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 US Marshal and the smell of Gunsmoke.
Gunsmoke 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.
Oh Kitty, it's you.
Come in, come in.
Yeah, it's me, such as I am.
It's a little early for dinner, isn't it?
Besides, you didn't have to come up here after me.
Oh, this is a professional call, Doc.
Take a look at my eye, will you?
Your eye?
Well, sure I will, Kitty.
Come over here to the light.
Sit down.
Now, which one is bothering you?
You see that?
Yeah, I see.
There's something in it, I think.
Now sit still.
Oh yes, yes, now let's see.
You think you can get it, Doc?
Ah, there it is.
See it on this piece of cotton?
Well, you can hardly see it.
It felt like a whole scuttle of coal.
Well, it doesn't take much to make your eye feel that way.
I'll give you something to wash it out with for a day or two.
Okay, Doc.
You heard from Matt?
Huh, not a word.
Seems to me he expected to be back by now.
Well, he did.
There's a trial starting up at Hayes City today or tomorrow, I think.
Matt's supposed to testify.
Oh yes, yes, you're right.
I remember that.
Well, maybe he and Chester are making a pleasure trip out of it, huh?
Maybe they found some decent weather and aren't hurrying to get back.
Well, it wouldn't take much to improve on the weather we've got here, I'll say that.
Ah, here you are.
Thanks, Doc.
Yes, sir, I'll bet you that was their doing today.
They're taking it nice and easy and enjoying some good weather away from Don.
Mr. Dillon?
Yeah, Chester?
I don't rightly see how you can fire the trail no more through all this.
Ain't nothing but moving mud.
I think I know where we are.
Sure be too bad, Marshal, if you wound up back in the mountains where you picked me up.
Don't worry about it, Keele, it wouldn't do you any good.
Yeah, my friends might say different.
They ain't none too cozy about the law.
They didn't help you before.
Well, now...
We turned on here, Chester, I remember this dip in the trail.
It looks awful slidey, Mr. Dillon.
Yeah, we better leave the horses.
Keele, look out there!
That horse sure went down hard.
Yeah, come on, let's see what the damage is.
You hurt, Keele?
No, I don't think so.
All right, get up then.
Stand mighty easy.
How about the horse, Chester?
Ain't nothing, bro, that I can see.
See if you'll stand.
Come on, come on.
Come on!
Come on, put that thing there.
All right, walk him a little.
Uh-oh.
He's got a bad leg, all right.
Yeah.
We'll have to arrest him for a day or two.
Well, how are we going to do that, Mr. Dillon?
Stuck out in country like this.
We ain't going to try to stay here, are we?
Well, there used to be a small ranch not too far from here.
If I can still find it.
You walk, Keele.
Leave that horse good and gentle.
The barn's over this way.
We'll head there.
You must have a bumper direction on you like a homeman pigeon, Mr. Dillon.
Yeah, pigeon with blind luck.
You just watch where you're leading that horse, Keele.
Mr. Dillon don't need no smart talk from you.
You!
You out there!
Mr. Dillon?
The one on the porch?
A woman?
Yeah, Chester, I see her.
What do you want?
I'll be up to present myself, ma'am, as soon as I can see to the horses.
You're welcome to find shelter in the barn.
But don't come near the house.
Well, I ain't very friendly like in all this rain.
You take Keele and the horses over to the barn, Chester.
I'll talk to her.
Yes, sir.
Try to talk to her.
Coffee.
I'd like to talk to you, ma'am.
All right, but I've got a gun.
I'm a U.S. Marshal taking a prisoner in.
I got a lame horse.
I'd like to arrest him for a spell.
I don't know you.
Well, I'm from Dodge City.
Maybe your husband would know me.
I used to know folks in this part of the territory.
I've got no husband.
What's your name?
Dillon, Matt Dillon.
Matt Dillon?
Sounds like you heard of me yourself.
Well, I certainly have.
I'm Deeley Robin, Ben's daughter.
Oh?
Well, you are the one who was Pa's friend, aren't you?
Yeah. Yeah, I was his friend.
Well, Pa sure did think a lot of you.
Well, we did a lot of writing together.
Well, come on in. Come on in.
It's no wonder you hunted out this place in the storm.
You've probably been here lots of times, haven't you?
Yeah, a long time ago.
I wasn't sure anybody'd be here.
You knew my father had been killed.
Yeah, I knew.
Well, I was with an aunt in Wichita.
I'd come out here as soon as she'd let me.
I kind of feel I belong here.
Yeah, I guess you do.
Well, I'll put some coffee on the stove,
and you tell the others to come in.
Thanks, Deeley.
No thanks necessary.
Pa would want it this way.
You know how he was about a friend.
Yeah. Yeah, I know.
Well, I tell you, ma'am,
that's better coffee than I can make, and that's a fact.
Yeah, that's a fact, all right.
Here, let me pour you some more.
Well, there ain't none to pour, ma'am.
I just finished it off.
Well, then I'll make some more.
Oh, no, ma'am, not for him you want.
You've got to get along, Chester.
Yes, sir, I expect you're right.
You got it straight now?
Yes, sir.
I go into town and send a telegraph to the judge
about how you were stuck out here for a day or two
until Keele's horse can carry him again.
That's right.
And then I get on into Hayes City as fast as I can.
Now, Mr. Dillon, what makes you think they'll let me testify
instead of you, I ain't the marshal?
You were there at the shooting, weren't you?
Well, yes, sir, I was there.
Well, you don't have to be a marshal to tell what you saw, do you?
Now, you get going.
Yes, sir.
I'm going.
I just hope I don't get lost in this storm.
You won't. I'm going with you.
Oh, well, now, that ain't necessary, Miss Delia.
He'll find it all right. He just likes to complain.
Well, it won't be easy in the dark and storm, Matt.
That road winds around pretty good.
I can lead him.
Well, there's no need for you to go out unless...
Well, I was going anyway.
It's my night to sit with old Miss Pike.
Well, Delia, it's not necessary.
I do this every week and I spend the night in town.
You afraid be left here alone with me, marshal?
Shut up, Keele.
You mean that little lady could protect you?
I warned you to keep your mouth shut when we came in here.
Oh.
You better get going before it gets any darker, Chester.
Yes, sir.
You ride through as straight as you can.
Yes, sir, I will.
I'll set him on the road just as good as Pa could do it.
Yeah, Delia, I'm sure you will.
The End
It seems to me a man ought to be able to suffer in peace.
Never mind, Mr. Weems.
They'll keep it hot for you.
It ain't a very long telegraph.
Coming in pulling a man away from the table that way, it ain't decent.
Then you shouldn't be the only man in town who knows how to send a telegraph.
Ain't nothing so important as couldn't have waited.
By rights, I shouldn't be opening up till tomorrow morning anyway.
Oh, cheer up, Mr. Weems.
It won't take long.
Tramping around in the mud and the rain.
Look here, mister, you've got a job to do, ain't you?
Nobody ain't never complained about the way I do my job.
Well, I'm about to.
Now you stop your fussing, both of you.
I had the place all locked up for the night.
Now come in, come in, now that you're here.
I've got to get the line open up.
Sure is funny the way things happen.
Running into Pa's friend after all these years.
You mean to tell me this one was a friend of your Pa's?
No, not exactly.
No, no, not this one.
Matt Dillon, he's out at the place.
Dillon?
That's right, Mr. Weems.
He rode in this afternoon.
Didn't know I was there, of course.
I'll bet he didn't.
What do you mean by that?
He wouldn't have come if he'd known.
Well, that doesn't make any sense, Mr. Weems.
Well, I've never done anything to scare him the way that I know of.
It ain't seemly that you'd joke about it.
I'm not joking, Mr. Weems.
I was just glad to see him, that's all.
Good friend of Pa's like he was.
Such a good friend that he killed him.
What?
What did you say?
Oh, well now, I'm sorry if you didn't know it, do you, but I still stick to what I say.
I'd be mighty doggone sure of what I was saying, Mr. Dillon ain't a man to kill a friend.
Well, the whole town knows about it.
Tell me what you mean.
Oh, now, Delia.
Go on, Mr. Weems, tell me.
Well, now, Delia, I ain't liking it that I'm the one to tell you.
Tell me.
Well, it ain't exactly like Dillon pulled the trigger on Ben.
I'd bet my boots on that.
It amounted to the same thing, though.
Tell me what happened.
Well, your Pa, well, he was in some kind of ambush out there at the place.
Dillon come by and wouldn't raise a hand to help him.
He was just standing there when Ben was shot down.
I don't believe it.
Why didn't somebody tell me this before?
Why, I guess folks figured it'd be easier if you didn't know.
Well, you sure made her feel easier about it right now, ain't you?
Well, it's different with Dillon out there at the place.
It ain't right that she shouldn't know.
No, it sure isn't.
I don't know.
I want you to get out of here.
What?
Well, Dillyard, I thought you were coming back one morning.
I don't want you here.
I don't want you here till morning.
What are you talking about?
Pretending to be my father's friend.
Oh, so that's it.
Dillyard, I was your father's friend.
So you killed him, is that it?
I didn't kill him.
You might as well have.
You let him die.
What did they tell you?
They told me that you stood by and saw him shot down.
I tried to help him, did you?
How, by turning your back?
I told him to give himself up, but he wouldn't.
Dillyard, I don't blame the folks in town for keeping it from me.
But I expect you had to find out someday.
Find out what?
It was the law who killed your father, did he?
Not me.
The law?
Yeah.
Bennett pulled a hold up.
He wanted to make his stake quicker than the two of us were doing it,
riding from job to job.
He always said he wanted things nice for you.
Well, anyway, he held up a bank.
And you turned him in.
No, I didn't turn him in.
You rode with the law to get him in.
I didn't do that either.
I was here with him right in this room when the posse came.
And you didn't help him.
I tried to get him to give himself up.
But you wouldn't fight with him.
I'm sorry, Dillyard.
I think this country needs the law.
I always did.
How, how did it happen?
He tried to break out.
And they shot him.
I, I buried him.
Over the big tree.
You expected me to thank you for that?
No, I don't expect you to thank me for anything.
But I never considered your father less of a friend.
Well, I consider you less of one.
I want you to go.
Now.
I'm sorry you feel that.
I don't care how sorry you feel.
I want you to get out.
Now, you listen to me, Dillyard.
I don't like it much staying where I'm not wanted.
But here's where I'm going to stay until that horse out there can travel.
You can.
I can and I will.
Now, just hang on to this gun until we leave.
Why do you think?
I don't like it any better than you do.
But that's the way it's going to be.
Serve you right if the storm spooked the horses right out of the barn.
I'm going to have a look at them.
You just rest easy, Dillyard.
We'll be out of here just as soon as we can travel.
Now, that's a promise.
Little lady.
Oh, it's you.
I sure do admire your spirit telling him off like that.
He had it coming to him.
Oh, he sure did.
That and more.
Calls himself a friend.
That's what I say.
That's a terrible thing.
I know how you could get even all the way.
Man, my father trusted.
What did you say?
Well, you want to get even, don't you?
Of course I do.
Well, I know how you could do it, that's all.
How's that?
You just cut me loose.
That's all.
Just as simple as that.
That's all.
Well, I don't know about that.
Oh, sure you do, little lady.
Sure you do cut me loose and I'll take care of him for you.
Just like your pa would have done.
You're his prisoner.
He lets your pa be a prisoner too.
Now, ain't that right?
It's just a way to get things even for your pa.
Well, maybe you're right.
Well, sure I am.
Now cut me loose.
But he's got all the guns.
Well, it ain't gonna matter none.
Look, all I got to do is I got to just be by that door when he comes in.
I could smash him with a chair.
Then we'll see who's got the gun.
Come on now, come on.
We ain't got all the time in the world.
He ain't gonna be out there all night, you know.
You sure you can do it?
I'm sure I can.
Come on, cut this rope now.
There.
Oh, I sure do.
Thank you, little lady.
Oh, that does feel good to be able to stretch and bend a little.
Mr. Keele.
Yeah.
Will you have to kill him?
Well, now ma'am, I expect that just depends on him.
What do you mean?
Well, if he wants to give up nice and easy like I expect maybe I might just tie him up and leave him.
I don't think he'll do that.
No, I don't think so neither.
It's gone too bad, ain't it?
You better stand over there to the window.
Why should I do that?
Well, so you could tell me when he's coming.
I'm gonna get me something to eat.
Go on now, get over to the window.
You'll be able to hear him when he's coming.
Get over there, I said.
That's right.
I wouldn't want to have no trouble with you.
What's the, what's the Marshal taking you in for, Mr. Keele?
I killed a man, ma'am.
Of course I killed more than one this first time he caught me.
You want some of this bread?
No thanks.
All right.
I'm kind of good at it if I do say it myself.
Good at what?
Kill him.
Listen, little lady, you ain't doing your job.
You should have told me he was coming.
Now just be quiet.
Be quiet while I get over here and heist this chair.
Quiet now.
Just quiet.
Matt, watch out!
All right, Keele, just straighten up, right there.
Cecilia, hand me that rope.
Yes, Matt.
Double-crossing woman.
You ought to be grateful to her.
I don't see her.
She untied you so you could get a little exercise before I put the rope back on you.
Now put your hands behind you.
There.
Matt?
Yeah?
I'm sorry.
Yeah?
I guess I think this country needs the law, too.
Yeah, Delia.
And the law doesn't come easy.
No matter what side you're on.
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Music
Gunsmoke.
Produced and directed in Hollywood by Norman McDonald,
stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The story was specially written for Gunsmoke by Marion Clark,
with editorial supervision by John Meston.
Featured in the cast were Virginia Christine, Lawrence Dodkin, and Bartlett Robinson.
Harley Bear is Chester, Howard McNear is Doc, and Georgia Ellis is Kitty.
This is George Walsh inviting you to join us again next week
when CBS Radio presents another story on Gunsmoke.