Gun smoke.
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 gun smoke.
Gun smoke.
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.
Dr. Still here, Mr. Dillon. Matt Dillon's buggy. Yeah, he's here. It's a good thing, too.
Sure do hope he ain't mad hurt. So do I, Chester.
That you, Matt? Yeah, Doc.
Screens unhooked. Come on in to the bedroom. All right.
Ah, good. See if you can talk some sense into this cantankerous old lady.
I've known her for some years, and I've never been able to yet. How do you feel, Miss Larkin?
Good enough to get up and get on with my chores, but this broken-winded old veterinary claims I gotta stay in bed for a week.
Oh, Doc's right sometimes. It's by the law of average.
Oh, Mrs. Larkin, better.
What have you been up to, Miss Larkin? Going in for bulldogging stairs at your age?
Oh, it's a piddlin' little old accident.
And the way you and Doc and Chester come running out here, you'd think you're all in my will.
What, you mean we ain't in it, Matt?
Chester, it would do you no good if you was. I ain't going no place. I've got another good twenty years in me yet.
Well, if you go around rustling stairs, you haven't. How did it happen?
Oh, it was that confounded breeding bull I bought last fall while he was meaner than an acre of snakes.
Charges anything that moves. Can't even turn him onto the range. You have to keep him in a special built corral.
That was a darn fool thing to do, getting him there at all.
I got about halfway across corral, and that dad-blamed critter tossed his head and jerked his nose ring out of the hook.
He saw me moving, so he come for me.
Lonnie had been wearing his gun. He'd have shot him. And thanks the Lord, he wasn't.
I got a lot of money tied up in that bull.
Your life ought to be worth a little something, you know.
Well, I still got it. I made the fence before he hit me, and then he missed me with the horns.
Just butted me some before I could reach the top rail and haul up out of the way.
I'll be as good as new this time tomorrow.
Good as new?
Good as new.
Good as new, you say. Any time an old wagon wheel hits a rock, Mrs. Lichen, it always leaves at least some of the spokes loose.
We speak for yourself, you old billy goat. You're just itching to make a profit off my infirmity.
Well, at least you admit that you're hurt, Mrs. Lichen.
I'll live to bury this old weasel.
Old? You're talking to a man in his prime, and he's liking crime.
Hell, I'm going to fetch some liniment out of the buggy.
Now, don't you wallow around and loosen those bandages. You got a busted rib, young lady.
It's cracked some, maybe, but it ain't busted.
Oh, he's a good doctor, cotton-sounding, but I sure enjoy plaguing him.
Oh, Doc does some of that himself, Mrs. Lichen.
Tell me, how have things been going around the place?
Oh, they couldn't be better, Marshal.
Except for this morning, of course, and that other little accident a couple weeks ago.
Oh, what other accident?
Oh, a saddle girth broke on me and I got stowed up in the North Matter.
Oh.
Wasn't nothing really. Wait, turned out I let on the feed, as usual.
I'm pretty spry for old women.
You're pretty lucky, too.
I am lucky, Marshal.
Things seem to work out for me, like Lonnie Wells riding in here and asking for a job.
Oh, the day he come, I was just about at the end of my rope.
Uh, how long has Lonnie been with you now?
Five and a half months, and he's made it seem like a different world.
After Ed died, I could go on because I still had my son.
Three years ago, you remember, he was took from me, too.
Yeah, I remember.
That little Dan, I just didn't have no heart to go on living.
Then Lonnie come. He straighter took his place.
Mm-hmm.
Mrs. Lichen, where'd Lonnie come from?
Oh, Texas, somewheres.
Now he's a fine boy, Marshal.
Just say his little Dan has been.
Well, he's like another son to me.
Not just a, just a hard hand.
Mrs. Lichen, you sure you're feeling all right?
Yeah. I reckon I'm shook up more than I knew.
Marshal, there's hot water on the stove, a box of tea on the shelf.
Oh, I'll fix you some.
I'll be right back there and take it easy.
I'll give you a hand.
I'm much obliged to you both.
You still have the same mind, Mr. Dillon?
Yeah.
Well, young Lonnie Welch is a shifty-eyed cuss that there was one.
It's worse than just being shifty-eyed, Chester.
Well, I want something real bad.
Sure, lots of time. What do you want?
Well, that's the crazy part. I don't even know.
No?
Just something.
Something I don't have, I guess.
Couldn't be a spring fever, could it?
It might.
Steps have felt the same way in the fall.
Sometimes I think it's this country out here, man.
The prairie.
What do you mean?
It's just a darn big fancy. You know what I mean?
I think so.
You feel so alone, like something's lacking in you.
And you try to fit things in, things of people or something.
Yeah, yeah, I know.
In fact, I know an old woman who's doing that right now. She's trying to find a substitute for her dead son.
Who's that?
Mrs. Larkin, out west of town.
Oh, with Lonnie Welch, you mean?
He's sitting over there in that poker game right now.
Yeah, I've been watching him.
He throws money around pretty free for a hired ranch hand, doesn't he?
The way I hear it, she gives him all the money he wants.
Yeah, but maybe not as fast as he wants.
What do you mean, Matt?
Well, early last month, Mr. Bodkin over at the bank came and told me that Mrs. Larkin had been in and made a will.
She's leaving everything she's got to Lonnie.
Oh, no.
Yeah, I felt the same way.
Even more so after she'd had a couple of close calls. Accidents, supposedly.
Well, Matt, something ought to be done.
You can't hang a man on a hunch, especially when he hasn't done it yet.
Yeah, but there's got to be something.
Well, I've been figuring on talking to him.
As a matter of fact, I think I'll do it right now.
Yeah.
I'll see you a little later, Kitty.
Yeah, sure, Matt.
A man's luck can't run bad forever.
I reckon I'll stay in and raise another five.
Yeah, mind holding up his hand for a couple of minutes, boys?
What's up, Marcus?
What's the trouble, Marcus?
Poker against the law now in Dodge?
No, I just wanted to talk to you for a minute, honey.
You asking or ordering?
Come on, let's take a walk, huh?
Sure, why not?
A man's a man for talk. I'll oblige him.
Just leave everything laid, gents, right there on the table.
Getting this kind of personal attention is allowed to flatter a man some, Marshal.
Yeah, sure.
We're right-handed to the bar. I'll be glad to buy you a drink.
Blondie, where did you come from before you hit Dodge?
Oh, here and there.
Why?
Ever been to Virginia City?
Not as far as I recollect.
I think you'd better think again.
I put out some bulletins a while back, and the only answer I got's from Virginia City.
Is that so?
Seems you were working a silver claim with a partner named Pete Ryder until he turned up murdered one day.
They must have mentioned something about the jury acquitting me on that, didn't they?
Yeah, it's a lack of evidence.
Well, in that case, I reckon I'll just have to...
Just a minute.
You got something else in mind, Walter?
Yeah, I have.
I want you to know that I'd figure it was real suspicious if Ms. Larkin was to die suddenly by accident, like yesterday with that bull.
Now, look, that bull's a born killer, Marshal. You don't think I trained him, do you?
No, I think you let Ms. Larkin go out in the middle of the corral and then turned him loose.
And you told Mrs. Larkin that, too, didn't you?
I did.
Yeah, she told me. And she also told me she ordered you off the place. She wouldn't listen to such things.
Well, I didn't.
If anything happens to her, I'll get you for it, so help me if it takes me the rest of my life.
I'll see you around, Marshal. I got a pat hand in this game.
You better have, mister, because you're betting your life on it.
Oh, my God. Doggone it, Matt. There's just no sense to the way you play checkers.
Why do you say that, Doc?
Boy, you make some of the goddarnest moves I've ever seen. Well, you're worse than Chester.
No.
Only time you beat me is when I let you do it, Doc.
Well, then you're mighty generous natured.
Oh, look what you done there. Look what you done there. You left one of your men just sitting there, you see that?
Uh-uh.
Well, take it. So, you see?
Yeah, I see. Well, there. All right, take another one, Doc.
Well, if you want to give me the game.
Where's my young man?
Okay, Doc. And...
Wait, let's see now. What did...
Three of you men, Doc, I'd put you down one in the way I'm figuring you're a beat.
You're a generous natured, too, ain't you, Doc?
Oh, sure. That's how you do it, yeah. You keep Chester talking like that so as to get my mind off the game.
That's right, Doc.
You've got a mighty sneaky way of playing, if you ask me, too.
Good evening, gentlemen.
Hello. How are you, Miles?
Hello.
Am I breaking in on anything important?
No, no. Come on in. Come on in.
Well, I can't stay. I just wanted some information, Matthew.
No?
I thought you might be able to help me.
Information about what?
Well, at Mrs. Larkin's place out west of town, what do you figure it's worth?
Oh, it's kind of hard to say. It's a good ranch, all right.
That's what I was thinking. And, well, if a man could buy it cheap...
What do you mean, if a man could buy it cheap?
Well, I heard it might be on the market before the end of the week.
Who told you that?
A young fellow that worked for Mrs. Larkin.
He let it slip this afternoon.
Oh, he'd been drinking kind of heavy, I suppose. Otherwise he wouldn't have.
Do you know where he is now?
Guy? Well, somebody was saying he couldn't even make it back out to the ranch.
He took a room at the Dodge house for the night.
Chester, come on.
Yes, sir.
You think that I ought to make an offer for the place, Matthew?
No, I wouldn't bother, Miles. Not just yet, anyway.
My, he sure is dead to the world, Mr. John.
Yeah.
Blind drunk, the clerk said. Didn't want to be disturbed before noon tomorrow.
Well, he's gonna be disturbed. Give me that passkey, Chester.
Here you are.
Thanks.
I bet he's gonna be mad at a wet hen being drugged out of bed this way.
Yeah, I bet he is.
See if you can find the lamp and get it lit, huh?
Yes, sir.
I'll be over here on the bureau.
Mr. John.
Huh?
He ain't here.
That bed hasn't even been slept in.
And the window's standing wide open. He could have went out of it.
Yeah. Well, he's got a good start on us, Chester. Come on, let's get moving.
Look out, Mr. Dillon. There's a fire at the corner of the house.
Yeah, that's against the wall of the bedroom, Chester. Come on.
Somebody's there. He's a health middler. Time to put it out.
Trying to put it out, Chester. That's Miss Larkin.
Oh, well, that lamp ain't been here yet, huh?
I wouldn't bet on that.
There are a couple of buckets of the water trough there, Chester. Let's give her a hand.
Yes, sir.
That's you, Larkin?
Be right with you, Miss Larkin.
All right, you ready, Chester? Let's go.
It don't look near as bad as I thought it would.
Oh, she's about got her foot out, I think.
A little water here against the wall ought to do it.
Right. All right, throw the other bucket in the same place, Chester.
Oh, no. Looks like that just about does it.
It's blue, scotch, and gold air for a while.
We'd better watch it for a few minutes. Those embers might flare up again.
That didn't do too much harm, it looks like. Burned the outside wall some.
Yeah, it was mostly just trash burning. All piled up again in the house that way.
What's the matter, Chester?
Mr. Dillon, you smell coal oil?
Yeah, I do. Miss Larkin, did Lonnie start this?
How'd you know?
He made a big show of spending the night in town. We went over to the Dodge house and he wasn't in his room.
I don't know what it was woke me, but I looked out the window and there he was.
He piled brush against the wall and was just sitting far to it, aimed for me to die right in my bed.
Actually, I guess I owe you an apology. You was right. I was wrong.
Lonnie's a smooth talker, Miss Larkin. Anybody might have been taking him in.
But he won't get far. We'll find him before sunup.
I don't reckon that'll be much of a chore, Marshal, finding him.
Oh?
He seen me at the window and he picked up a heavy chunk of wood and come into the house.
When Lonnie opened the bedroom door and come for me at that club, I shot him.
He landed there dead.
For no hands' sake.
Well, you got nothing to worry about, Miss Larkin.
Any jury in the world would call it self-defense.
I ain't worrying, Marshal. Not about no jury.
But it's going to be mighty lonesome around here again without Lonnie on the place.
No, I ain't going to like that.
I'm not, but being dead might be pretty lonesome to him, Miss Larkin. I just can't tell.
Gun Smoke, produced and directed by Norman MacDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
Featured in the cast were Parley Bear as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
George Waltz speaking.
Join us again next week for another specially transcribed story on Gun Smoke.
Music
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