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.
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.
How's it going, Mr. Dillon? This old stove is burning up cottonwood just as fast as a dozen buffalo chips.
Uh-huh.
Right, you dump them in more and chuck in a couple of chunks and whoosh, ain't nothing left but a handful of coals.
Are you picking them up and measuring them, Chester?
Oh, no sir, of course not, that's just the way of talking. A handful means just enough to, well, see about as much as a...
As a handful.
Yes sir, that's right.
Golly, we need a new stove anyway. This goddang old relic's been here since the jail was built.
All right, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll get a letter off to Washington right away.
Oh my, that'll do a lot of good. Why, them thugs back there don't even know there is any country west of Mississippi River.
You know, there are times I agree with them.
You just say that, but you don't mean it.
I don't, huh?
No sir, you don't, Mr. Dillon. Why, the only way you'll ever leave Dodd City is for them to carry you out in a box and even then you'll...
Put the lamp out, Chester.
Yes sir.
Sounded like you'd come from across the street.
Yeah.
Yeah, somebody's standing over there by that horse.
Yeah, they is.
Yeah, don't stand in front of the window.
Oh.
Yeah, stepping out under the light.
Come on out, Marshall. And when you do, have your gun in your hand.
Well, he'd be just a boy.
That's a man-sized gun though. Have you ever seen him before?
No sir, he ain't from around Dodge.
Quit hiding in there in the dark, Marshall. Come on out and fight.
That's Simpleton, he's standing right out there in the middle of the street in plain sight.
Yeah, he's showing pretty poor sense.
Here, take his rifle, Chester.
Huh?
Look, if I slip out the side way and draw his attention, get him turned around, you think he can shoot the gun out of his hand?
Oh my gracious. What can you do with that?
Well, but look here, now suppose I was to miss and hit him.
Yeah, the five-faced him will probably have to kill him.
Well, all right then, I reckon I can do it.
I can kindly steady the barrel on the window sill here.
Good.
Now you wait till he turns, huh?
Yes, sir, I will.
What's the matter, Marshall? You too scared to come out?
No.
Where are you?
At the corner of the building.
Huh?
Over here.
If you think you're...
My hand!
All right, Chester, come on out.
My hand! My hand!
That was a real fool's trick you pulled, mister.
And that was a sneaky one you pulled.
You liked to ruin my hand.
I didn't hit him, did I, Mr. Dillon?
No, you did fine, Chester.
I'm glad.
Did somebody send you to do this?
No. I just wanted to get me a lawman.
Is the law after you for something?
It is now, I reckon.
Hey, Matt! Hey, Matt! Hey, you!
You all right there?
Yeah, I'm all right, Doc.
Well, I brought my bag right along with it here.
And a couple of blank coroner's reports, too, just in case.
Well, I don't guess you'll need them this time.
You gonna lock me up?
That's right.
For what? Just talking? I didn't do nothing.
You might do something, though, after you think things over.
You might tell me who sent you to kill me.
You can keep me in a cell forever and I won't tell.
Forever's a long time, Sonny.
Huh? How'd you know my name?
Just never mind how. What's your last name, Sonny what?
Sonny Garnet.
Where you from?
Out West.
Who you traveling with? Who'd you come to dodge with?
I ain't telling.
Well, then you did come with somebody.
Who? Where are they now? Who put you up to this?
I ain't gonna tell you nothing.
Okay, the jail's right ahead. Start walking.
What do you think, Mr. Dillon?
I think we both better walk real careful, Chester.
The kid missed, but his partner may not.
Hello, this is Marvin Miller.
With another page from your American Heritage scrapbook.
It was in 1854 that Cyrus Westfield,
a wealthy New York paper manufacturer,
came out of voluntary retirement at the age of 35
to fulfill a dream and join the old world and the new
with a transatlantic telegraph cable.
The cable was to extend 2,300 miles
from the coast of Ireland to the Canadian province of Newfoundland.
The United States and Great Britain pooled their resources in the effort.
The American warship Niagara was converted into a cable layer,
and the British contributed and converted their ship, the Agamemnon.
The cable used was flimsy by today's standards,
just 5-eighths of an inch in diameter,
and it had to be laid on an ocean floor
that was 2-1-2 miles below the surface.
Many heartbreaking failures plagued, but did not discourage, the effort.
And after several unsuccessful attempts,
the two ships rendezvoused once again in mid-Atlantic on July 29, 1858.
The cables on each ship were spliced together.
The intricate paying-out machinery was set in motion,
and as the cable began its descent to the ocean floor,
the ships set their courses, one east, one west.
The Niagara proceeded to Newfoundland without mishap.
The Agamemnon was successful too.
After weathering a bad storm and the threatening cavortings of a playful whale,
Cyrus Field's dream became a reality.
Queen Victoria and President Buchanan exchanged greetings to inaugurate the new cable,
which had cut communication time between the two countries from 10 days to only minutes.
Man was conquering distance and time.
Cyrus Field proved it could be done with a cable that connected half the globe
and formed a link in the growth of America through transportation and communication.
Now wait a minute Chester, I'll open the door for you.
No, thank you Mr. Gummett.
I just can't seem to get the knack of toting a tray.
You don't see how them waiters does it, C.E.Z.?
It's practice Chester, we just have to get some more prisoners for you to feed.
One, it's just one too many you can ask me.
Martin, Sonny, how do you feel?
Alright.
I got some breakfast here for you.
I ain't hungry.
Set it inside on the floor Chester.
Yes sir.
And you better eat it too, all the trouble I went through cooking it.
I said I wasn't hungry.
Alright, leave it then.
You don't want it?
You're going to get mighty hungry before the end of the week though.
You've got no right to hold me, Marshal.
Is that so?
You've got no reason to.
Threatening to kill somebody is a pretty good reason.
I didn't mean it, I was just joking.
Joking?
That's what I'm doing too Sonny, keeping you locked up, it's just a joke.
Now why don't we let your partner in on it so he can laugh too?
I got nothing to say.
Where is he hiding out while you're doing his dirty work, huh?
Is he in town?
Or is he camped out on the prairie somewhere?
I told you once...
Why are you stringing along with a coward, Sonny?
Because I wanted to prove I...
Now, prove what?
Prove that you're a man?
By killing a Marshal?
I got nothing to say.
Well, at least we know one thing now.
He's an older man, he's probably wanted by the law.
How do you know?
Because that's the kind of talk every old outlaw uses on a kid when he gets a chance.
When he feels himself slipping and starts to turn coward.
Nate's not a coward.
Who?
Nate who?
I don't know any Nate.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Wouldn't be Nate Schuyler by any chance.
How did you...
Nate Schuyler, huh?
See, I saw that name on the circular, Mr. Dillon.
Yeah, sure you have, Chester.
He's wanted in a half a dozen states and territories...
for train robbery, bank holdups, murder.
He killed a sheriff up in Montana only three or four months ago.
He shot him in the back.
That ain't so!
That's the way he operates.
He gets the local law out of the way first, then he moves in.
Forevermore.
So Dodge City's on his list, huh?
And he's found himself a new easy mark.
Is that right, Sonny?
I don't know nothing about nothing.
You sure don't, Sonny, or you wouldn't be here.
I won't be long.
Oh, forget it.
Nate's not gonna try to get you out.
You wait and see.
Lock the cell, Chester.
Great you just feel that, Sonny, Mr. Dillon.
I swear it's gonna be spring now before we know it.
Yeah, and then summer and fall.
The first thing you know, Chester, is gonna be winter again.
It'll be cold as blazes.
There you go, taking all the joy out of it.
Matt!
Oh, Matt!
Wait!
Nice turn.
Doc sure is in a lather about something.
Yeah, he probably got a hold of a bad bottle of corn liquor.
Come on, Matt.
Hurry up, Bob.
I can show you right where you can put your hands on it.
Oh, on who?
That kid, Sonny Garnet.
You've had a jail break and you don't even know it.
Oh?
Come on, come on.
I know right where he is.
I just saw him go into Wilbur Jones' store.
Well, all right, Doc.
Let's go.
Yeah.
All right.
Oh, it's lucky for you I happened to see him.
I bet you this way you can get him back.
Nobody'll even know that he broke out.
But come on, come on.
Hurry up, hurry.
He isn't gonna stay there forever, you know.
I hope not, Doc.
If he does, there wasn't much point in turning him loose.
Well, turning him loose?
Yeah, about three hours ago I had a couple of boys keeping an eye on him.
Well, what in the world you do that for?
Well, I hope you might lead us to Nate Skyler.
Maybe he needs a little prod to start him moving.
Oh, then I got my blood pressure all stirred up for nothing.
Good for you, Doc.
Helps keep your heart beating.
Oh, I'm gonna go back to my office.
Oh, Marshal, I'm glad to see you.
Ah, hello, Mr. Jones.
This young fellow was getting...
What's the bad idea, Marshal?
The idea of what, Sonny?
This man won't sell me nothing.
No, that's not what I said, young fella.
I just won't sell you a gun, that's all.
You had no right to keep my gun, Marshal.
And I've been to three places now and none of them would sell me one.
Now, what would you do with a gun if you had it, Sonny?
You guess.
I've already guessed.
That's why nobody in town will do business with you.
What's the matter?
Are you scared to face me?
Not particularly.
You was last week.
You were scared to come out in the street.
You had your partner shoot at me through the window.
You want to know something, Sonny, that's why you're still alive.
The way you tell it, Mitty.
You see it different, do you?
You wouldn't face me. That's enough for me.
And Nate Skyler won't face me.
That's six of one, a half a dozen of another, isn't it?
Nate would shoot you down before you could even move.
Yeah, he might have done.
If he was behind me, where he usually makes sure of being...
That's a lie.
You lawmen just make up them things.
You give a dog a bad name and then hang him for it.
That's what Nate tells you, huh?
I know what I know, that's all.
Then you'll probably know about his other partners.
What do you mean?
Of course, they're dead now.
Most of them, same story as yours, more or less.
They took the chances and Nate took the money.
More lies, that's all.
Didn't he even tell you about their partner in Pueblo, the one he murdered?
What you talking about?
It was a bank holdup.
As they started to leave, a guard shot Nate's partner.
He hurt him bad so he couldn't ride.
Now, Nate was afraid to leave him there,
afraid he might talk and tell where he was heading,
so he shot him to death in cold blood.
He rode right on out of town. It worked real fine, too.
Nate got clean away.
I don't believe it.
You know, Sonny, I don't much care what you believe.
I've given you about all the chance I'm going to.
Now, you ask Nate about it if you've got the nerve.
Come on, Chester.
Mr. Jonas.
Bye, Mark.
The first thing I never heard that story before, Mr. John.
Well, Nate Scarlet is that kind of a man.
It could have happened.
Hello again. This is Myron J. Bennett back with another little-known item of American military history.
Not all the famous military sayings got said in the heat of battle, or even during a war, for that matter.
And one peacetime remark not only made history in a different sort of way,
but showed the stuff that Army engineers are made of.
The United States vitally needed the Panama Canal for strategic as well as commercial reasons.
But like the French before them, the best American civilian engineers were getting no place with the big cut through Panama
when President Theodore Roosevelt turned in desperation to the Army in 1907.
The man who got the job was Colonel George Washington Goethals of the Corps of Engineers.
For over six rugged years, Goethals rode herd on the monumental task like a combination trail boss and military dictator
only to see a massive slide of mud and rock threaten the whole project at Cucaracha in 1913.
But when one of his lieutenants threw up his hands and said,
what do we do now, Goethals separated the men from the boys and spit his way into history with, dig it out again.
That's how he came to be known as the man who stood up in Panama and the mountains stood aside.
You know something, Matt? What, Kitty?
In the last 30 minutes, you've said exactly 12 words.
You've been counting, have you? Nothing else to do.
I could get more conversation out of that stuffed moose head over the bar.
What's bothering you, Matt? Nate Scarlett? Yes, some.
It'd help a lot if I even know what he looked like.
I had plenty of circulars on him, but no pictures.
He could be any stranger on the street.
I'd hoped that Sonny had panic and lead us to him, but I'd prodded him the way I know how. He just won't move.
Crazy kid. I put out word tonight that I'm going to get up a plassie in the morning to cover the whole countryside.
Still keeps right on hanging around town.
Matt, what gets into a boy like that and makes him so blind?
Anybody can see Skyler's just using him.
I don't know, Kitty. Let it happen so.
A young kid drifting around on the loose, unsure of himself, wanting to grow into a man, not knowing how to.
And then somebody like Skyler says, go kill yourself a lawman, boy. That's the way.
And the kid goes along like a sheep.
Skyler ought to be hung.
He probably will be if I ever find him.
Well, maybe he's right here in town somewhere.
I doubt it, Sonny doesn't act like he expects to run into him on the street.
Of course, there's always a chance you'll get curious and come in to see what's going on.
Mr. Dillon?
Yeah, what is it, Chester?
Mr. Dillon, the kid drove us to the liver stable, saddling up his horse.
Huh?
Looks like he's fixing to ride out.
Let's go find out.
Take it easy, Chester. We've been following him too close.
He ain't the brightest boy in the world, he despondest, he's had six miles to do it in.
There's no use pushing our luck, we'll just drop back a little.
Hold up.
Well, that's one of the circle bar line cabins, Mr. Dillon.
You reckon that's where he's heading?
He's riding right up to it.
That cabin's empty this time of year.
Come on, we'll leave the horses here.
Be clear, I wish that cussing moon wasn't so bright.
Quiet.
Hold it right there.
Get your hands up.
It's all right, Nate. It's just me, Sonny.
Climb up on that horse, kid, and come on up.
All right, Nate.
Take it easy, Chester.
I was about to give you up, kid.
I heard talk the marshal had told you in jail.
Yeah.
Caught you like a serpent's quail, huh?
After all that big talk of yours, how you was gonna stand up and call him.
I did call him, Nate, but he had his partner stake out on me.
Yeah, sure he did.
Then he caught you and spanked you and put you to bed without no supper.
You just wait and see.
I'm going back and get him.
I just come for a gun.
Won't nobody in town sell me one.
They probably figure you're too young to pack one.
Probably scared you to shoot yourself.
You wait. You'll see.
I'm gonna step out and call him, Chester.
You see.
I tried to do you in the gumption to escape.
Well, I didn't exactly escape.
You're here, ain't you?
The marshal turned me loose.
You what?
Turned me loose.
You simple-minded halfwit.
What all did you tell him?
Nothing. He just guessed it was you that sent me. I didn't tell him.
Sure you told him. And he turned you loose so as he could volley you.
All right, you...
But Nate, what are you gonna do?
I'm gonna put a bullet where your brain ought to be.
Hold it, Schuyler.
Drop the gun. You're under arrest.
I'll drop you long as...
All right, come on, Chester.
So that's what Nate Schuyler looked like when he was alive, I mean.
Yeah.
Well...
That Nate sure was a mean-looking man, Mr. Hill.
Got a face like a coyote.
At least try to teach that kid a lesson.
I'm afraid he won't do much good, Chester.
Huh?
He's dead, too.
Gun smoke.
Produced and directed by Norman McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The script was specially written for Gun Smoke by Les Crutchfield, with editorial supervision by John Meston.
The music was composed and conducted by Rex Corey.
Sound patterns were by Ray Kemper and Bill James.
Featured in the cast were Parley Bayer as Chester, Howard McNeer as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
George Walsh speaking.
Join us again next week for another specially transcribed story on Gun Smoke.
This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
The United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.