Gunsmoke brought to you by L and M Builders with the Miracle Tip.
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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 the US Marshal and the smell of Gunsmoke.
Gunsmoke starring William Conrad, a transcribed story of the violence that moved west with
young America and the story of a man who moved with it.
I'm that man, Matt Dillon, United States Marshal.
The first man they look for and the last they want to meet.
It's a chancey job that makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Hey, look in the window over there.
In the restroom, Mr. Dillon.
What?
Doc's got himself a girl.
What?
Well, I'll be.
I never saw her before, Chester.
He's waving at us.
He wants us to come in.
Oh, all right.
Look, you come in and say hello and then go on out of the telegraph office.
It might be important.
That girl must be a real good friend, Mr. Dillon, if Doc's buying her dinner.
If he is.
He better be.
She ain't half ugly.
I wouldn't put it exactly that way to her.
Hello there, Matt.
Chester.
Hello, Doc.
Well, Abby.
Abby, this is Marshal Dillon and Chester Proudfoot.
Abby Twilling.
How do you do, gentlemen?
Miss Twilling.
How do you do?
Sit down, sit down.
Thank you, Doc.
Well, I'll be back directly, Doc.
I got to go across to the depot.
There's a telegraph waiting for Mr. Dillon.
I'll be here, Chester.
Okay, sir.
I'll hurry.
Doc's been telling me about you, Marshal.
Oh?
Oh, now don't look at me like that, now, Matt.
She wants to know all about Dodge.
And I've been trying to tell her what to expect.
Well, in Dodge you can expect almost anything, Miss Twilling.
So I hear.
Well, Abby's seen her share of violence, Matt.
She was a nurse in the war.
Oh?
Well, that's how I met Doc.
We worked in the same hospital for nearly a year.
Oh, the best Doc I got nurse I ever saw.
Yeah, I'm trying to talk her into settling down here.
Oh, Dodge could use somebody like her.
Are you moving on, Miss Twilling?
Why, I haven't any plans, Marshal.
I've been working in St. Louis, but it's lonely.
I got restless and decided to ride the Santa Fe as far west as it goes.
I'm on sort of a vacation, you might say.
Abby on the train mentioned my name.
And she looked me up right off.
Well, it's been a long time, Doc.
Oh, yeah, too long.
Oh, you stay here, Abby.
We'll keep you busy.
Oh, yes, and who knows?
Maybe we'll even find you a husband.
Oh, I'm sorry.
That's all right, Doc.
You see, my husband was killed in the war, Marshal, the first year.
That's why I went into nursing.
Well, I think I'd better get back to the hotel.
Oh, I'll take you, Abby.
You going to wait here for Chester, man?
Oh, he's coming now.
It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Twilling.
Thank you, Marshal.
Good night.
I'll see you later, Doc.
Sure, man.
This way, Abby.
Where is Chester?
Miss Twilling, Doc?
Well, I got to go.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Well, I got it, Mr. Twilling.
Here you are.
Oh, thanks, Chester.
Sit down while I read it.
Who's it from?
It's from Wyatt Earp out in Arizona.
Did?
Is he coming here?
No.
No, it says, uh, Coney Thorn released from state prison last week.
I hear he's looking for you, so you better go on wearing that gun a while longer.
Good luck.
How about your Earp?
Who's Coney Thorn, Mr. Twilling?
What does he want of you?
I expect he wants to kill me, Chester.
What?
What for?
Well, I arrested him out in Arizona a long time ago.
He was one of the suspects in the stageholder.
So I had to bring him in, even though I thought he had nothing to do with it.
Well, then why'd he go to prison?
Well, I wasn't on the jury, Chester.
Anyway, I left that part of the country before he was tried.
I heard later that he was sent to prison.
Well, you didn't have nothing to do with it.
I arrested him, and according to this telegram, he thinks I had a lot to do with it.
And he's really coming here, huh?
Coney Thorn wasn't a bad man, Chester, but prison may have changed him some.
He'll probably be here next week sometime.
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There were a lot of things I didn't like about being a lawman, and having to face a man who
was off purely for revenge was one of them.
It didn't matter what his reasons were.
When Coney Thorne arrived, I had to shoot it out with him.
A man who'd travel all the way to Dodge City from Arizona wasn't going to be put off by
my arguments.
However a week passed and he didn't show up, and I began to hope that maybe he changed
his mind.
Until one day when I was sitting with Kitty watching the crowd from the porch of the Dodge
house.
Well, it must be supper time.
Here comes the noon stage.
The way he's driving those horses, he shouldn't be late.
He's never been on time yet unless there was an Indian scare going on.
How many passengers?
Three?
No, another one getting out.
Yeah.
All strangers.
No, not all of them, Kitty.
Not to me.
What?
That last man I got on.
I've been waiting for him.
Coney Thorne?
I might as well get this over with right now.
Look, Kitty, you better go inside.
Yeah, I sure will.
Good luck, man.
Hello, Coney.
Dylan.
What took you so long?
I was expecting you last week.
How'd you know I was coming?
You must have told somebody.
You got friends everywhere, ain't you, Marshal?
I never thought you had anything to do with that holdup, Coney.
I told you at the time I was sorry I had to take you in.
I've been five years in prison, Marshal, no matter what you thought.
I'm not apologizing.
But you're free now, Coney.
Why do you want to die?
What makes you think I'm going to die?
A man in prison doesn't get much chance to handle a gun.
You must be pretty rusty by now.
A lot of ways to kill a man, Marshal.
In the back?
Think about it.
Now you've changed, Coney.
You were a man once.
Five years in prison, Marshal, wasn't any good.
Nearly went crazy.
I would have till I got to thinking about who put me there.
That saved my mind kind of.
Yeah, but you're out now.
It's all over.
No, not yet.
I ain't going to fight you, Marshal, not till I'm ready.
Not till I figure out how to kill you.
I'm going to make you go crazy waiting the way I've done.
And I'll sleep all the better knowing you're going to have to have one eye open every minute
from now on.
You're not the first man who's wanted to kill me.
Maybe not.
But I'm going to be the first to do it.
Oh, good morning, man.
Ah, hello, Doc.
Now, how come you're up so early?
Well, I got a call last night, man, about three o'clock.
A fellow at the Dodge house was keeping everybody awake.
Huh?
Well, it sounds more like they should have called me.
No, no, he wasn't drunk, man.
He was delirious.
It was brain fever, most people call it.
Oh?
Well, I couldn't leave him there alone, so I got Abby Trilling to take a room next to
his.
Ah, the first chance you got you put her to work, huh?
Well, a man that sick has to have care, man.
Why, you talk like he's going to die.
Well, not with Abby working on him.
No, he isn't.
Well, that's fine.
Yeah, the man's name is Coney Thorne, man.
What?
Yeah, he won't be up and about for another week, though.
Yeah, I thought he looked sick when he got off the stage yesterday.
Well, he was.
Now, maybe it was the fever that made him talk like he was planning to shoot me in the
back.
What's that?
Yeah, it wasn't like Coney.
He was never that kind of a man.
Good morning, Mr. Dawn.
Good morning, Chester.
Oh, where'd you get that mail at this hour?
It ain't mail, Doc.
It's a telegraph here, Mr. Dawn.
Yeah, you know, sometimes I wish they'd never invented the telegraph.
And maybe it's Washington, Matt, often you're raised.
If they'd send me last month's check by mail, I'd be satisfied.
Well.
Well, what is it, Mr. Dawn?
It's from a U.S. Marshal in Phoenix.
He says if Coney Thorne has left Arizona, he's broken his parole.
And if he turns up here looking for me, they will arrest him.
I didn't know he was on parole.
No, neither did I.
But they're willing to pay the expense of sending him back under escort.
You going all the way to Arizona with him, Mr. Dawn?
No, no, no, of course not.
I'll hire somebody.
Well, you can't put that man in jail, Matt.
Why not?
He's too sick.
And I won't have Abby nursing a man in jail.
It's bad enough in the hotel.
Well, as long as he can't run away.
He'll be in bed for a week.
And if you don't tell him about this, he won't run anyway.
Okay, Doc, I'll leave him alone for a week.
I kept track of Coney's progress through Doc.
And the rest of Dodge did, too.
Everybody in town knew he'd come there to shoot me.
And it seemed like they were all waiting for him to get well and try it.
And there were a number of men who would have been right happy if he'd done it.
I waited for over a week, and he was still in bed.
So finally, I went over to the hotel to have a talk with him.
Oh, Marshall Dillon.
Hello, Abby.
Can we come in?
Why, of course, come in.
Thank you.
Hello, Chester.
Hello, Miss Dillon.
Now, where's your patient?
This is my room, Marshall.
He's right through there.
I have it arranged this way so he won't be disturbed.
Now, is he still sick, Abby?
He's better.
Well, Doc says that he could get up.
Please, Marshall, give him a little more time, a couple of days.
It's very important.
It is?
I know what he came here for.
It doesn't matter to you if he stays in bed a while longer, does it?
No, but if he's well, why are you keeping him in bed?
It's good for him.
Coney needs a rest like this.
You've no idea how much he needs it.
Please, Marshall.
Uh, Abby.
Yes?
You, uh, you've got to know Coney pretty well, haven't you?
Yes, I have.
What kind of a man would you say he is?
He's a good man, Marshall, but he's suffered a lot being in prison the way he was, and
well, it's like soldiers I've seen who've been through too much.
They change for a while anyway, but if they're given a chance, the right kind of a chance,
they find their way back sometimes.
Yeah, that's what you're doing, giving him a chance, huh?
I'm trying, Marshall.
Well, how does he feel about it?
I'm not sure yet.
Ah.
Uh, Chester.
Yes, sir?
I changed my mind about talking to Coney.
Come on.
Okay.
Thank you, Marshall.
I, uh, guess I'll know how you make out, Abby, one way or the other.
I swear, I don't understand what she was talking about, Mr. Dillon.
Well, I don't understand it either, Chester, but, uh, my guess is that Abby's fallen in
love with him.
What?
That don't make sense.
That seldom does, and that doesn't keep it from happening.
No, sir.
My, kind of scary, ain't it?
Well, Abby's a little scared.
She's not sure about Coney.
But anyway, he trusts her enough to have told her about being out on parole.
That's why she figured I'd heard about it and had come to arrest him.
What you gonna do?
Well, I might be asked for a couple more days, Chester.
I think she deserves them.
What?
Well, good evening, Kitty.
I just come in to say hello.
My air's better out here, Matt.
I never saw that saloon so crowded in it tonight.
Oh, a couple of new herds arrived today.
Yeah, I know.
I danced with every cowboy that came with them.
I had to get out of there while I could still walk.
Well, as long as they're dancing, they're not fighting.
Oh?
You ever dance with one of them, Matt?
Why is it that bad?
Mr. Dillon?
Hello, Miss Kitty.
Evening, Chester.
Mr. Dillon, right across the street there, I just seen Coney Thorn.
What?
Well, where was he headed?
He was knocking on the front door of the stage office, and nobody didn't answer, so he went
around back.
Yeah.
I'll see you later, Kitty.
Sure.
Looks like Coney's trying to run off, Mr. Dillon.
There's no stage till tomorrow morning, Chester.
Besides, he doesn't know I'm going to arrest him.
Well, at least he didn't come gunning for you as soon as he got out of bed.
Well, maybe he wants to be sure of a seat on the stage first.
He said he went around to the back of the office.
Yes, sir, I had a pallet here.
Yeah.
Look, you better stay back a little, huh?
Being in bed so long might have made Coney a little nervous.
Well, yeah, sure.
Chester!
You all right, Mr. Dillon?
No, he didn't hit me, but I didn't hit him either.
He had a horse waiting out there.
Come on, if we hurry, we can still follow him.
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With a full moon to help us, Chester and I didn't have much trouble staying on Coney
Thorne's trail once we hit it.
We pulled up now and then and listened and we could hear his horse running hard, not
too far ahead of us.
But he didn't run long.
Coney had made a poor choice of the mount that he'd stolen and had sold on him within
an hour.
We found the horse standing riderless with his head down, his legs weak and quivering.
That poor horse is plum bedrock, Mr. Dillon.
He ought to be shot.
Never mind the horse, Chester.
Let's find Coney.
He can't be very far.
There's no place to hide out here.
No, there's something over there, Chester.
Off to the left there.
It ain't moving.
Yeah, let's take a look.
Look, you ride straight from here and I'll come in on an angle.
All right, ride in, Chester, but be careful.
Is he dead, Mr. Dillon?
I don't know, Chester, but he's all through shooting.
Here, Chester.
Chester?
Bend down here, take a look.
That ain't Coney Thorne.
No.
You ever seen this man before?
No, sir, I don't know who it is.
He ain't dead.
No, but he's bleeding pretty bad.
I'm afraid he soon will be.
Who are you, fella?
Hey, what's your name?
Marshall.
Yeah, that's right, I'm the Marshal.
Now, why did you try to shoot me back in Dodge tonight?
You can't do nothing to me now.
No harm in talking.
I heard that fellow was gonna shoot you.
That Coney Thorne?
I don't know his name.
I don't know nothing about him.
Well, then what's he got to do with you trying to shoot me?
Nothing.
Only I figured I could do it and they'd blame him.
Why?
I never saw you before.
Why did you want to shoot me?
Kill a Marshal?
That'd be pretty good, wouldn't it?
Kill a Marshal?
Yeah, yeah, that'd be pretty good.
Didn't work.
You killed me.
He's dead, ain't he?
Yeah, he's dead.
A darn fool.
What good would shooting you have done to him?
Yeah, it would have made him feel better for some reason, Justin.
But why?
I don't know.
That's the idea of shooting a Marshal and getting away with it, I guess.
You didn't have any more sensible a reason.
No, sir.
Well, let's get him buried.
It'll be daylight before we get back to Dodge as it is.
I still gotta find Coney.
There's the stage.
Mr. Dillon is just about to leave.
We got back just in time.
Why would Coney be taking the stage?
He hasn't finished his business here yet.
No, but he was trying to get into office and I seen him last night.
By heaven, there he is.
Yes, sir, and Abby, too.
Now what are they up to?
Now let's ask them.
Let them stand, Justin.
Yes, sir.
Stop doing such a thing, Coney.
It'll be all right, I tell you.
Why do you have to come back now?
I don't know.
Why do you have to come back now?
Good morning.
Good morning, Marshal.
You, uh, going someplace, Coney?
I heard about last night, Marshal, but it wasn't me you shot at, Gee.
You know it wasn't.
I found the man that did it.
I ain't gonna kill you.
That's all over, Marshal.
It is.
It was like being crazy, Marshal.
For a long time.
time and I got the fever and Abby was there talking to me all the time taking
care of me now somehow I ain't mad at nobody I'm glad to hear that Connie being
in prison so long when I was innocent it was bad Marshall yeah yeah look Connie
you shouldn't have left Arizona you broke your parole I'm gonna have to send
you back he's going back Marshall right now with me what we're gonna be married
and then he's gonna turn himself in that trocon it I get another year but Abby
says it's the only way you're gonna get married we'll make out Marshall but
please please don't arrest him here let him go alone with me it isn't much you
can give him that just a mr. over to the telegraph office and write something out
and send it to the Marshall and Phoenix huh well what'll I say tell him thanks for
the warning and tell him that Coney Thorne did leave Arizona and came here
to shoot me I'd arrest him quick but knowing Coney I think he's learned his
lesson he's got more sense yes sir I got going all of you
and now our star William Conrad thank you if you're a filter tip smoker you
should be smoking L&M's everyone agrees L&M's are just what the doctor ordered
the first filter that really does the job and a real good taste to go with it
maybe you'll prefer L&M's king size as I do but either size I know you'll like
them and I know you'll stick with them L&M's try them
gun smoke transcribed under the direction of Norman McDonald stars
William Conrad as Matt Dillon US Marshal tonight's story was specially
written for gun smoke by John Meston with music composed and conducted by
Rex Corey featured in the cast were John Dana BV Janice and James Nusser Harley
Bear is Chester Howard McNair is Doc and Georgia Ellis is kidding join us again
next week and Matt Dillon US Marshal fights to bring law and order out of the
wild violence of the West in gun smoke
makers of L&M filters also present for your television pleasure the new Stu
Irwin show it's a happy half hour with June and Stu Irwin which begins October
20th in most cities please check your local television listing for time and
channel for L&M's Stu Irwin show
here guns smoke every Saturday the same time this same station here the great
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Standard Time also on CBS radio
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