Around Dodge City and in the territory on west, there is just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers, and that's with the U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
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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.
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Well now let me see here.
Oh yes.
Uh huh. Hand me those four sets, will you Matt?
Is this what you mean, Doc?
Yes, yes, that's right now.
We'll, we'll just...
At least we got the bullet out.
What do you think, Doc?
Well I'm not the good Lord, Matt. Maybe, maybe not.
Any uh, chance of me talking to her now?
No, not for half an hour, sir, until the chloroform wears off.
Just think of it, 60 miles on horseback, with a bullet in it.
I tell you, Indians have got more endurance than any race alive.
Yeah, but so she's only half Indian.
That's what worries me.
She couldn't give you any description of the oil, huh?
Now Matt, you know that all white men look alike to an Indian.
She said she'd know him if she saw him though, and she kept saying it until she passed out.
Yeah, I'll bet she'd know him.
She shot her husband down right in front of her and then tried to kill her when she ran.
Well, there can't be too many white men in the Choctaw Basin this time of year.
Well, whoever did it, you'll get him, Matt.
Little slip of a girl, pretty as a farm, 60 miles and bleeding all the way.
Uh, yeah, what is it, Justin?
We got an answer to that telegraph, Mr. Dillon.
Huh?
The garrison commander at Port Cougar Pass, there's only three men going into the basin from the west since the Thaws.
Three, huh?
Uh, does he know any of them?
Well, he didn't say so.
More than likely they're trappers short-cutting down from the hills.
If they haven't come out this end, it's one of those three.
Nobody winters in that basin except a few Indian families like Sochi and her husband.
Well, we can find out from Ben Taylor there at Lyle Grove Trading Post.
That's where they'd have to come out at.
Uh, Doc, I'll be at the jail if she comes to.
All right, man.
Uh, Doc, Miss Kitty's out in the other room.
She wants to know maybe can she help.
She's sure as the dickens can. You send her in, Justin.
All right.
Come on, Justin, I'll go out with you.
How is she, Matt?
I don't know, Kitty.
Doc had to put her under chloroform to take the bullet out.
She's very weak.
It's Sochi, isn't it?
The half-breed girl who married Walken Deer last spring?
Yeah, that's the girl.
Yeah, I remember seeing her on Dodge.
She's a lovely little thing. Just beautiful.
I guess maybe that's what caused it, Kitty.
What do you mean, Matt? What happened?
Well, I don't know. I don't know what she managed to tell Doc when she stumbled into his office.
Seems as some white man rode into their winter camp up at Machak Ta Basin and asked her and her husband for something to eat.
When they gave it to him, he hauled out a gun and killed Walken Deer
and then fired a shot at her when she ran for her horse.
Matt, she got away.
Hanging's too good for whoever did that.
Yeah, it may be, but it had a do and a pinch.
Matt, was she able to describe him?
Not so far, but she's sure she'll know him if she sees him again.
Then you make sure she does see him, Matt.
I was kind of planning to. Oh, look, Kitty, I think Doc could use some help in there.
Yeah, I figured he could. That's why I came over.
I'll see you later, Matt.
Yeah.
It might be any one of them three men, Mr. Dawn.
Uh-huh.
Pretty hard to tell which one to bring in.
Well, there's one way to tell, Chester.
How's that?
Right into the basin, round up all three of them and bring them back here to dodge.
That might take some doing, Mr. Dylan.
Yeah, you're right, Chester. It will take some doing.
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Or perhaps you'd like a change in classification?
Well, a step in the right direction would be a course with the United States Armed Forces Institute.
Yes, a course with USAPHI is an indication of your desire to improve yourself.
In the past 20 years, USAPHI has proved conclusively that men who use their off-duty time constructively are more proficient in their military duties.
See your education officer about a USAPHI course.
That's one of the horses here, Chester.
We may have to leave the creek pretty soon to take a look up some of those ravines.
Ah, Mr. Dylan.
Oh, my jingy is just going to come to one or two things sooner or later.
Either that saddle is going to have to change to fit me or I'm going to have to change to fit it.
Take a look at yourself from the rear sometime.
Oh, no, that ain't too easy to do.
I guess you'll have to take my word for it. The saddle's not changing, I think.
That's about what I figured.
Here, now, horse, quit sucking wind in there when you drink. We've got a lot of ground to cover.
No, not too much more, maybe. The basin's not over 12 or 14 miles across.
Yeah, but they might have rode right on through, Mr. John. One or two of them, anyway.
How Ben Taylor says no.
He might have missed seeing them.
Ben knows when a rabbit passes his blues.
You sure not seen Sochi come riding out hellbent for leather?
Chester, the horses.
Maybe we're in luck, Mr. Dylan.
Yeah, I think we are. There they come, three of them.
All to get it.
My golly, we won't have to run them up after all.
No, just get them to dodge. That's all.
Howdy, howdy, gents.
Thought we had this basin all ourselves.
Ah, you did until this morning. How are you?
Just fine.
You're asking me, Marshal?
Marshal? You a Marshal?
I'm betting three to one he is. He's got the look. Am I right?
Yeah, yeah, you're right. My name's Dylan, out of Dodge City.
It's just a proud foot.
Thank you.
They call me Fegger, Marshal.
Fegger?
Oh, I had a decent Christian name once, but it got lost somewhere along the trail.
Ah, I see.
You up this way on business, Marshal?
I don't think I caught your name, mister.
Steed, Thames Steed.
Steed, huh? How about you?
Foss, Curly Foss.
Uh-huh. And you're a professional gambler, am I right, Foss?
Right, Marshal. You're not a bad guesser yourself.
What are you after us for, Marshal?
Take it easy. Steed, Marshal, don't always mean trouble.
Looks to me like we all just met accidental.
How long you three been traveling together, huh?
Just since this morning, Marshal. Me and Foss here, we met, and then we run on to Steed,
and it appeared we was all headed the same way, so we strung along.
I see. I guess so happens that Steed's right. I'm not here by accident.
I'm here to arrest one of you for murder.
Which one, Marshal?
I don't know, and I won't know until we get to Dodge-Siddick.
One of you shot and killed an Indian that wounded his wife.
You figure she could identify one of us. Is that it?
Something like that, yeah.
So you gonna take our guns away?
Nobody's fool enough to shoot a Marshal in front of three witnesses.
Maybe none of us done it, Marshal.
Now you take me, of course I ain't got no particular use for Indians.
That is, unless they're young and pretty.
Now this girl is bigger.
They're all a bunch of sneaking thieves.
What's the difference if one gets killed, more or less?
Is that the way you figured it yesterday morning, Steed?
I ain't seen an Indian in the last two weeks.
You're gonna see one tomorrow in Dodge-Siddick.
Marshal, suppose we was to object to that.
Are you objecting for us?
No, just wondering.
Ah. Anybody else wondering?
All right, let's ride.
How's the coffee coming, Chesapeake?
Oh, I reckon it'll boil about long enough, Mr. Dunne.
Give it another half minute though, just to make sure.
Coffee's no good if it ain't strong.
Well, then by golly, it must be strong, Steed, because it smells good.
It smells mighty good to me.
Well, Pegger, I make the best coffee in Dodge City Bar and None.
Yeah, and it can taste better on the trail.
Them beans and bacon we just had, if I was to get them served up to me in a restaurant,
maybe in Frisco or St. Louis, I'd just pitch them out on the floor.
Well, I come to get them here by the fire. They tasted pretty good.
Well, no, I like beans and bacon in a restaurant, as far as that goes.
Chester, you just like to eat. It doesn't make much difference what.
Well, no, there's some things ain't fit to eat.
And one of them's Indian grub. No dog would eat the stuff they do.
He didn't eat their food, Steed. He just asked for it, to get them off their guard.
Who asked for it?
Now look here, Marshal, I ain't even seen no Indian.
I didn't say I had.
Well, anyway, good food and good drink now.
Man can't ask for much more than that in life.
Oh, I know. Riverboats is where you find the best.
I used to run a ferro bank on the Delacween between Orleans and Memphis.
Mr. Dillon, you notice them coyotes that shut up?
Yeah, there's an animal of some kind prowling off there in the brush. I haven't listened to it.
Only one or two animals that cause coyotes to shut up.
Hey, what's the difference that? It's a cougar. That's what it is, a dang cougar.
I'll fix that.
Hey, you're wasting bullets, Steed. You can't see anything out there in the dark.
Rifles, what you got to use on a cougar, you just get one good look.
Take a drop that rifle.
Well, sure, Marshal.
Drop it.
All I did was stumble. That's all.
You don't think I went to shoot that close to you, did you?
From now on, there'll be no more shooting unless I give the word. That includes you, Steed.
I hate cougars. I'll kill them on sight.
Feel the same way about Indians, do you?
You saying I'm a murderer?
I'm saying one of you is.
It ain't me.
We'll see. We got to dodge city.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Old Dobbin must decide that for himself.
Similarly, we can lead you to the font of knowledge. We can tell you how, when, and where, but it's up to you to make the next move.
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Your education officer has a USAPI catalog available. Sit down and discuss a correspondence or group course with him.
It's your opportunity to increase your power through knowledge with USAPI.
Music
Come on, come on, gosh darn you.
Let that wind out of your belly so I can pull up this sanctuary. Pulling me one bit.
Why don't you get rid of that horse, Chester? It's a half-hour job to get a saddle on it.
Yeah, but once it's on, he's a mighty fine mount, Mr. Gillum. Just as steady as a rocking chair.
Come on, breathe, you wallet bag of bones.
What about the rest of you? You ready to move out?
Anytime you are, Marshal.
Let's get started. I want to get into town and get this over with.
That's only about a three-hour easy ride from here, Steve.
What are you getting so spooky about, Steve?
I ain't spooky. What reason I got to be spooky, Force?
I wouldn't know nothing about this myself.
The only thing I'm sure of is my own conscience. It's just as clean as a newborn baby.
I've never killed no Indian, not in my whole natural-born life.
Nor done a lick of work either, beggar. I'll lay odds.
Now, for a professional gambler to talk about a little work...
All right, Mr. Young.
All right, Chester. All right, let's ride.
Hey, hold on to that broody, you orsteed. He tried to savage me.
Got him trained that way, Force. He always goes for card shots.
You wouldn't be asking for a bullet in your guts, would you?
Anytime you think you're fast enough...
All right, hold it, bother of you.
Hitch, it's all right, Marshal. Steed's just mouthy.
We'll see about that. The Marshal won't always be around.
Well, he's around right now, gents. I suggest you better take it easy.
Steed, I told you to keep that animal away!
Hey, Force, his horse bolted on him.
Or else he's trying to get away.
Stay with your peggers. Stick close together and ride easy. Keep that rifle on him, Chester.
Yes, sir.
All right, now you two get set there.
He's alive, and we don't have to...
Force! Pull him in!
I can't! One bridle ring broke. He's got to fit!
All right, Force, just send him along.
Yeah, right, Marshal.
If I can get a hand on that bridle. All right. Easy, boys. Easy, boys.
Easy now. Easy.
All right.
Easy.
Force, I'm going to get you.
All right.
Thanks.
Where were you heading, Force?
Oh, you asked a horse or a clem steed. He done that on purpose.
Maybe.
I guess I'm more used to a stagecoach seat than a saddle.
You stayed with him pretty good.
Yeah. That was no harm done, Force.
We're just that much farther along toward Dodge City.
Well, there's that famous Booth Hill, huh?
Yeah, that's it.
I reckon you put a few men there yourself, Marshal.
A few, yeah.
That's Dodge City off by the river.
Yeah, 20-minute ride, looks like.
It's about that.
Down there, one of them shacks, there's an Indian girl waiting for us.
Waiting to help you plant one of us there on that hill.
All on account of some savage.
And you see a white man hung just for that.
Murder's murder, Steve.
There's some that'd disagree with you, Marshal.
They can disagree if they want to, Force, but they still don't have the right to kill.
Now, Marshal, that's not the way I figure it.
What are you doing?
Marshal, get him up. Now, the rest of you, you're thinking of dealing in to help him. Just don't.
It ain't my fight. Nor mine.
All right.
Now, you know, Marshal, I just hate to miss getting another look at that little Indian filly.
Prettiest I ever saw.
You admit killing her husband, Pegger, and shooting her?
I wouldn't have hurt her if she didn't run.
Just lost her head when she seen me kill him.
All right, Pegger, you're under arrest.
What?
That's kind of funny, seeing as how you're under my...
Stay back there, Marshal. I'll blast you short.
Give me that gun.
All right, if that's the way you want it, you just...
Hey, no.
It's no use, Pegger.
You can lay a man's head open and pistol-whippin' him like that.
That's right, Force.
All right, Chester, get him back on his horse and tie his hands behind him.
Yes, sir.
It's lucky for you his gun misfired that way, Marshal.
Because of luck, Force, I pulled the loads on his cartridges during the night.
You knew it was him?
No. Chester and I pulled the loads out of all three of your guns.
And you deliberately turned your back on us here, hoping that one of us would jump you and give herself away.
It was the only chance I had of tagging the killer.
But what about the Indian girl? She could have told you.
She died 20 minutes before Chester and I rode out of Dodge.
So Pegger will hang for two murders, not one.
Gunsmoke, produced and directed by Norman MacDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
Featured in the cast were Harley 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 Gunsmoke.
This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
The United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service