Around Dodge City and in the territory on west, there's just one way to handle the killers
and the spoilers and that's with a US Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
Gun smoke starring William Conrad, the story of the violence that moved west with young
America, the story of a man who moved with it, Matt Dillon, United States Marshal.
Mr. Dillon, would you mind stopping at the alfaganza here for a minute?
Pretty early in the day, isn't it, Chester?
Oh, I don't want a drink.
The bar keeps holding some money for me.
I won a little last night and I didn't want to put it back in the gauge.
Ah, but you want to get it now so you can put it back tonight, is that it?
Yes, sir, I'm afraid it is.
Mike, coming for your money, Chester?
Yep.
Hello there, Marshal Dillon.
How are you, Mike?
Well, here you are, Chester.
Three, four, five, six.
Thanks, Mike.
Here, buy yourself a drink.
I sure will.
See you tonight, Chester.
Sure.
Excuse me.
Yeah?
I heard the bartender call you Marshal Dillon.
Well, that's right.
I got something to tell you, Marshal.
Go ahead.
It's important.
Oh, okay.
You're going to die, Marshal.
Who are you, mister?
Wilbur Hawkins.
I'm a whiskey drummer.
First time I've been to Dodge, though.
I worked around St. Louis till they sent me out here.
I acted better in St. Louis.
There are lots of important people there.
Wait a minute.
What are you talking about?
You're going to die, Marshal.
I heard them saying something.
You heard who saying so?
I don't know their name.
It was dark and they weren't there long.
I didn't dare say anything or they'd have known I was listening.
And then, of course, I'd never heard of you till just now, that is.
You're not making much sense, Mickey.
Oh, it makes sense all right.
You see, I rode the Santa Fe out here from St. Louis and one night I was all wrapped
up trying to sleep.
And these two men came by and stood there in the aisle.
One gave the other three hundred dollars.
He said it was to kill Marshal Dillon.
But he didn't say where.
So, of course, I didn't know till just now.
Is that all you know about it, Mr. Hawkins?
That's all, Marshal.
I've done my duty now.
I'll be going.
Goodbye.
Well, what do you make of that, Mr. Dillon?
I don't know, Chester.
He acts like crazy.
I don't know whether to believe him or not.
No.
But I suppose we'll find out sooner or later.
The prisoners sound asleep already and it's only just got dark out, Mr. Dillon.
Well, he's got nothing else to do till Tom Smith gets here.
Is that who you're holding him for?
I thought I told you, Chester.
Yeah, but Tom Smith's your affitasco, Zane.
Sure.
Why?
I thought this fellow was wandering in Abilene.
No, they never heard of him in Abilene.
That's why I wired Tom.
I'm going out back for a minute, Chester.
I think I left my new bridle on the hitching rail out there.
Yes, sir.
Well, I better get this place swept up a little bit.
That's a good idea.
Mr. Dillon!
Stay there, Chester.
Stay there.
Mr. Dillon, you've been shot.
I was trying to play possum, Chester.
I wanted to get him to come up where I could see him.
Oh.
But he's gone now.
You've scared him away.
You're down down the alley there.
He'll be lost in the crowd, but now...
Oh, I'm sorry.
Well, it doesn't matter, Chester.
What?
He probably thinks I'm dead.
So I'll just go on playing possum.
How do you mean?
Come on, let's go up to Doc's office.
I'll tell you there.
What do you say that whiskey drummer's name is, man?
Wilbur Hawkins, Doc, but you never heard of him.
This is his first time in Dodge.
Well, you think he'd have sense enough to follow those two men there, find out who they
were.
Yeah, he was probably scared to death, Doc.
Yeah, and anyway, he kind of acts like he got hit by lightning, somewheres.
Even when he's standing still, he gives you the feeling that he's sort of walking sideways
like a crab, if you know what I mean.
No I don't, but I'd sure think twice before asking you to explain, Chester.
Well, what is it you have in mind to do now, Matt?
Nothing, Doc.
Nothing?
No, Chester's gonna do the work for a while.
I'm just gonna sit up here in your office and wait.
Wait?
Wait for what?
Well, when Chester spreads the word around that I'm dead, whoever wants me that way is
gonna make his play.
He'll come right out into the open and do whatever he's got planned.
And then I'm gonna give him a little surprise.
Oh, Mr. Dillon, that's a wonderful idea.
Now, why didn't I think of that?
You better get going, Chester.
I'm kind of anxious to meet this man, him and his gunman.
Yes, sir, but only one thing.
Think the boys are likely to run a little wild when they hear you're not around to keep
the lid on things?
Yeah, they might.
That will have to take a chance.
Okay, sure.
I'll get started.
Well, I kind of think Chester's right, Matt.
There's a lot of men and dads who are just waiting for an excuse like this.
If it gets too bad, I'll just have to come to life again.
Oh, yes, it's a turner.
Tell me something, Doc.
What are you gonna do to entertain me while I'm waiting up here?
Say, I never thought about that.
Oh, I suppose I gotta feed you, too.
You'd be a mighty poor host if you didn't.
Well, how long do you figure on staying here anyway?
I don't know, Doc, but I don't think it'll be very long.
Now, you want to play a little cribbage or should rather fix supper first?
You're the first dead man I ever saw with an appetite.
Well, I'll go get the cribbage board, but I'm making no promises about supper.
Doc, what time's it getting to be?
Ah, let me see.
It's nearly midnight, man.
How long are you gonna wait here?
Well, till something happens, I guess.
Chester will let me know.
Town seems quiet enough so far.
Maybe nothing's gonna happen.
They didn't try to kill me just for the fun of it, Doc.
No, no, I guess not, man.
All right, answer, Doc.
After I get to the back room.
Maybe it's a patient.
I'll be holding a gun on him anyway.
I'm coming.
What are you doing here at this time of night?
I might tell you if you ask me in, Doc.
Of course.
Come in.
Where's the corpse, Doc?
What's that?
The body.
I expected to find him all laid out.
Oh, you mean Matt.
You, uh, you're not gonna tell me?
I expected to find him all laid out.
Oh, you mean Matt.
You, uh, don't seem too upset about the corpse, Kitty.
Oh, all that talk didn't fool me.
Just didn't make sense, Chester, running around telling everybody you've been killed.
No, why not?
I know Chester too well.
If you were dead, he wouldn't be acting like that.
No, I guess he wouldn't.
Where is he anyway?
I haven't seen him for a couple of hours, but most everybody else believes it, Matt.
Oh, they do, huh?
Mm-hmm.
Good.
I don't know what you're up to, but I figure someone's been trying to kill you.
Is that right?
Yeah.
Ambush, Kitty.
That's not the way he's telling it, Matt.
Not the way who's telling it.
I never saw him before, but there's a man standing at the bar of the Texas Trail bragging about
outdrawing you.
You mean he's admitting he killed me?
I kind of thought you'd like to know.
Thought you, Matt.
This is what you've been waiting for.
Is there anybody with him, Kitty?
No.
He's alone as far as I know.
Anyway, you better come to life again, Matt.
There's going to be trouble if you don't.
There hasn't been any trouble yet, has there?
No, but they're working themselves up to it.
Yeah.
Well, maybe I better not wait any longer.
But I'd like to take that gunman's employer along with me, though.
You can find out who it is, Matt.
Beat it out of him.
You better come with me, Kitty, so you can point this man out.
And you take cover in case he wants to fight.
Any man who's coward enough to shoot you in the dark isn't going to face you now, Matt.
Maybe not, Doc, but you never know.
There he is, Matt.
Tall, falling in the black hat.
He's kind of drunk.
OK, Kitty.
You wait outside when I see how he's going to behave.
OK, Matt.
Good luck.
Thanks.
I'm Marshal Dillon, mister.
Oh.
Who are you?
I'm Tom Rogers.
I thought you was dead, Marshal.
That changed my mind.
What do you want?
You've been bragging about shooting me.
Just talk, Marshal.
I didn't mean nothing by it.
I was just talking.
Kind of dangerous talk, don't you think?
Everybody said you was dead.
Well, I was waiting for you to come out of your hole, Rogers.
You know, I don't like getting ambushed.
Marshal, I never even seen you before.
I didn't ambush you.
All right, turn and face the bar while I take your gun.
Go on.
I ain't going to try nothing.
You got the wrong man, Marshal.
OK, you can turn around.
You can't arrest a man just for talking.
The jail's right across the street, Rogers.
You lead the way.
Well, it was just talk, I tell you.
You can't prove nothing.
Get going.
Well, I swear I didn't try to kill you, Marshal.
Straight ahead, Rogers.
When we get there, you're going to do some more talking.
I want to know who hired you.
Nobody hired me.
I ain't even got a job.
Hey, Mr. Dillon, I want to tell you...
Mr. Dillon, what are you doing out here?
Who's this fella?
His name's Rogers, Chester.
He's been bragging about shooting me.
I was just having a little fun.
I ain't no gunman.
It doesn't take much of a gunman to try to ambush a man.
But I didn't do it, Marshal.
I heard him talking about it, and I don't know why I started saying I had done it.
Mr. Dillon?
What's the matter, Chester?
Mr. Dillon, as I'm away up the dock, I was coming to tell you something.
Well?
I've been over at the Alaporganza.
I declare, I just don't understand it.
Well say it, Chester.
Yes, sir.
Well, there's a fella over there, and he's been bragging about shooting you, too.
What?
Yes, sir, that's right.
He's saying he out-drawed you and killed you.
Of course, he's a little drunk.
Yeah.
Of course he is.
So it was Rogers here till I scared him sober.
Sure.
Sure, I've been drinking, Marshal.
I wouldn't have talked like that if I'd been plumb sober.
Here.
Here's your gun, Rogers.
You turning me loose?
It's like you say, Rogers.
You're just a big talker.
What about the fella over at the Alaporganza?
I don't even want to see him, Chester.
He'll shut up fast enough when he hears I'm still around.
And you go on back to the bar, Rogers, unless the men laugh you out of town.
Yes, sir.
I'm sure sorry I done it, Marshal.
All right, get going.
Sure, I'm going.
I don't know what's the matter with me, Chester, not figuring this.
I might have known there'd be at least a couple of drunks wanting the reputation for having
killed me.
Yes, sir.
Doggone it.
Now we're right back where we started from.
Yeah.
Hey, maybe that whiskey drummer was lying, too.
No, you're forgetting I got shot at, Chester.
And there's a man somewhere and I'd still waiting to kill me.
We will return for the second act of Gunsmoke in just a moment.
But first, this Monday night on most of these same CBS radio stations, here Ida Lupino and
Edmund O'Brien in the stirring screenplay adaptation of The Star on the Luxe Radio Theater.
It's a hard-hitting drama about a has-been who attempts to come back in a juvenile role.
This will be Luxe Radio Theater, drama at its best.
Monday night at The Star's address.
Now the second act of Gunsmoke.
It wears a man down living from day to day, waiting for a bullet in the back and not knowing
who to expect it from or when.
Makes you feel kind of helpless.
And before long, in spite of everything you try to do to stop it, you get kind of spooky
and you start shying at the most ordinary noise, especially if it comes from behind
you.
No way to stay alive because this is the one time you need to be as calm and clear as you've
ever been in your life.
Well, I had a week of it and nothing happened until Chester came into the office one day
with a telegram from Sheriff Tom Smith at Tascosa.
I thought I'd better get right over here at this, Mr. Dillon.
Might be important.
Well, you told me it was from Tom Smith, Chester.
Yes, sir.
It is.
Well, if you know that, how come you don't know what the message is?
Oh, well, I didn't read it too close, Mr. Dillon.
Here.
Thanks.
He's coming for his prisoner.
You'll be here on the stage day after tomorrow, the way I figured.
Anything else?
What?
Well, is that all it says here?
Yes, sir.
That's all.
There's just one thing you missed, Chester.
What's that?
The date it was sent.
It got delayed somewhere along the line.
Tom's due in the day.
He is?
Yeah.
What time is it?
About noon again.
That stage ought to be here right now.
Come on, let's go see.
All right.
Well, there it is, Mr. Dillon.
Must have pulled in just a minute ago.
I don't see no passengers, though.
Well, that may be because they haven't got out yet, Chester.
Here they come.
Ain't that Tom Smith?
Yeah, that's him.
Who's that other fella?
He looks kind of familiar.
That's Wilbur Hawkins, Chester, that little whiskey drummer.
Oh, yeah, he's a good guy.
He's a good guy.
The whiskey drummer.
Oh, yes.
Well, now, I've been wondering where he's been.
Matt.
Matt Dillon.
Hello, Tom.
Hey, how are you, Matt?
Hello, Chester.
Hello, Mr. Smith.
Well, I'm sure glad that trip's over.
Next time I'll come horseback.
Hey, the stage is easier when you're taking a prisoner back, though.
Yeah, I guess you're right at that, Matt.
And I hope you still got him.
I'd hate to make this trip for nothing.
Oh, he's there any time you want him.
Hey, where's Wilbur Hawkins going?
Ain't he even going to say hello?
You know that little fellow?
Oh yeah, we know him.
He told me he was staying at the Dodge house.
Crazy talkingest man I ever run into.
I told him, Hawkins, if you tried thinking a little first, you might make a whole lot
more sense a whole lot faster.
Well, he means well now.
Maybe.
But he tells some mighty strange stories.
Oh, what do you mean?
Well, of course it could be true, but he told me he heard a couple of men in a bar talking
about me.
He didn't know who they meant until I introduced myself on the stage and he recognized my name.
What are you looking like that for, Matt?
No, no, no.
Go ahead, Tom.
What did Hawkins hear?
Well, he said this one fellow was going to give the other fellow $300 to shoot me.
Ain't that the darndest thing?
Yeah, that sure is.
I don't know, Matt.
There's a lot of men that like to kill me, but I don't believe they'd be standing around
talking about it that way.
I kind of think he made it all up.
No, he didn't make it up, Tom.
Not quite.
Huh?
You know something about this?
You mean someone is out to shoot me?
Yeah.
Who?
I'll tell you about it on the way over to the Dodge house.
You wait here, Chester, just in case he gets past us.
All right, Chief.
He ain't going to get past us.
But I can't figure, Matt, why Hawkins would want to kill you and me.
That doesn't make much sense, Tom.
Here it is.
Who is it?
It's Tom Smith and Matt Dillon, Hawkins.
What are you doing here?
We want to talk to you.
What's up, Hawkins?
Tom, get out of the way.
How did you know he was going to shoot Matt?
I just sensed it, I guess.
Look, I can kick that door open with one foot, then you cover me.
All right, you ready?
I'm ready.
Oh, easy.
How can you?
You kill him, Matt.
I'm not going to kill him.
You kill him, Matt?
Well, I tried not to.
Hawkins.
You hit me.
Now I'm going to die.
I had to shoot Hawkins.
But why did you want to kill us, Smith and me?
A lot of people want to hear them saying it.
Nobody said nothing.
You made all that up, Hawkins.
You took a shot at me last week, didn't you, Hawkins?
Didn't you?
No, Dad.
I can't kill anybody now.
Why?
Why did you want to, Hawkins?
Tell me.
I killed other men.
Important men.
I told them about it first, and then I killed them.
But why, Hawkins?
I don't know.
I had to.
I had to do it.
I died.
He's dead, Tom.
Matt, what the devil was he talking about?
I don't know.
About it doesn't matter much.
I don't understand it.
I never saw him before yesterday.
Now Hawkins was a murderer, Tom.
That kind of doesn't need any particular reason.
Nobody will ever know why he did what he did.
Yeah, he was crazy, if you like.
He sure was crazy.
You think he's done a lot of killing, Matt?
Yeah, probably.
That's the most dangerous kind of man there is, Tom.
A murderer with no reason at all.
He's a very innocent looking little whiskey drummer.
Gunsmoke under the direction of Norman MacDonald stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S.
Marshal.
The story was specially written for Gunsmoke by John Meston with music composed and conducted
by Rex Corey.
Featured in the cast were Edgar Berrier, John Danaer, and Vic Perrin.
Harley Bear as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
Join us again next week as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal, fights to bring law and order out
of the wild violence of the West in Gunsmoke.
You've heard fictional crime cases many times, but there's nothing like the real thing.
We're talking about Night Watch.
This Monday night, following the Bob Trout News, you'll be on the scene when a burglar
is caught in the act.
You'll hear him break a glass window and trying to get away.
You'll hear the officers handcuff him and take him off to jail.
You'll hear this authentic case unfold from beginning to end on Night Watch Monday night.
George Waltz speaking.
And Lund as yours truly, Johnny Dollar, brings you Colorful Mystery Tuesdays on the CBS Radio
Network.