Gun Smoke, brought to you by L&M, the modern cigarette that lets you get full, exciting
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Gun Smoke, starring William Conrad.
The 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, and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
I'm going to get a little fresh air in this office.
Uh oh.
What's the matter, Chester?
Oh, my gracious, you've got trouble, Mr. Dillon.
Least wise, you're going to have.
That's usually a pretty safe prediction.
That red-haired, blind-set girl, she's got a lot of trouble.
She's got a lot of trouble.
Is she the one that married that no-good, slim Adele?
Thank you know change all of your
It honor you when marriage women count rock down the street without without.
Without being insulted.
Uh won't you.
Sit down.
I don't want to sit down.
All right. Now which one of the boys do you want to have me hang this time?
Matt, I didn't come here to be laughed at.
No, you want somebody thrown in jail.
Somebody that made the mistake of paying you a normal human compliment.
I'm a married woman, and I'll thank the man in this town to respect me as one.
Jerry Slim's been gone for nearly two years now.
A lot of people don't think he's ever coming back.
Oh, he'll come back all right.
Don't you worry none about that.
And when he does, these grinning loafers are going to be mighty sorry that they talked out of turn.
Like me, ma'am?
Oh, you! You've got a nerve coming here.
I reckon I'm the cause of this young lady being all riled up, Marshal.
See, I told her I was aiming to marry her.
That's what I meant. A complete stranger right on the street.
In broad daylight, if you please.
Well, now, Jerry, I doubt if anybody would call that an insult.
Oh, you think it's funny, don't you? All three of you.
But maybe if you were with me, you wouldn't think so.
If you'd waited a year and eight months, not knowing.
Just hearing stories. Wives about your men.
No, Jerry.
Oh, I don't know why I come here. I don't know why I even fall.
Jerry, wait.
My.
Marshal, my name's Red Leonard.
I'm Matt Dillon.
That's Chester Crawford.
Howdy.
How you doing?
Are you just riding through?
I didn't have any actual plans, Marshal.
I came face to face with Mrs. O'Dell up the street there.
Ah? Mrs. O'Dell?
Oh, I knew who she was before I even spoke to her.
I helped you. I've been carrying her picture with me for three weeks now.
There.
Where'd you get this?
From her husband. After he was dead.
Dead? Oh, my goodness.
That's what I came to dodge for, to let her know he was dead.
I see.
Tell me something.
Slim O'Dell, how did he die?
Well, it was Indians.
Renegades up in the Platte River Country about a month back.
You're sure of that?
Well, I was there.
Me and him was partners on a trap line.
They almost got me, too.
Chester, hand me that bulletin there back at the desk, will you?
Yes, sir.
Hey, what's going on?
I got word of Slim's death, too, Red.
A sheriff's bulletin came about three weeks ago.
I looked in the post office here.
There wasn't any bulletin up.
Yeah, I know. I haven't said anything about it, not even a cherry.
Slim O'Dell was shot to death trying to hold up the North Platte Broken Arrow stage here.
The Broken Arrow stage coach.
His partner got away.
No name, no description.
Marshal, that's why I kept the news to myself.
I figured his partner might head for Dodge and try to get Slim's wife to alibi him somewhere.
Now, just a minute, Marshal.
You keep your hands right where they are, Red.
You're under arrest for attempted robbery and for the murder of two stage line guards.
Let's take his gun, just in.
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Red Leonard was a pretty nervy customer, walking into my office and telling me a lot of lies about Slim O'Dell being killed by Indians.
The strangest thing of all about it was that I was sure he knew I wouldn't believe him.
But whatever he had in mind, I decided not to take any chances with him.
When I told Chester to take his gun, he stepped back a few feet.
For a minute, I thought I was going to have a fight on my hands.
Now wait, Marshal, I reckon we'd better back up a little here.
Get out of the way, Chester.
Listen to me, will you? We both made a mistake here.
Oh, is that so? I came to Dodge for the same reason you kept quiet about that wanted bulletin.
I figured Slim O'Dell's partner might make for here to hide out.
I thought you said you were his partner, Red.
No, I'm the man who killed him. Special agent for the Wells Fargo stage company.
My credentials are in my hip pocket.
Here.
Yeah, I guess these could be legitimate enough.
Marshal, this is O'Dell's hometown. It's just possible you were friends and you might cover for him.
I wasn't sure whose side you'd be on.
Well, I'm not on his side, Red. He left here just one job ahead of arrest.
Sit down.
Thanks.
You were there when Slim and his partner tried to hold up that stage.
Yeah.
We were bringing through a load of bullion. Two men had jumped one of our stages the week before.
So the company took the regular driver off and put an extra guard in his place.
I was riding inside, just the three of us.
But O'Dell and his partner outsmarted us, Marshal.
They just came riding out of the brush, one on each side, shot the two guards in the back without saying a word.
I dropped O'Dell, the other man got away.
Got a look at him?
Just barely. About average height and build.
Well, he could be a thousand miles away from here, Red.
Maybe, but we got nothing else to go on.
Truth is, Marshal, I reckon I'd have come here on my own after seeing that girl's picture.
A chariot, though?
Mm-hmm.
And I thought maybe you were just using her to get to her husband's partner.
Tell me, she's still in love with O'Dell?
Maybe, and maybe she just thinks she is.
Carrie's a born rebel.
I always figured she married Slim, mostly despite her family.
They were only together about two months.
He tried homesteading until he found that there was work to it.
Then he left town with Yancey Clyburn.
Clyburn?
Ah, he's the partner you're looking for.
At least I heard four or five months ago they were still together.
I've been watching for him since I got that bulletin, but he hasn't showed yet.
Oh.
Marshal, I'm a plain man, and I don't know much about women, but I meant just what I told that girl.
I'm going to marry her.
You shot her husband, Red. That's not going to help.
What do you figure she'll do when she hears?
Well, knowing her, she'll try to kill him.
The
jail waiting for you.
What's the trouble?
Well, I'm not sure, but Matt, do you know somebody by the name of Larnard, Red Larnard?
Hey, he just hit town this afternoon. He's here on business.
Why? What about him?
Well, Jerry Adell was in here looking for him.
In here?
Yeah, looking for this Red Larnard, and that's all she'd say, Matt.
She was acting half wild.
Ah, she had a run-in with Red earlier this afternoon.
Oh, dog, God, at the Lone Branch, you ain't getting to be the most law-biding place in Dodge.
At least that's where the law bides most of the time.
The law bides most of the time.
See, that's how I am, Doc.
That's very funny, Doc.
Oh, Kitty, you're looking pretty in a young filly in a field of buttercups.
Oh, thank you.
You just watch this old goat, Kitty. The only thing he really thinks is pretty is a bad case of jaundice or a family done with a crook.
Now, Matt, I'd allow you to buy me a drink for that.
Just may do that, Doc.
Mr. Dillon. Mr. Dillon?
Yeah, what is it, Chester?
You better come quick, and you too, Doc.
Why? What's the matter?
Look at that fellow red-liners. They just found him laying back at the liver stable. He's been shot in the back.
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Easy now. Watch the top step there, Chester.
Yes, sir. I got him on.
All right, let's get him in.
Stretch him out over here on the table, man.
All right, Doc. All right, easy, Chester.
Yes, sir.
I'll have to cut that shirt to get it off his shoulder.
Sounds like he's coming too, Doc.
Yes, it does. Now hand me those scissors, Chester, please.
There.
Thank you. Now let me see.
Take it easy. Take it easy now, son. Let's have a look at you.
What do you think, Doc?
Well, man, if it had been a couple of inches lower, a little to the right, I'd have had myself a car in his feet.
As it is, though, I guess he'll probably live.
Well, don't sound so disappointed.
Hand me those forceps, will you, please, Chester.
These things?
That's right, that's right.
Here.
Thank you. Can you hear me, Red?
Yeah. Yeah, I hear you.
Now, there's no use fooling you, son. This is going to hurt a little bit.
But we've got to get that bullet out.
Go ahead. Get it over with.
Wait a minute, Doc. It'd be all right if I ask him a couple of questions first.
Sure, Matt. You go ahead. If your minutes won't hurt anything, I've got the bleeding stopped.
Red, you feel like talking?
I felt more like it. I won't do any good anyhow, Marshal.
What do you mean?
I went over to the stable to get my horse. I was in the ride out to Cherry's place.
I felt the bullet hit me. And that's all.
You didn't see who it was, huh?
No. No, they were behind me.
I didn't see anybody at all, Marshal. Not to fact.
Don't you believe me?
I've got no reason not to, Red. If you claim that's what happened, then that's the way it is.
That's all I know about it, Marshal.
All right, Red. Good luck.
Thanks.
Go ahead, Doc.
Chester.
Brace yourself now, you fellow. Once we get that bullet out, you'll feel...
Chester, go saddle a couple of horses, will you? We'll ride out to Cherry's.
If she ain't here, Mr. Dillon.
She's here, all right.
Who is it? Who's out there?
Matt Dillon, Cherry. Chester's with me.
What?
He's got a gun.
What?
What? Who's out there? Matt Dillon, Cherry. Chester's with me.
What do you want?
A cup of coffee, maybe. Have a talk with him.
No, no, Matt. You can't come in.
Oh, why not?
Because I'm here alone. It's late. It just wouldn't be right.
You come back tomorrow when it's daylight.
Well, I think it's all right, Cherry, since this is more or less official.
What do you mean?
I hear you were in town earlier tonight looking for Red Leonard.
What of it?
Why, did you find him?
No, no, I didn't find him.
What did you want with him, Cherry?
That's my business.
Well, it might be mine, too, in a way. You know who he is?
He's a brute that thinks all he has to do is grin at a girl and he's got her.
Oh.
And along with it, he's a sneaking, cowardly killer.
He is, huh?
Red Leonard shot my husband in the back. Didn't even give him a chance.
And then Red made up the story that Slim was trying to rob a stagecoach.
Made it up, huh?
Why did he shoot Slim in the first place, Cherry?
Red was trying to hold him up, Slim and Yancey.
Slim had $20,000 in gold dust that he took from the diggings at Grady Fork that he'd worked hard for.
Why, so that's where he's been for the last year.
Slim a dough working?
Sure, he was working. All them stories about him was lies.
Cherry, Slim hasn't been panning gold for the last year.
He's been rustling cattle, holding up banks. He and Yancey clobber together.
No.
I've tried often enough to tell you he was no good, but you wouldn't believe it.
Or at least you wouldn't admit it.
Actually, I think you knew. I think you knew it a week after you married him.
That's not true.
Slim was killed during an attempt at a holdup of the stagecoach between North Platte and Broken Arrow.
He was shot by a Wells Fargo agent.
And not in the back.
Yes, he was.
Two men were shot in the back, all right, the two guards.
Cherry Redlarnet is a special agent for Wells Fargo.
I don't believe it.
Well, it's true. And I got the sheriff's bulletin on the robbery.
Now, you've known me for a long time, Cherry. Have you ever known me to lie to you?
No.
All right.
Now, Yancey Clyburn told you that wild story, didn't he?
No.
He's here somewhere, isn't he, Cherry?
No, he's not. You're wrong, Marshal.
You know what he did, don't you? He shot Redlarnet a half hour ago in town.
He shot him in the back, the same as those guards.
Oh, no, Matt, no.
Has he come back yet? Is he there in the house?
No, he's not in the house. He's...
He's there at the corner of the porch.
You dirty little...
You got him in the shoulder, Mr. Dillon.
Yeah.
Go see to him, Chester.
Yes, sir.
Oh, Matt, I believed him. I was willing to hide him out.
It's all right, Cherry.
It meant for him to sneak into town and kill Redlarnet.
I said he shot Red, Cherry. I didn't say he killed him.
Red's alive?
Well, he was lying in Doc's office when we left.
Then he's gonna be all right?
Yeah, I'm sure he is.
Maybe I should go see him.
Yeah, yeah, maybe, maybe you should.
Do you think he'll be all right?
Well, I don't know why not.
Oh, well, Cherry, when you see him, you might explain to him that it wasn't you that shot him.
He thinks that?
Oh, oh, he mustn't think that. He just must.
Where's she going, Mr. Dillon?
Out of Saddle of Horse, I imagine, Chester.
To ride in the town.
By gracious, I just won't never understand women, I guess.
Chester, you're not alone.
For the moment, our star, William Conrad.
There's a place for you in the Ground Observer Corps.
The Air Defense Command wants to know what's going on in the air over our country at every hour of the day and night.
Radar stretches out to investigate in every direction, but people are needed, too.
Alert people who will man the spotting posts that spread out east, west, north, and south
in a great network of vigilance on city rooftops, in suburban yards, on hilltops far out in the country.
Your fellow citizens are manning these posts now, night and day, 24 hours out of every 24.
Even if you have only a few hours a week to give, you'll be a welcome member of the team.
To join the Ground Observer Corps, all you have to do is call your local Civil Defense Office
and ask when and where you can be most useful.
Don't waste those sharp eyes and keen ears of yours when, with a brief training period,
you can take the place that's waiting for you in Operation Skywatch.
Reach for the phone first chance you get and call Civil Defense to volunteer.
This has been a public service message from CBS Radio.
And now, William Conrad.
You know, Christmas on the frontier usually meant just a little more hurrah than usual.
And it was far from a time of goodwill toward men.
But next week, now that touch of real Christmas comes to dodge.
And that was the West.
Gunsmoke, produced and directed by Norman MacDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The story was specially written for Gunsmoke by Les Crutchfield, with editorial supervision by John Meston.
The music was composed and conducted by Rex Corey.
Sound patterns by Tom Hanley and Bill James.
Featured in the cast were Sammy Hill, Vic Perrin, and Bill Lolley.
Harley Bear as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
Join us again next week for another story on Gunsmoke.
Music