Lum Answers Ad in Newspaper

Originally Aired: January 15, 1940 Lum #244, "Lum Answers Ad in Newspaper," finds the partnership between Lum and Abner severely strained after a disastrous misunderstanding. Lum has just returned from Mexico, Missouri, where he fled believing the government was after him for running an illegal post office. It turns out Abner, along with Dick Huddleston and Grandpappy, deliberately withheld information that the case against Lum had been dropped, wanting to teach him a lesson. After Abner had to travel to Missouri and bail both Lum and Cedric out of jail for vagrancy, Lum is furious about the deception and the ordeal he endured hiding, riding freight trains, and nearly starving. Despite Lum's anger and threats to end their partnership, the two men grudgingly realize they need to work together. They turn their attention to their stalled tourist camp project, where streetcars sit waiting to be converted into cabins. With only nine dollars in the cash drawer and needing at least a hundred and fifty dollars for furniture and supplies, the partners face a familiar problem: another ambitious venture with no money to complete it.