Towns people Will Set a Trap for Kidnappers

Originally Aired: September 9, 1935 Lum & Abner #191, "Towns people Will Set a Trap for Kidnappers," In this episode, Lum's scheme to fake Abner's kidnapping so he can stage a heroic rescue spirals out of control. While Abner hides comfortably at Lum's house eating his way through a winter's worth of canned goods, poor Lum is forced to join exhausting search parties scouring the mountains all night. Making matters worse, he's squeezing his feet into shoes three sizes too small because Abner's wife Lizabeth has been measuring everyone's footprints against the tracks left at the kidnapping scene. Lum's feet are swollen and his clothes are torn, but he can't risk being identified as the kidnapper. The situation becomes more complicated when Lizabeth calls to say she's delivering the fifty-dollar ransom money to the schoolhouse as instructed in the ransom note. Lum realizes he needs to rescue Abner before she pays the ransom, but the impatient and hungry Abner just wants to go home to his worried wife. As the episode ends, Lum frantically tries to prevent Lizabeth from leaving the money where someone else might find it, threatening to expose their entire scheme.