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, presented by Army in Europe Magazine, the monthly feature magazine for the use of a soldier and civilian.
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 chancy job, and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Chester? Oh Chester? Chester!
Was you saying something Mr. Jones?
What is that?
This is a duck call. I ordered it all the way from St. Louis. It just came in the mail.
It doesn't sound like any duck I ever heard.
It's guaranteed Mr. Jones.
See any duck that hears this comes right at you.
You better be careful. We don't want the jail overrun with them.
Oh well, they ain't around yet, but they're just about due. When they start coming through, I'm going to get down there in them bushes along the river with a shotgun and this thing, and Mr. Dillon, we're going to be eating roast duck every day for three months.
I'm glad to hear that Chester.
It takes kind of a knack to bone.
Oh?
It takes a little bit of practice and I ain't got it down exact yet, but I will.
Gentlemen.
Oh, come in, sir.
You're Marshall Dillon?
Yeah, that's right.
I am Cyrus Tykert, Marshal.
Possibly you've heard of me?
I'm afraid not, but what can I do for you, Mr. Tykert?
You can give me your complete cooperation.
Oh?
I have here a photograph of a young lady. I have reason to believe she is in Dodge City.
Well, I'm Mr. Dillon, that ought to be...
Go on, Mr. Tykert. Suppose she is here.
She's my daughter, Evie Tykert. She ran away from home nearly a year ago, and she's made it very difficult to find her.
Oh, and if you do find her?
I shall take her back to New York with me naturally. I assume from your partner's exclamation that you do know her.
Ah, not by that name.
Well, she has used a number of false names during the past year. Very well, you will take me to her at once.
How old is your daughter, Mr. Tykert?
Twenty-four.
And then she's of legal age. Suppose she won't go back with you.
Marshal, the Tykert Enterprises include railroads, several banks, and finance companies, along with mining and cattle interests.
I, with my father and my grandfather before me, did not acquire them by tolerating interference with our wishes.
Now, why did she run away in the first place?
Because she's a willful, headstrong little fool. Marshal, we're wasting time.
Mr. Tykert, I'm not going to take you to her. Not just yet.
May I remind you? Your enterprises, sir, don't include the United States Marshals Office.
I imagine my influence could extend that far if you compel me to use it.
You do as you like, but I'm going to talk to the girl first. I'm going to find out what she wants to do.
What she wants is of no importance.
Good day, Mr. Tykert.
She keeps pretty late hours, Mr. Dunne. Maybe she ain't up yet.
Yeah, maybe not.
Hello, Marshal Chester.
Morning, Patsy. Or, I guess it's E.V. Tykert now, isn't it?
Oh. He's here, huh?
Mm-hmm. Over at the Dodge house. He says he's come to take you home.
Where is he?
It's all right, girl. Come on in.
No, thank you.
Wouldn't do any good to run. Not now.
I thought I heard you talking to some... No.
You know girl Alden, don't you, Marshal?
Yeah, you deal blackjack, don't you, over the Golden Horn part-time?
That's right. What's the trouble, Marshal?
My father's here, bro. Finally caught up with me.
What of it? You're over 21. He can't do nothing.
You don't know him.
What can he do, Marshal? She's got a right to live her life the way she wants, ain't she?
Yeah, as far as the law's concerned. He may try other ways.
He will. He'll do anything. I know him.
You'll be sorry if he tries anything. I'll stick with you. You know that.
I know, girl. But I know how he can be. That's why I never wanted him to find me.
Are you sure that you don't want to go back with him, Evie?
Of course I'm sure.
That's a rough life. You're leading here, working a whole long branch,
having to put up with any man who comes along who's got the price of a drink.
Anything would be better than going back home.
You don't know what it was like, Marshal. I don't really matter to him. I never did.
Just the family name he cares about. He's afraid I'll disgrace it.
I'm not going back.
He says you are, Evie. And I'd say he's used to getting his own way.
No matter what I have to do, I'm not going back. No matter what.
Sam, the men back at the ferro table want another round when you get a chance.
All right, Kitty.
Let Margie take it back to him, huh?
Okay. Hello, Kitty.
Oh, Matt. I didn't see you come in.
Well, you look busy, so I kept quiet.
You know, I just assumed you hadn't come in tonight, Matt.
Oh? Well, you know, I can always have a beer up the street.
No. It's just that I did something this evening that I hate myself for.
Oh? Well, what do you mean?
Come on, let's sit down, huh?
All right.
There you are.
Oh, what's it all about?
Well, that girl Patsy who has been working here the last few months.
You know who she is, Matt?
Yeah. Her name's Evie Taggart. Her father came up on the East yesterday.
Yeah, I know. I met him.
You know, he's trying to force her to go back to New York with him?
Uh-huh.
Oh, he didn't waste any time going into action.
He just sent a few telegrams east and that did it.
Oh, did what?
Well, Mr. Botkin came over from the bank this afternoon.
He was real apologetic, but he had orders from the big bank back east that holds part of his stuff.
Oh, one of Taggart's banks.
Yeah. Either I fired Evie or Botkin had called in our loan.
And just a half hour later I got a telegram from my wholesaler in Kansas City.
Fire Evie or pay up all our consignment accounts immediately.
I let it go, Matt. I had to.
You couldn't do much of anything else, could you?
I got my partner to think about, the girl.
You can't find an army barehanded.
There's no reason to feel guilty, Kitty. You didn't have much choice.
I don't think the life she's leading here is very good, but good or bad, at least what she wants to do and she'll have the rights.
You know, rights are pretty hard things to hang on to sometimes.
Well, if there'd been any other way.
There you are.
What?
Oh, he scared you off, huh? You started the ball rolling, now nobody will hire you.
Take it easy, Burl.
Well, whose side are you on anyway, Marshal?
There's no law against what Taggart did, Burl, and Kitty didn't have any choice. She had to go along with it.
The word's out all over town. Nobody'll give her a job. They're afraid of his money.
Well, I got reason to be.
He's trying to starve her out. He thinks he'll get her back home that way.
Well, it's worked before.
Well, it won't this time. We'll figure some way to beat that old buzzard.
Why don't you support her, Mr. Alden?
I assume you are, Burl Alden.
I guess you're Taggart, huh?
That's correct. As I said, why don't you support her? I understand she's been supporting you for several months.
That's a lie. I got a job.
Yes, yes, part-time. But you've been taking money from her, haven't you?
Them was loans. What are you getting at, anyway?
The fact that you're an utterly worthless loafer who lives off the earnings of a woman.
Why, you dirty old...
All right, hold it, Burl. That's enough.
What do you think he's talking to? Can I give you a hand, Mr. Taggart?
No, thank you.
It would seem... it would seem to me that it's your job to prevent such occurrences, Marshal.
You can sign a complaint if you like.
No, thank you. I have something rather more drastic in mind.
Good evening, gentlemen.
That's a cold fish.
What's he talking about, Marshal? He can't do nothing to me.
I wouldn't bet on that, Burl.
Good morning, Mac.
Hello, Doc. Come on in.
Oh, Chester, for heaven's sakes, put that thing away.
Now, there's some coffee on the top of the stove. I don't guarantee it, though. Our Doc made it.
Oh, well, then I pass.
Oh, you've drunk your plenty of time before, and it never hurts you none, Doc.
Well, a man's luck runs out, Chester.
Pull up a chair, Doc.
No, no, no. Have a good time, man.
I don't have a plush-lined seat at the public trough, like some people I know.
Oh, is that so?
A professional man like myself has to get out and scramble if he wants to keep body and soul together.
Doc, the only time I ever seen you scramble is when Sam Newman says, have one on the house, boys.
Oh, is that so? For two cents, I wouldn't even tell you what I know.
All right, what do you know, Doc?
Oh, yes, you get your ears out, don't you? Yeah, you're starting to sing a different tune now.
Doc.
It's a fine thing when I have to do your job alone with my own, just out of the kindness of my heart.
Doc.
There's going to be a killing.
A killing? How do you know?
Because I keep my mouth shut and my ears open.
You know a gunman named Bill Jacks?
Yeah, he's been around town for a month or so. Why?
Well, they say that old man Taggart's hired him to kill Burl Alden.
Well, that's what Taggart meant about something more drastic.
Yes.
Anyway, I've done all the brain work for you now. Go on out and arrest them.
On what charge, Doc? They'll both deny it.
Well, you're not just going to sit there and let it happen, are you?
I've not listened to suggestions, Doc, but in the long run it'll probably come to just that.
Who is it?
It's Matt Dillon. Let me in.
Evie ain't here, Marshal. She went down to the Chinamits to bring some grub.
Now, you're the one I want to see, Burl.
All right. Come on in.
What is it? What do you want?
Burl, you made a bad enemy when you knocked old man Taggart down.
I'll knock him down seven days a week if he don't stay away from me.
He'll stay away, all right. But the man he's hired, the kid he won't.
What are you talking about?
The word's out that he's offered Bill Jacks $2,000 to put you on boot hill.
You got to do something, Marshal. I know about Jacks. You got to arrest him.
I got no proof, Burl. All I can do is warn you.
Well, then I got to get out of here. I got to get out of town right now.
I'll get a horse from Moss Grimmick and head south.
What about Evie?
Evie? She'd be better off back home anyway.
Oh, I see.
Well, hitting the trail on the run, that ain't no kind of a life for a woman.
You think the long branch is any better?
You got no call to talk like that.
What's going on?
Evie, you tell her, Marshal.
Burl, where you going? Burl!
Well, you see, he's gone.
Gone where? What do you mean?
Your father hired a gunman to kill him.
So Burl's getting out, running away, leaving me.
I guess a lot of men would act that same way under the circumstances.
Don't try to make excuses for him, Marshal.
I know the kind he is. I've known all along.
Oh?
The life I've been living the last years, isn't it?
He's a very pretty one. And I've been it.
I guess I've done it on purpose.
Sunk as low as I could.
With a way of hitting back at my father.
Yeah, it works that way sometimes.
It wasn't a very pretty life at home either, Marshal.
I guess not, for it wouldn't have turned you to this.
I'd kill it.
Well, at least I'll get that stopped.
Burl doesn't deserve dying. He's just what he is, and that's all he claims to be.
There's no reason he should pay.
But my father's going to. I'm going to see that he pays.
Pays how?
I don't know exactly. But he's going to.
He's going to pay for things once and for all.
Well, don't look to me like neither one of them make them show up, Mr. Jones.
They might not, Chester. All I know is Taggart bought two tickets back east on this afternoon's train.
I swear I never thought he'd give in and go back with us.
He's a hard man to beat.
He's just a doggone shaman, the way he goes around treating people and gets by with it.
He won't get by with it forever, Chester.
If you keep pushing people around, sooner or later you're going to push one of them a little too far.
Speak of the devil, Mr. Jones.
Yeah, and by himself, too.
Good afternoon, gentlemen.
Nice of you to drop around to see us off.
Us, Mr. Taggart?
Oh, my daughter is just looking after some detail of her luggage.
She'll be along.
As much as I hate to disappoint you, mortal.
I would have disappointed me. It's none of my business.
No, not officially, of course.
But I imagine you did hold certain personal opinion.
Yeah, I still do, as a matter of fact.
Indeed. Such as?
Such as, I think you're making a big mistake taking that girl back against her will.
I assure you I am using no straight jacket or medicals.
It amounts to that, too.
Why don't you give her a chance, Mr. Taggart?
You can get her out of Dodge if you want, away from what she's been doing.
But why don't you let her live her own life?
She will live precisely as I tell her to live, mortal.
Won't work that way, Mr. Taggart. You can't treat people like horses.
You can't own people.
Marshal, I've built an empire on the principle of owning people.
I own hundreds of them, body and soul, block, stock and barrel.
I call the tune and they dance, and she will dance with them.
You ready, father?
Quite ready, my dear.
Then let's go.
Good day, gentlemen. Goodbye, Evie. Good luck.
Thank you, Marshal.
Goodbye. I think we may meet again soon.
Come along, Evie.
Yes, father.
Just look at you there. Just look how he broke her straight, Mr. Young.
He's going along neat to the line.
Yeah, it looks that way.
Now, now, what's he doing here?
That's Bill Jackson.
I want to turn it off with you, dang it.
Come on, Jesse.
Look here, Jackson, there's nothing for us to talk about.
Jackson, stay out of this. Don't try it, Jackson.
Drop your gun around. Fire in the hole.
Stop it!
You got him, Mr. Young.
Your father's dead, too, Evie.
Father.
So this is how he was supposed to pay, huh?
You know what you mean, Marshal.
Father had a disagreement over the price on Bill's head.
What price did you put on your father's head, Evie?
How much were you going to pay Bill Jackson for this?
You can't prove a thing now. Not a thing.
Well, we'll have to judge this, I bet.
I don't care. As long as he finally lost.
When?
Father.
Sure doesn't own anybody now, does he?
Gunsmoke, produced and directed by Norman McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The script was specially written for Gunsmoke by Les Brutchfield, with editorial supervision by John Mestens.
The music was composed and conducted by Rex Corey.
Sound patterns were by Ray Kemper and Bill James.
Featured in the cast were Parley Bear as Chester, Howard McGeer as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
George Walsh speaking.
Join us again next week for another specially transcribed story on Gunsmoke.
This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.
Music by Ray Kemper