Gunsmoke, brought to you by Chesterfield, made the modern way with Accuray.
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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 a U.S. Marshal and the smell of Gunsmoke.
Gunsmoke, 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 chancy job and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Most people think of Dodge City here in the 1870s as a wild, lawless town.
Swamped with exciting women and strong, daring men.
The men they picture as fighters, the kind who stand up for almost no reason at all and
gun each other down with as little regard for their own lives as they have for their opponents.
Men whose courage is as raw and harsh as the prairies it's bred on.
Well, this is the picture, but it isn't quite complete.
We got our share of cowards too, like the one whose work I ran into the night I found
a note on my door.
Said, come up to Doc Adams' office as fast as I could.
Doc's in the back room, Mr. Dillon.
What's the trouble, trusty?
He's got Jack Massey in there.
Jack Massey?
That cowboy who looks up whenever he comes to town, you remember him.
He always comes in the office and sets around and talks.
Oh, the red-headed fellow, you mean, huh?
He's been six months since we've seen him.
What's he doing up here?
What's wrong?
Well, Doc, you'd better ask him.
Hello, man.
Doc.
Well, he's dead.
Oh, that poor thing.
As soon as I saw him, I knew he couldn't make it.
Not with a hole like that, did he?
Doc, would you mind telling me what happened?
Somebody shot him, man.
Well, who shot him?
We don't know.
I was coming down the street, Mr. Dillon, and I heard a shot and I run in and found
him laying there on the floor, right where he fell out of the chair.
Out of what chair, Chester?
Why, yours.
Mine?
Yes, sir, down in the office.
He was waiting for you, I guess, and somebody sneaked in the back way and shot him.
Why?
He was shot in the back.
So?
Well, he was sitting in your chair, and we noticed he was wearing a hat just like the
one you wear.
And also, he's about the same size as you.
Somebody's out to kill you, Matt, to kill you the easy way.
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Evening, man.
Ah, hello, Kelly.
Sit down.
Ah, thanks.
What brings you into the Long Branch this time of night?
Ah, just looking around, Kelly.
Well, there are a lot of men at the bar over there.
You think you can pick him up?
Why?
You think you can pick up a man who thought he shot you tonight?
News travels fast, doesn't it?
I heard somebody was after you two days ago.
You did?
I figured it's a talk.
Didn't anybody tell you about it?
Well, I haven't been around much the last couple of days, Kitty, but even so, I guess
it isn't the kind of talk people feel easy about passing on.
That's for me, anyway.
I guess not.
You know who started it?
He did.
Who?
Coming this way.
What?
Well, that's Ed Eby.
What's he doing in Dodge?
You ought to drop around more often, Matt.
He's been banging Pharaoh here three or four days now.
That's Sam Harry?
Yeah.
He's been doing fine, too.
Eby always was a smart gambler.
Hello, Marshal.
Miss Kitty.
Ed.
Hello, Eby.
You mind if I sit down?
No, go ahead.
I've been meaning to come see you, Marshal.
Oh, is that so?
I heard about the shooting tonight.
Seems most everybody has.
I know something about it, Marshal.
Would you like to hear?
Tell me.
Well, a couple of nights ago, I went out back to breathe a little fresh air.
I was standing out there in the dark around the corner in the alley, and I heard a couple
of men come out.
They couldn't see me, and I couldn't see them, but I heard one of them tell the other he
was going to shoot Marshal Dillon.
Shoot him any way he could.
Uh-huh.
You're a little late telling me, aren't you, Eby?
I don't exactly owe you no favors, Marshal.
Then why did you bother to tell me at all?
Because I don't like killing.
That's why I hate killing.
I've told you everything I know, Marshal.
I'll be going now.
What's that all about, Matt?
What's between you and Eby?
Oh, I knew him out in Santa Fe one time, Kitty.
He was bullying the man, and I showed him up to be a coward.
A lot of people witnessed it, and Eby never forgave me.
Well, then maybe his story's a lie.
Maybe he's the one who did the shooting tonight.
I don't think Ed Eby has the guts to shoot a man, even in the back.
Who is it, then?
Haven't you any idea?
That there are a lot of men who'd like to see me dead.
I know.
I'd be willing to take my chances with anybody who'd face me.
It's the man who shoots out of the dark I'm afraid of.
Nobody wants to die, but it's even worse without a chance to fight back.
That's what always made me feel especially bad about a man who broke his neck falling
off a saddle, or who maybe disappeared in front of a stampede of buffalo, or who, like
Jack Massey, sitting at my desk, had to take a bullet in the back.
That's not dying.
That's being slaughtered like a hog in a pen.
Rob's a man of everything he's lived for, and it made me mad.
Give me some mad, I lost my sense of caution.
Like the night Chester and I were walking up Front Street after supper.
Well, if I was in your boots, Mr. Dillon, I'd hide me out on the prairie for a spell.
Oh, you wouldn't?
You bet I would.
Out there you can see a man coming a mile off.
I don't think he'd like that, Chester.
I guess you're right.
He'd never fall out in the open.
Not him.
Or them.
You think they might be born to one?
Might be.
Oh, go on, Mr. Dillon, why don't you hire some men to hang around as a sort of bodyguard?
Then nobody would dare try ambushing you.
The sooner they try, the better, Chester.
Get it over with one way or the other.
I wish I was as cool about it as you.
I'm not cool, Chester.
I'm mad.
You sure got a funny way of showing it.
Now, if I was mad, I'd be hopping around like a bronco with a burr under its tail.
I'd be a slouching and slurring with foam on my mouth.
Get on, Chester.
He's up there in the alley.
Yeah, I'm going after him.
I'm going with you.
You stay here.
No, by golly, not this time.
No, sir.
Start shooting, mister.
Start shooting while you got a chance.
I sure will.
He's by that barrel, Mr. Dillon.
He's leaning on it.
Yeah, I see him.
I'll shoot you, I'll shoot you good.
Drop that gun.
You walked right up to him, Mr. Dillon, and he had a gun right in his hand.
He's drunk, Chester.
Did you knock him out?
Well, I hit him hard enough.
Let's get him up to darks.
We'll sober him up and find out what this is all about.
Don't put that cup down yet, fella.
Not before you drink every drop of coffee in it.
No, I'm drowning in coffee, Doc.
I said drink it.
Yeah, there, no more, Doc.
I'm sober now.
Yes, well.
Matt.
Yeah, Doc.
He can talk straight now.
It's about time.
What's your name, mister?
Nat Swan.
But I didn't mean nothing, Marsha.
I didn't know what I was doing.
All honest I did.
Then I'll tell you.
You were trying to kill me.
No.
No, don't.
Don't hit me.
You're a real coward, aren't you, Swan?
Even to shoot me in the back, you had to take on a load of whiskey.
I got nothing against you, Marsha.
I come to town and heard all that talk and thought I could make a name for myself if
I'd done the shooting.
Ain't no more to it than that.
No, listen, no more to it than that.
Nothing personal is what I mean.
I should have put strychnine in that coffee.
What are you saying, Doc?
Never mind, Doc.
I believe you, Swan.
Oh, you do?
Well, it's true.
Honest it is.
Yeah, it's true, all right.
And there are a lot of other drunken, brainless bums gonna try it for the same reason.
They've heard somebody's out to murder me and they get to thinking, why shouldn't they
do it and get the credit for themselves?
Well, no, man, no, it's not that bad.
It's already started, Doc.
And there'll be others, lots of them, as long as I last.
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Chester and I rode Nat's swan down to the Arkances.
Told him to get his horse across and to keep going.
I guess he thought I was about to shoot him the way he rode off all hunkered up in the
saddle trying to look small.
And I was pretty sure he'd never show up and dodge again.
Yeah, that'd be one less glory hunter to deal with.
But the thought of how many were left waiting in the alleys, hiding in the shadows, how
it made me jumpy.
And I didn't realize how bad off I was until we got back into town.
Went into the stable and put our horses into their stalls and we're walking toward the
door.
This barn's plum deserted tonight, Mr. Don.
It's late, Chester.
Everybody's either drunk or in bed by now.
Well, there's somebody who ain't.
Hey, what's he doing with that rifle?
Here, duck into the stall, Chester.
He's seen us.
All right, drop that rifle, Mr.
Not likely.
Drop it, I say.
No.
He's going to shoot.
You got him.
You stay back, Chester.
Don't shoot.
Don't shoot again.
Pick up his rifle, Chester.
I got it.
At last, you, mister.
You put a bullet in my lung.
Who are you?
I've never seen him before.
Why do you care who I am?
You're going to kill me, that's what you're doing.
Why were you after me?
Somebody hire you?
Tell me.
You shoot a man down and then you try to blame it on him.
Maybe he wasn't after you.
I ain't after nobody.
I come from a horse, that's all.
I think he's telling the truth, Mr. Dillon.
Dillon?
You...
You're the Marshal.
What?
Who did you think I was?
I heard talk somebody was out to shoot you.
It wasn't me.
I was just trying to get home to Texas.
I ain't going to make it now.
Well, I...
I heard you lever your rifle, mister.
You're about to shoot.
I thought I was being held up.
Oh, wait, you hollered at me?
Oh, my goodness, Mr. Dillon.
He ain't got nothing to do with this.
Of course I ain't.
If I was you, Marshal, if there's talk about somebody after me, I'd find out who's making
the talk.
I wouldn't go around shooting innocent people.
Somebody's got you outsmarted.
We'll get you up to dox, mister.
He'll take good care of you.
Don't bury me in a blanket, Marshal.
Fix me a box, will you?
Promise me you'll fix me a box.
Yeah.
Yeah, I promise.
I can't swallow no more.
I'm gonna drop, drown.
Hell, I killed an innocent man, Chester.
He'd have shot you if you hadn't, Mr. Dillon.
I don't even know his name.
But we'll fix him a box.
We'll fix him a good one.
Yes, sir.
Then I'm gonna do something else, he said.
What's that?
I've been outsmarted, he was right.
But I know what I'm doing now.
Hello, man.
Hello, Kitty.
You're looking for somebody.
You bet I am.
Trouble?
Now the trouble's over, or it soon will be.
If there's gonna be a fight, they don't need me in this saloon.
I'll be mighty surprised if there is a fight, Kitty.
Cowards don't carry guns.
Ed Eby.
I'll see you later.
Here comes the split, gentlemen.
You care to string along?
Well, Marshal Dillon, you gonna try your luck?
My luck ran out about an hour ago, Eby.
What?
I shot and killed an innocent man.
What are you talking about, Marshal?
You were too cheap to hire somebody to get me, Eby, and too much of a coward to try it
yourself.
I don't like that.
You're a story about overhearing that talk out back.
You spread it around, hoping it'd give some brainless fool the idea to try it himself.
Now that's a lie.
Two men tried it.
And they made me so jumpy, I just killed a man I thought was gonna try it again.
Well, I feel pretty bad about that, Eby.
I got nothing to do with it.
You told me the story thinking it'd make you look innocent.
Now, you have smarted me, Eby, for a while.
You can't prove any of this.
I don't have to.
Now, come on.
You can't arrest me?
No.
Then I'm gonna lock you up, and tomorrow I'm gonna run you out of town.
No.
I'm not gonna let a man of dad because of your cowardice, Eby.
I wish I could hang here for it.
Don't you call me a coward.
You're the worst coward I ever saw.
Shut up.
You stop saying it.
You're doing just what you did out in Santa Fe.
Come on, Eby.
I'll show you I'm not a coward.
You won't call me that anymore.
Take your hand out of your pocket, Eby.
I got a gun in here.
I'll kill you myself.
No, you won't.
You're not gonna draw that gun.
Yes, I am.
Not you, Eby.
I'll do it.
Not you.
I'll kill you.
Just keep talking, Eby.
Keep talking.
Why didn't you shoot him, Matt?
You had a right to.
I think he wanted me to, Kitty.
What?
I think he'd rather be dead than face everybody knowing what a coward he is.
He's got his punishment coming for the rest of his life.
Stop.
Start smoking with a smile with Chesterfield.
Smooth or cool or milder, Chesterfield.
Put a smile in your smoking, just give them a try.
Chesterfield's best for you.
They satisfy.
Remember only Chesterfield is made the modern way with Accu-Ray.
Smoother.
Cooler.
Best for you.
Gunsmoke, produced and directed by Norman McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon,
U.S. Marshal.
Our story was specially written for Gunsmoke by John Meston, with music composed and conducted
by Rex Corey.
Sound patterns by Tom Hanley and Ray Kemper.
Featured in the cast were Vic Paran, John Danaer and Jack Edwards.
Carly Bear as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
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Be sure and listen to Gunsmoke again on radio next week at the same time.
Transcribed for Chesterfield.