignore the thumbing of a pretty girl hitch-hiker,
so he finds himself with a very attractive companion
on his journey to his villa in the South of France when
he gives a lift to a girl named Felicity (MICHELE
DOTRICE). He is less enthusiastic about the idea
of stopping to pick up a man who hails him further along
the road, but Felicity persuades him to do so.
He
therefore has a second passenger, Lanz (LEWIS FIANDER),
and finds himself driving straight into the plot for
his next Mark Caine novel. For one thing, Lanz has a
tin box in his possession; for another, he is very scared
when he realises that two men are following them in
another car. This is why he suddenly hands over the
box to Jason, asking him if he will deliver it to an
address in Avignon. He leaves the car when the
they reach the next fork in the road.
Lanz
is, in fact, a newly released prisoner. The two men
following him are Dacre (FREDERICK JAEGER) and
Sandro (GARY RAYMOND). They have been waiting
for his release, and they want what he has got. When
they corner him, and he refuses to talk, Lanz is killed.
Dacre, though, has recognised Jason King and manages
to obtain further information to help him in his hunt.
Meanwhile,
Jason has opened the tin. It contains a Bible. A perfectly
ordinary Bible except for the fact that on one page
some of the letters are pin-punctured. The coded message
reads: "LE JEUNE. CROIX. TRIANGLE". The intrigued Jason
mutilates the page so that no-one else could read the
message and duly delivers the tin to Lanz's sister (IRENA
MAYESKA), who is completely baffled. So are Jason
and Felicity, who work hard at trying to understand
the message. It is only after Felicity has suggested
that it might refer to a place that Jason hits on part
of the solution, which takes him to a village named
St. Paul Le Jeune.
It
is here that he discovers that the other words represent
signs used by tramps. A tramp called Mistral (REG
LYE) is induced to reveal that the triangle indicates
a woman and the cross that she is a generous woman.
One such local woman is an artist, Zoe Ballard (LYN
ASHLEY), who tells him that she often allows tramps
to stay in a stone cave on her land, and it is here
that Jason finds the answer to the mystery. Under a
slab is a heavy metal chest, its contents the stolen
money Lanz has hidden there and which Dacre and Sandro
are seeking - and a full explanation which Lanz has
had the forethought to provide by sending a letter to
Jason.
But
Dacre and Sandro are now there as well.......
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