Gun Smoke, brought to you by L and N Filters.
This is it. L and M is best.
Fans out from all the rest.
Around God City and in the territory on West,
there's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers,
and that's with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of Gun Smoke.
Music
Gun Smoke, starring William Conrad,
the 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 chance a job, but it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Music
I said something wrong, is that it?
No sir, but I've been waiting here with Doc.
I thought you might want me for something.
No, but there's somebody up the street that wants you.
Wants me?
Yeah, Peter said he came in the barbershop
and asked where the Marshal's office was.
He mentioned your name.
Oh, and you didn't see him?
I didn't talk to him, but I saw him getting back on his horse.
He headed for the OK Stable.
I wonder who's he?
Some stranger, I never saw him before.
What do you look like?
Well, he's built kind of like a stork, all legs.
Got reddish hair with a white streak running right down the middle.
Oh, built like a stork and looks like a skunk.
Oh, I like that joke.
Oh, you do have some handsome friends, don't you?
Mr. Gillen?
Yeah.
You sure about that white streak in his hair?
Well, he took his hat off to fly the horse for her.
I couldn't miss it.
Oh my goodness.
What's wrong?
It's him.
He couldn't be nobody else.
You look scared, Chester.
Is this man after you?
Don't tell him why I'm at it, Mr. Gillen.
Tell him I went around somewhere, knocked out, getting set together,
and then I'll hide in your office until it gets dark.
Now, wait a minute, Chester.
If you're in trouble, I'll help you.
You can't help me.
I'll go pull up out on the prairie somewhere until he leaves.
I've got to get out of here.
Huh.
Well, what do you mean, then?
Well, you know, he must be in trouble, man.
I never saw Chester act that way before.
Oh.
Look, Doc, let's go down and wait for him in your office, huh?
Maybe we can get some scents out of him there.
When it gets good and dark, I'll take a rope and lure my stuff out your back window, Doc.
Fine, fine, Jersey.
I'm not somebody who's all luring.
I ain't running, Doc.
I'm just hiding out for a spell.
Look, Chester, what if this man decides to outweigh you?
You're going to spend the rest of your life wandering around the prairie?
He won't wait long, Mr. Gillen.
He sleeps sound.
Well, then maybe he'll come looking for you out there.
Well, that's better than finding him here.
Why?
Magnus just don't belong in a town amongst civilized people.
He's too country-fied.
Chester, who is Magnus?
Magnus, proud foot, Mr. Gillen.
Magnus, proud foot.
My baby brother, dog-dogging.
We're walking the world.
Are you running away from your brother?
Oh, Chester, I don't know what he's doing here, that's why.
You can't tell what Magnus will do next, Doc.
You can't count on him.
What do you mean, Chester?
Mr. Gillen, when Magnus was ten years old, he took off from home and went and lived off the land all by himself for two years.
With a rifle and a knife and a horse.
And you know something else?
I swear he ain't slept in a bed since then.
Well, I don't see anything so wrong with that.
Well, how would you like to have a little brother that wouldn't ever come in the house except to feed now and then?
And sometimes he wouldn't even show up to do that for months at a time.
He claims being around people too much dulls the man's senses.
Magnus is crazy, Mr. Gillen.
He embarrasses me.
How long since you've seen Magnus, Chester?
Well, I left Waco in 1952 to join the war.
I ain't never been back.
Well, as I heard a couple of years ago, you need Magnus.
I can find out where I'm at.
Well, he's not going to shoot you, Chester.
He came to visit his big brother.
What's wrong with that?
Oh, no.
Magnus has got something on his mind.
He didn't come here just to say hello, not Magnus.
He's got some scheme going.
Probably wants me to go live with the Indians or some fool thing like that.
I remember one time he tried to get me to go up into the Rocky Mountains with him during the winter.
He said if we got cold, we could sleep in caves with bears.
Well, now that sounds like fun.
Now, why didn't you go?
All right, you can laugh all you want to, Doc.
It ain't your brother.
No, no, no, no.
I'm sorry, Chester, no.
But running away won't do any good.
Yeah, that's right, Chester.
Magnus doesn't sound like the kind of a man who'll give a pride in you just because you aren't anywhere around.
Now, you might as well stay and see what he wants, huh?
You'll pick it over for a while.
You'll see that we're right.
Well, he isn't anywhere else, Chester.
He must still be in the stable here with his horse.
He always did like horses better than people.
All right, the door's open.
Let's take a look.
Well, I don't see nobody, Mr. Gillen.
Let's go, huh?
Well, wait a minute, Chester.
Holler for him.
Oh, no.
Go ahead.
He might be in the back there where it's dark.
Well, go ahead.
Magnus.
He ain't here.
Now, wait a minute.
Now, look.
There he comes.
Oh, yeah.
Chester, you have got sloppy fat.
Oh, Magnus, soft living, doesn't he?
Magnus, what are you doing in Dodge City?
I have come looking for you.
Why? Why ain't you in Texas? Where you belong?
How come you don't talk like a Texan no more, Chester?
I know you wait too long, but I don't answer my question.
What are you doing here?
Why, I have come to help you.
To help me?
Well, I always could take care of myself better than you, Chester.
And when I ran into Ma last summer and she told me about you, I got worried.
I figured it's how you might need me.
Need you for what?
To help you run things here, help you be marshal.
What?
Help me be marshal?
You know, marshal?
I forgot. Magnus, this is Marshal Dillon.
Howdy-go.
Magnus.
But I thought you were the marshal, Chester.
Of course I'm not.
What made you that idea?
Ma?
She said you wrote her.
I only wrote Ma for over a year, and when I did I told her I worked for a marshal.
I didn't say I was one.
Honestly, Mr. Dillon, I never said no such thing.
Well, Ma is getting kind of old.
She makes her things up some these days.
She sure does.
Anyways, I'm proud to know you, Marshal Dillon.
Tell me, is Chester a good help to you?
Yes, yes he is. He's a fine help, Magnus.
Good. Well, I come all this way, I'll let you know I'll stay.
I'll go to work for you, too.
Magnus, you can't just walk up to somebody and say, I'm going to work for you.
Why not?
It ain't polite. Nobody asked you.
Nobody told me not to.
I swear you ain't no more civilized than you were ten years ago.
Oh, I learned a lot in the Army, Chester. I saw a lot of places, a lot of people.
How long since you slept in bed?
Well, not since I first went off from home, I reckon.
How long since you lived in town?
You know I don't like towns. I generally ride around them.
How long since you talked to a woman?
Besides more, I mean.
Now, Chester, you know I don't.
How long since you had a drink?
I don't never drink.
You're gamble?
A fellow in the Army taught me, but I never used it.
You see, Mr. Dillon, he ain't civilized.
Now, wait a minute, Chester, you're not being quite fair.
A man doesn't have to do all those things to be civilized.
I'm just trying to show him how crazy it is for him to say he wants to stay here and all, Mr. Dillon.
Oh, I might like it, Chester. I never give it a first chance.
Living like you might be exciting.
Yeah, maybe I've been missing something.
You would hate it, Madness. I'm telling you for your own good.
I know you better than you do.
You're half-wild, that's what you are.
You couldn't stand living the way I do.
I never tried it, Chester.
Well, go try it somewhere else. You just get me in trouble.
Here, you always did.
I promise I will not get you in no trouble.
Besides, Marshal Dillon don't need no help.
You can't stay here without a job.
I got some money.
Let's do some shopping last winter.
You still eat with your fingers now, you?
Now, wait a minute, wait a minute, you two.
Look, I got an idea.
Now, maybe Chester's right, Madness.
Maybe you wouldn't like living in the town.
Of course he wouldn't. He'd be miserable.
But it's like Madness says, Chester, he never gave it a chance.
Now, why don't you let him find out for himself?
If he gets in trouble, I'll be in trouble.
Madness don't know how to live around people, Mr. Dillon.
Well, I live with people in the Army, but that's different.
Well, I'm staying anyway, Chester.
There's no use arguing.
Give him a chance, Chester.
Show him Dodge. Show him what it's like.
And let him make up his own mind about it.
Oh, all right, he won't leave anyway.
But you're going to do what I tell you, Madness.
You're going to live exactly the way I do.
That's the deal. I'll do it, Chester.
All right.
And we'll start by getting a room at the dog house.
Oh, no. I'll sleep right there in the stable here with my horse, Chester.
You see what I mean, Mr. Dillon?
Madness, Cogsett, you follow me.
We're going to sleep in a bed tonight if it kills you.
Oh, yes, Mr. Dillon.
Oh, hello, Chester.
Madness.
Marshal.
Where did you get to last night, Madness?
I didn't see you around anywhere.
It's a bit dark. I generally go to sleep, Marshal.
Yes, I do.
I'm sorry, Mr. Dillon.
Marshal.
Yeah, sure.
Well, how did you like the dog house?
Tell the truth now, Madness.
It is too hot.
Not enough, Marshal.
That ain't all. The bed was too soft.
But I slept good.
I bet you were in that bed more than five minutes, Madness.
You slept on the floor. I know you did.
You cheated.
I'll try it again tonight, Chester.
You're going to try more than that tonight.
You need me for anything today, Mr. Dillon?
I have nothing that I know of, Chester.
Then I think I'll spend the afternoon at the long bank playing cards.
Gambling, Madness.
Oh, now, Chester, you don't want to do that.
That's evil and wicked.
The size is wrong.
Are you going to live like you here or are you ready to give up?
I've got to gamble, too, or can I just set the watch?
Madness, I'm going to get you wet all over.
You're going to gamble.
I'll go see to my horse now.
Okay, but you wait at the stable for me.
I'll pick you up there. I'll wait.
Uh, Chester, you're being kind of rough on him, aren't you?
Don't you think you should take it a little slower?
If I give him an affirm, he might fool himself into thinking he likes town life, Mr. Dillon.
And you don't think Madness ever really would, huh?
A man like him never changes.
Madness can live off the country like an animal,
but he just don't know how to take care of himself around people.
Well, I guess you know what you're doing, Chester, but, uh,
I was just thinking, if it doesn't work and he wants to stay,
I think with his experience and everything, he might be a great help to me.
What? Oh, now, Mr. Dillon, don't tell him that. Please don't.
Anyhow, not life had a chance to show him what life's like around here.
Please.
Well, okay, Chester, I won't.
You work on him first and see what happens.
Uh, I'll wait.
I think I'll have a beer, Sam.
Oh, Mr. Dillon.
Uh, Chester, I thought you were gambling. What are you doing at the bar?
Where's Maggler?
We've been gambling all afternoon, playing blackjack against that new dealer they got here.
Oh, how'd you make out?
Well, you know how it is, doesn't he, Mr. Dillon? I never do win whole odds.
Ah, that means you lost his.
But I'll get it back next payday, maybe.
Next payday? Now, he really did pay you, didn't he?
Chester, he did.
Oh, what about Maggler?
Well, here comes last ten.
Hello, Marshall.
Well, that's quite a handful of bills you got there, Maggler.
Well, it's all he had, but I am just as glad.
I was getting mighty weary sitting in one place all afternoon.
You mean you broke the dealer?
He claims I did. Anyway, he quit playing.
Oh, for a man that doesn't gamble, you seem to be a pretty fair blackjack player, Maggler.
All I know is what that feller taught me in the army.
Well, he must have been a good teacher.
He is a gambler, Marshall, a crooked gambler to boot.
What?
That's why he taught me, Chester, to show me what happens when you gamble.
Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Maggler.
You mean the dealer you were playing against today was crooked?
Well, most of them weren't, that's what this feller told me.
Well, I just figured something.
You couldn't be one unless you were playing crooked, too.
Of course I was playing crooked.
That's the only way I know how.
Well, I'm...
Maggler, suppose he'd have found out they'd have been a-cheating.
He's not very good, not in use, the goodest feller he's taught me in the army.
Oh, my, great to hear.
Uh, well, what are you going to show him now, Chester?
I don't know.
Hello, Matt. That's it.
Hello, Kitty. Are you just coming in?
Why, I heard Chester's kid brother was here on the meeting.
Is he sure? Did he say that fine?
I mean, you are meeting?
I sure do.
Madden, excuse me, Miss P. A really, really large woman, Madden.
How do you do, Madden?
Well...
That's a married woman, Madden, if I'm still a miss.
Oh, I don't get around women, Mike.
Well, it's not too late to start, if you have something against us.
I'm generally off in the country somewhere alone.
So you don't see many women, is there?
I don't see none at all.
What do you do, Madden? Run and trap?
Mostly. Sometimes I just travel around looking.
Where, Texas?
I've been all over, Miss Kitty. I've been most everywhere.
I'll bet you've never been to, um, Canada.
Like when I was trapped in a sack.
You never told me you was in Canada, Madden.
You never asked me.
You like Canada, Miss Kitty?
I never got that far north, Madden. Is it pretty?
Awful big. It's pretty, too.
It's cold sometimes, the trees crack.
Yeah, sounds like raffle shots.
You ought to hear that. It's kind of exciting.
Oh, better than spooky, too, huh?
The first time it is, you get used to it.
That awful cold, Madden. I don't think I'd ever get used to that.
Well, it's no worse than the blazes on the prairies.
And besides, you get more shelter in them big trees up there.
In the snow, it's real deep. That's the best shelter.
Awful warm when you get way down deep in the snow there.
Like, one time when I was coming back from my trap line.
And we got up, Madden. That's nothing. Stop the time.
We got to go eat.
Oh, that's me. When you finish the storage, there's...
I'm sorry, Miss Kitty.
Well, we've got to eat sometime.
Miss Kitty, ma'am, have you asked yet?
No, I haven't.
I'd be rather proud to buy you a date.
What date?
Chester and Marshall Dillon will be there.
Well, I'd love to come, Madden. Thank you.
Oh, my goodness, my nerve.
Wait a minute, Kitty. Let me buy a drink all the way around before we go.
Why never drink?
Well, I kind of think maybe Chester will need one before the night starts.
That you, Max?
Yeah, it is me.
Now, when are you going to isolate, Doc?
What time is it?
Oh, it's a good hour past midnight. I was about to turn in myself.
It's pretty quiet tonight.
Oh, I'm hungry, man.
You know something, you should have had supper with us tonight.
I wish I had.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry I miss you. Where is he now?
I don't know. Chester took him off somewhere.
Oh, Chester's going to get into trouble.
Wait a minute. Wait a minute, what's coming here?
Where is he?
I don't know.
But the man carrying somebody.
Yes, the man carrying somebody.
What man?
Chester's got to be in some serious trouble.
It's a man carrying somebody.
It's Magnus, man.
Why, that's Chester he's got.
Oh, what happened Magnus? Is Chester hurt?
He ain't hurt, Marshall. He didn't knock.
What's the matter with him, Magnus?
Oh, he got sleepy.
What? Well, Marshall, at the subways Chester said we was going to have to do some drinking.
He said we was going to have three, four drinks in every saloon in town.
I didn't want to do it, but well, you know how he's been talking.
Yeah, yeah, I know. How part of your guess, Magnus?
Well, I made all of them.
But like I say, Chester, he got sleepy the last few days.
I carried him along so he wouldn't be disappointed about it tomorrow.
You carried him along like that?
The only way I could, Marshall.
Uh, follow me, Magnus, or you'll put him to bed.
What? His room ain't down that way, Marshall. That's his day.
Well, we'll lock him in the cell and put him on the floor, Magnus.
He might roll out of bed and get hurt otherwise.
Besides, I always lock up men that get that, uh, sleepy.
Ah, good morning, Magnus.
Who is Chester, Marshall?
He's out back, waking up. I, uh, turned him loose a while ago.
Well, how's he feeling?
He says he feels fine. He says he can't imagine why he's painted that way.
Never done it before, he says.
It's soft living, like I told him.
Oh, hello, Magnus.
I come by to see if you'd like to get some coffee, Chester.
Oh, I could use some.
You look pretty good this morning, Magnus.
I cheated again, Chester. I slept on the floor last night.
Oh, that's why. It's no use, Chester.
I've been thinking, I just ain't fitting for town life.
I'm gonna leave.
What?
I'm gonna leave. I better off out there in the open.
No, wait, Magnus, you can't leave.
Well, you told me so yourself.
Well, I didn't know then. I didn't know about you.
Magnus, you're better off in town than I am.
Thanks, Chester, but I know where I belong.
No, now, you can't leave now, can you, Mr. Bill?
Well, it's up to him, Chester, but if he wants to stay, well, I'll give him a job of some kind. We could use him.
There, you see, Magnus?
No, no, I tried it. Got to try everything once, but it just ain't for me.
Well, why not? You belong fine here. What's wrong with it?
Well, it's all right for you, Chester, but for me, it just ain't exciting enough.
Not exciting enough? Well, what's exciting about living on the ground like an animal?
You'd have to try that to find out, Chester.
You want to come with me now?
No, of course I don't. I couldn't stand it.
Well, I guess we're just different, Magnus.
Well, there's nothing wrong with being different, Chester. I guess you both learned that by now.
Yes, sir. I sure have.
Ah, but, Magnus, you don't have to leave today. You can stay till after New Year. You got to. Why?
Well, because I want you to. You're my little brother.
Well, Magnus, I'm kindly proud of you.
Okay, Chester, but I'm getting out of that blasted hotel. I want to move back in with my horse.
All right, that's fine, Magnus. Of course, you are. And look, I'll come help you get your stuff. We'll tote it over together.
Gunsfolk, transcribed under the direction of Norah McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The story was specially written for Gunsfolk by John Nelson, with music composed and conducted by Red Corp.
Sound patterned by Tom Henry and Ray Temple. Bob Eastern played baton.
Marty Mayer as Chester, Howard McNair 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 silence of the West End Gunsfolk.