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handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
Gun smoke starring William Conrad, the French squad 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
chance a job and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Chester, will you take this stuff down to the depot and see that it gets in the mail for me?
Yes, sir. Now what's he doing?
Huh? What's who doing?
Old man McCreedy's boy, Mr. Dillon. What's he doing anyway?
Well, you're the one who's looking out the window, Chester.
Well, he ain't up to no good. Look at him.
Well, I guess I'd better or I'll never find out.
Oh, he's jumping on his horse. There he goes.
Well, what was he doing, Chester?
Pulling around that wagon team there. He was messing with the traces for some reason.
Oh, well, let's go have a look.
That Billy McCreedy always was a wild one.
He's young, Chester, and he's only got his old man to bring him up.
Sure, he'll probably grow up to be just as mean as old man is.
Well, I hope not. I wonder whose wagon this is anyway.
I don't know, Mr. Dillon. Ain't much wagon, though, is it? Must belong to some starving sodbuster.
Yeah.
Chester, come here. Look, that's what Billy was doing.
Well, he's got them traces half cut, Mr. Dillon.
Yeah. They'll still hold for quite a few miles.
Enough to leave whoever's driving this wagon a long way out on the prairie.
Well, now why would Billy do a thing like that?
What are you fellas doing with that harness?
Oh, is this your wagon, Mr....?
It's our wagon. Me and my wife's here.
What are you men doing with it?
Oh, your traces have been cut, man.
Cut? What do you mean?
Come here, take a look.
Where? Who done that?
Billy McCreedy.
I told you, Jim. I told you something was gonna happen.
What's Billy McCreedy got against you people?
Don't you tell him nothing, Jim. Ain't none of their business.
Look, I'm a U.S. Marshal, man. Maybe I can help you.
You, Marshal Dillon?
That's right.
Tell him our name, Jim.
It's Gabriel. I've got a quarter section near Sky Mound.
Oh? Well, that's on the way to McCreedy's ranch, isn't it?
Marshal, McCreedy can have all the land he wants, except mine.
I piled on that land eight months ago, and I've been living on it,
like the law says, and I've been proving it up.
It's mine, and he ain't gonna get it.
Well, hasn't McCreedy got enough land for his cattle out there without needing yours?
Ain't the land so much as the water, Marshal.
I've opened me a spring, and I've dug a well. The water he wants.
They're trying to hound us off there, Marshal.
Yeah, like Billy cutting our traces.
They figured we'd lose the team on the way home, I guess.
Who's they? The old man and Billy?
Old man don't come around. It's Billy and one of them riders, Bart.
Real laundry-looking fella. They're the ones.
But it's McCreedy tells them what to do.
They're gonna start plaguing us real bad now.
And I'll fight them. Me and the boy will stop them.
Oh, you got a son? He's down by in green.
We're picking him up on the way out of town.
Ah. Well, you better mend those traces first.
Yeah. Look, Gabriel, I think Chester and I better ride out with you, huh?
Maybe we can find out what Billy had in mind.
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It was dark by the time we got to the Gabriel place, and when we did, we saw lamps burning inside the house.
At first Gabriel thought his wife's sister and her family had arrived from back east.
But then we noticed three horses standing outside.
Families came west by wagon, not horseback.
So I told the boy to take their team around to the shed while Gabriel and his wife walked into the house as though they suspected nothing.
They left the door open.
Chester and I got down and sneaked up to where we could hear what was happening.
I hope they don't get hurt, Mr. Dillon. And Gabriel seems like good people.
Well, you get back here so soon, Gabriel.
Same way we got the dog in our wagon.
That's old man McCready, Mr. Dillon.
Billy, have you been lying to me?
No, Pa. I've done what you told me.
Honest I did.
You shut up about what I told you.
No matter none, Mr. McCready. Nobody's going to believe nothing that Gabriel say.
Why don't you give up and go back east, wherever you come from, Gabriel?
There's too many people out here already.
And there's more coming, right here, too.
What?
My wife's sister and her husband. And they're bringing the little girl with them.
One more man to fight, huh?
All right, Gabriel, I'll tell you something.
You must have noticed your harness being cut and fixed it.
There he admitted it.
Otherwise, you'd be out on the prairie somewhere learning your first lesson.
When you did get home, you were going to find this place wrecked.
We've been sitting here resting some before we got to work on it.
It ain't too late, Mr. McCready.
Sure, Pa. Let him watch us wreck it. Might be more interesting that way.
Maybe you're right, son. Maybe that'll learn him.
Okay, get over there in the corner, Gabriel.
You ready, Justin?
I sure am, Mr. Dillon.
Right over there.
Evenin', McCready.
Butch, I move your hand any closer to that gun and I'll shoot it off.
I ain't doin' nothin'.
What are you doin' out here, Marshal?
Same thing I'd be doin' if I wasn't a dodge, McCready, enforcing the law.
What are you bothering us for?
Can we drop in here for a neighborly visit without everybody making a fuss?
Your bad is Gabriel. He's been talkin' real wild. You ought to hear him.
I did hear him, McCready. I heard you, too.
Huh? Well, that don't mean nothin'. You can't jail a man for talkin'.
You're sure shy at the idea of goin' to jail, don't you, McCready?
When I first came out here, there wasn't no jails.
Gabriel tells me that you've stayed out of this business so far.
You've let Bart and Billy do the talkin' for you.
What they do, I'll take the blame for.
You'll bet you will.
And the first thing that goes wrong out here, any trouble at all,
you're the one that's goin' to jail first, McCready.
All right, now you get outta here.
All three of you.
Come on, boys. Stinks in here anyways.
Well, you sure made the old man tuck his tail, Marshal.
Don't you be so sure, Jim. McCready's as smart as he's mean.
I'm afraid you're right, ma'am. You'll think of somethin'.
But as soon as you find out what it is, you let me know.
Oh, yeah. Good morning, Matt.
Hello, Doc. Well, come on, sit down.
Unless you're in a hurry to get to your hospital.
My hospital? Oh, Matt, my hospital.
Oh, well, the day comes when I'm in a hurry to get to my hospital.
And you'll be warden of the Dodge City Penitentiary.
Well, that sounds like a nice, warm inside job, Doc.
And I hope you get it, too, Matt.
And when you do, I hope old man McCready is your first customer.
McCready? Oh, I see.
He sees you to... I guess he wants to talk to you.
Well, like he says, I can't jail him for talkin'.
Morning, Marshal. Doc?
Hello. Oh, what can I do for you, McCready?
Nothin', Marshal. Can a man stop and say hello?
Sure. Sure.
All right, what's on your mind?
All right, then, I'll tell you.
I've been thinkin' about it all week.
So I went over to the land office to see if Gabriel's claim is filed proper.
Mm-hmm. That is it.
Maybe. Maybe not.
But I'll find a way, Marshal.
Look, McCready, you got plenty of grass out there.
You got the whole prairie. Sure.
But Gabriel's campin' on the only piece that's got good water.
Well, go look for some springs yourself. That's what he did.
Marshal! Hey, Marshal!
It's Gabriel. See, he sure got that horse in the lather.
Yeah. You stay right here, McCready.
I ain't done nothin' to him.
No, Doc. Doc, it's you I was lookin' for.
What's wrong, Gabriel?
It's my boy. He's sick. He's awful sick.
You gotta come, Doc.
Why? What's the matter with him?
I don't know. But my wife's sister, she got here a few days ago from back east,
and their little girl was sick the same way, and she died the first night.
Before I could even get started for dodge.
Oh, well, what's it like, Gabriel? How's he showin'?
Well, he gets awful cramps in his legs, mostly.
And he turns kind of blue all over, and he can't talk much.
Turns blue. Does his stomach hurt?
Something terrible. He's always yellin' for water, but it don't seem to do no good.
And this is the same thing the little girl died of?
It's just like it. He ain't gonna die too, is he, Doc?
I'll do what I can for him, Gabriel.
What is it, Doc? Some kind of a poison?
I hope I'm wrong, Matt. Their symptoms are pretty plain.
Sounds like cholera to me.
What? Cholera?
Yes. That little girl and her family must have brought it from back east.
Gabriel, you're right back home right now.
Tell your wife to burn all the clothes and the blankets and anything the little girl touched.
And make everybody keep away from your boy as much as possible, you understand?
And whatever you do, don't get anything you feed him out of mixed up with yours.
Keep it separate. Cholera's mighty contagious. You can all catch him.
I'll tell him. I'll tell him you were comin'.
I'll hurry.
Well, ain't no business of mine. I'm goin' on out to the ranch.
Goodbye, gentlemen.
McCready wouldn't care if they all died.
No, I guess he wouldn't, Doc.
I'll walk you down to your office, huh?
It's gonna take me a little time to get ready.
It's bad, but Cholera's real bad.
You're worried tonight, Matt?
No, it's just that I can't help thinkin' about the Gabriel's kitty.
That's a terrible thing. Those poor people.
Look, don't say anything about it around here, though, huh?
I wouldn't want to get a panic started.
Oh, of course I won't, Matt.
But do you think there's any danger of it spreadin' to Doc?
Well, Doc says not as long as the family stays out of town.
But they might catch it from each other.
They oughta burn everything Mrs. Gabriel's sister brought with her.
Well, that's what Doc said, kitty.
Well, for once I'm right.
Because it makes sense, I guess.
I, uh, I never been around Cholera. Have you?
No, no, but I've heard a lot about it.
Seems to me in this job I've heard a lot about practically everything there is.
And a lot there isn't, too, I'll bet.
I'll say.
Hey, Marshall, Marshall!
Gabriel, what are you doing here?
I'm, I'm lookin' for Doc, where is he?
Doc?
Oh, he never showed up, Marshall, and I just can't find him no place.
Well, he should have been there this afternoon.
Well, that's what I figured. And then come Doc, I got worried.
My boy's worse, Marshall. I've just gotta find him, even if it is the middle of the night.
Well, he left here.
What coulda happened to him, Marshall?
Well, I got a pretty good idea.
Come on, Gabriel, I'm ridin' back with you.
Your place is right on the way to where I'm headed.
Where's that?
McCready's.
There's my house, Marshall, but I don't see Doc's buggy nowhere.
Well, he came horseback, Gabriel. I doubt if he's here, though.
Yeah, it must be eight, nine o'clock already.
Well, it was after two when we left Dodge last night. We made good time, though.
Oh, there's your wife.
Yeah, she's gonna be awful disappointed.
How's your boy, Jenny?
He's away.
Oh, I couldn't find Doc.
I have an idea of where he is, Miss Gabriel, and I'm ridin' on to find him.
I know where Doc is, Marshall.
You do?
I figured it all out after my husband left for Dodge last night. It's easy.
There's nothing in the world would keep Doc from comin' when someone's sick.
Except one thing.
What, Jenny?
Somebody stopped him from comin'.
Oh, well, that's what the Marshall figured, but I didn't want to worry you about it.
Miss Gabriel, if McCready's holdin' Doc somewhere, he isn't gonna hold him long, I promise you that.
He once is all dead, and he'll keep Doc till we are.
Except I got him beat.
Well, what do you mean?
Tell you in a minute, look what's comin' behind you.
Hey, it's McCready and that fella Bart. I'm gonna get my rifle.
No, Gabriel. No, wait. They're not gonna start any trouble.
Well, they better not.
Morning, Gabriel. Miss Gabriel. Marshall?
Hello.
Eh, come out to help, Marshall?
Yeah, that's right.
Well, me and Bart thought we'd ride over and see if there wasn't anything we could do.
Now, mean it. I'm tryin' to be neighborly.
Get back on your horse, McCready, and show me where you got Doc head out.
What?
Doc's here, Amy. What are you talkin' about?
I said get back on your horse.
Bark your tent's one more muscle, and I'm gonna take a chagrin' for your gun.
All I'm doin' is breathin'.
All right.
Now, we're wastin' time, McCready.
Now, wait, Marshall. I don't know nothin' about Doc.
Listen to me, you men. The Marshal's right. We're wastin' time.
But I can save some.
How?
Where's your boy, McCready?
He's at the ranch. He don't feel good. Why?
He come by here yesterday. Late, after my husband started for Dodge.
After I got everything figured. Said he'd been away on the prairie a couple of days.
He told me he was here. He didn't cause you no trouble.
No, he didn't.
It's not much trouble to bring a man a cup of water.
Well, that's all he wanted. I suppose you wouldn't give him any.
I gave him some. I went in the house and got it for him.
What are you complainin' about? Didn't he thank you pretty enough?
My son's in there, McCready. And he's been drinkin' water, too.
Lots of it. He and Billy. They used the same cup.
Doc said don't let nobody touch what your boy used.
My husband told me what Doc said.
Billy ain't feelin' good.
He's got it. He's got cholera off in that cup.
I expect he has.
Cholera.
Now I reckon you'll turn Doc loose.
Billy'll die.
Sure he'll die. Without Doc.
No.
It's up to you, McCready.
All right. I admit it. We're holdin' Doc loose.
Where is he, McCready?
In a cabin I got five, six miles from here.
We took him. Me and Bart. We put on bandanas and we didn't say nothin' so he wouldn't recognize us.
He's there, locked in tight.
Like I said, McCready, get on your horse.
Sure. Sure, but let's hurry.
Music
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Music
I expected to find Doc fighting wild when we reached the cabin,
but instead he was pale sober and as calm as I'd ever seen him.
And when McCready demanded that he go take care of Billy first, Doc didn't even answer him.
He just mounted his horse and quietly asked me to lead him to the way to Gabriel's.
When we got there, McCready sent Bardoff to see how Billy was doing,
and then sat down with Chester and me in the dirt outside the cabin and waited.
It was a long late in the afternoon when Doc finally came out, and he walked over to us.
How is he, Doc? Any better?
He's dead, Chester.
Dead?
Died about a half an hour ago.
I've been telling the family what they've got to do to keep from catching it themselves.
You already told Gabriel that back in Dodge, Doc.
Haven't I done what you said?
No. And I didn't think they would without my coming out here and prodding them.
It's hard for people to burn what few clothes and things they have, man.
Yeah. Come on, Doc. Now the boy's dead, let's get over to my place.
We're wasting time, John, here.
McCready.
Hey, look. Ain't that Bart coming?
Yeah, that's Bart. Guess he got tired waiting for us.
Shouldn't have left Billy alone, though.
How are the Gabriels taking it, Doc?
Hard to say, Matt. They aren't talking much and they aren't crying at all.
That's about what I'd expect. They're pretty lame people.
It's a good thing they are.
What are you doing here, Bart? Why didn't you stay with Billy?
We're about to leave now.
Mr. McCready.
But what is it, Bart? What are you trying to say?
Billy's dead.
Died right there in his bed.
I couldn't do nothing for him.
He's dead.
I didn't know what to do for him.
He got all blue.
Real cold.
And he choked up and died.
Doc should have been there. I should have made him go. It's your fault, Doc.
Chester?
Yeah, Doc?
Go into the house and tell the Gabriels to come out here.
All right, Doc.
And tell them about Billy McCready.
I don't want to see them, Gabriels. I don't ever want to see them.
If they'd never come here, my boy would be alive now.
He's too young to die. Billy's too young.
It ain't right.
But this ain't right.
I've done all I could, Mr. McCready.
I put blankets on him.
I straightened him out when he cramped up.
I poured a lot of water into him.
It ain't your fault, Bart.
You ain't a doctor.
How would you know what to do?
You didn't kill him.
That's enough of that talk, McCready. Why don't you shut up?
It wasn't your son that died, Marshal. It was mine.
Here come the Gabriels. Their son died too. You remember?
Yeah, yeah.
What do you want, Doc?
I want to explain something to you and to Mrs. Gabriels.
Now, don't you start preaching, Doc.
I ain't in no mood to listen to your talk.
You'll listen, McCready, if I have to ram a stick in your mouth
and tell you against that tree over there.
All right, go on, Doc.
First, I want to ask Mrs. Gabriels something.
Chester told me about Billy, Doc.
Looks like I killed him.
No. You only wanted him to get sick so as McCready
would have to turn me loose.
You thought he'd do that right away so I could save your boy and Billy too.
Could have saved Billy. He hadn't come here first.
No, that's where you're all wrong.
What do you mean?
Medicine's still a pretty crude science, Mrs. Gabriels.
Someday, maybe they'll know, but right now I've got no more idea
how to treat cholera than I do insanity.
There's absolutely nothing I know to do for it.
Is that true, Doc?
It's true.
And I did kill Billy.
Killed him with my own hand.
No, Mrs. Gabriels. If you'd known I couldn't help him,
you'd never let him touch that cup.
No. No, of course I wouldn't.
Oh, I never would have.
It's McCready that's the murderer.
He hoped keeping me away from here would see you all dead.
That's what he wanted.
But all McCready's going to get for his murder and ways
is the death of his own son.
So you think about McCready the rest of your life.
And remember what it says in the Bible?
The Lord does have his way of vengeance after all.
Doesn't he?
All right, come on, everybody. Let's get to work.
See if we can do to keep anybody else from catching us.
Now our star, William Conrad.
Thank you, George.
You know, I'd like to pass on an idea that will help you with your Christmas shopping.
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Gunsmoke, transcribed under the direction of Norman McDonald,
stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
Tonight's story was specially written for Gunsmoke by John Beston,
with music composed and conducted by Rex Corey.
Sound patterns by Tom Hanley and Ray Kemper.
Featured in the cast were Ralph Moody, Virginia Christine,
Vic Perrin, Clayton Post, and Sam Edwards.
Harley Bear as Chester, Howard McNair as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
Join us again next week as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal,
is to bring law and order out of the wild violets of the West in Gunsmoke.
Hi everyone, this is Perry Cormon.
I'd like to remind you that we're on for Chesterfield
with all the top tunes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights.
This coming week we'll be doing our new RCA Victor release,
Home for the Holidays,
a song that we all feel really expresses the spirit of the season.
We hope that you'll join us, and don't forget those Chesterfields.
Pick up a carton for the weekend. You'll enjoy them.
Remember, listen again next week for another story of the Western Frontier
when Marshal Matt Dillon, Chester Proudfoot, Doc, and Kitty,
together with all the other hard-living citizens of Dodge,
will be with you once more.
It's America growing West in the 1870s.
It's drama. It's Gunsmoke.
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