Gunsmoke brought to you tonight by Plymouth with an invitation for you to visit a Plymouth
dealers tomorrow.
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And now, Gunsmoke, starring William Conrad.
The story of the violence that moved west with young America.
The story of a man who moved with it.
Matt Dillon, United States Marshal.
The cook sure must have had a bad night, Mr. Dillon.
How do you figure that, Chester?
Well, sir, I never saw so much chili pepper on a couple of poor eggs.
You must figure everybody's got a hangover this morning.
Almost everybody usually has of a Sunday around here.
Well, now, I clean up forgot all about it being Sunday.
So that's why Jim Cobbett's all dressed up over there.
First time I've ever seen him with his hair combed.
Well, haven't you heard about Jim, Chester?
He's going to get married.
He's got his wife-to-be coming in on the train from back east today.
Jim Cobbett?
Yeah.
And now, what sort of a woman would that be, Mr. Dillon, who'd come clear to Dodge City
to marry a fellow like Jim?
No, Jim's a good man, Chester.
It's just that, well, living out on that homestead of his year after year has made him grow a
little off-center.
So loneliness will do that to a man sometimes.
Morning, Marshal.
Chester.
Morning, Hank.
Well, what do you think of that old goad Jim Cobbett getting himself hitched?
It's a fine thing, I'd say.
Well, Jim's no older than you are, Hank Loos.
Older, maybe.
A lot less respectable.
How you talking your usual nonsense, Hank?
Am I, Marshal?
What about Jim's first wife, who disappeared off of that place he had up north on Hackberry
Creek?
Just plain disappeared, she did.
Jim never explained that, and nobody ever saw her again, either.
Oh, you're worse than an old woman with your gossip, Hank.
Jim's never done anything to you, Hank.
Nothing except stake his homestead on the only spring south of the Smoky that didn't
dry up.
Cheated me out of it, that's what.
He filed his claim two weeks before you did, Hank, and everybody knows.
Sneaked into town, that's what he did.
Sneaked into town to hide my back.
Still telling your lies, ain't you, Hank Loos?
Now, you keep away from me, Jim.
Keep away.
I've never bothered you, Hank.
But I hear you talking around Lila.
When she gets here, I'll hurt you.
I'll hurt you bad.
Well, this is you want to hide from her, Jim.
Maybe that business about your first wife?
All right, don't touch that gun, Hank.
Not a move.
You arrested Marshall, you saw it.
Get up.
Put him in jail now.
I didn't touch him.
Shut up.
Now, you're just lucky you weren't killed.
Now, you get out of here and stay away from Jim.
It's his wedding day, and if I find you bothering him again, I'll throw you in jail.
Now, go on, move.
Fine, fine, Lord.
We got around here, man.
Get him packed up and packed up.
Sorry to make trouble, Marshall, but I won't hold for his making that talk around Lila.
Oh, forget it, Jim.
Just keep clear of him for a while.
What time's the wedding?
Well, about three o'clock.
At least that's when the preacher said he'd come down.
It'll be at the church, won't it, Jim?
Well, no.
The preacher thought maybe it'd be better to do it somewhere else.
It's, uh, because of...
Yeah, yeah, sure, Jim.
You know, Dodge City House would be a fine place, wouldn't it?
That's just what I'd plan, Marshall.
I brought a jug of corn in with me in case anyone came around, maybe.
Jim, I wouldn't miss it for the world.
I'm going to be there for sure.
Yeah, me too, Jim.
I certainly do enjoy weddings.
I never got married myself, but I sure do like to watch.
See you later, Jim.
Sure, Marshall.
We'll be there, Jim.
Bye.
Jim's bride, Lila, turned out to be a handsome, high-strung woman with nervous black eyes
and a manner that bespoke a gentle breeding and background.
I watched her, and I wondered how she'd ever make out in this crude, raw country she'd
chosen to come to.
It was never mentioned how she and Jim had got together, but the few friends who gathered
for the wedding didn't care.
We were all pleased that Jim finally had a wife to break the loneliness that he'd set
upon himself for so long.
And after the brief ceremony at the Dodge City House, we told him so.
Well, it's about time, Jim.
If you don't mind my saying so, ma'am, you should have filed on him long ago.
Why, yes, I mean, of course.
Open the jug on the table there, Si.
It's good corn.
Thank you, Jim.
My throat is a mite dusty.
Help yourselves to the liquor, boys.
Well, congratulations, Jim.
And Miss Cobbett, my best wishes to you, ma'am.
Thank you, Marshall.
Now, you make Jim bring you to town and see us once in a while.
He never came in much when he was alone out there.
Oh, I'm sure he will, Marshall.
I sure hope so, ma'am.
Help yourself to the jug there, Chester.
Thank you, Jim.
If I can get it away from Si along and out, I will.
You staying here tonight, Jim?
Well, no, Marshall.
I brought the wagon on the count of Lila here.
It's a slow way of travel.
It'll take a day and a half at best.
But where will we sleep tonight, Jim?
Oh, I've got some blankets, Lila.
We'll be fine.
You mean out on the prairie?
Sure.
We'll be down in the wagon if you're afraid to sneak.
Oh, snakes can't get to you if you're in the wagon, ma'am.
But... but what about everything else?
Indians...
No Indians have been seen around here for months.
Oh, no, you're wrong, Jim.
A man from Walnut Creek told me he ran into some Pawnees a couple weeks ago.
Only about a dozen, though.
Pawnees?
Well, they didn't bother him, did they, Si?
No, no, they didn't, Marshall.
They didn't bother him.
You see, Lila?
Well, they didn't bother him, because he saw him first.
He hid himself under a bank in the creek.
Are there many Indians around?
Oh, no, very few.
The Army's been after him pretty steady ever since them crows raided the Gillette place.
The engine's been making itself scarce last few months.
What happened at the Gillette place?
They had a little trouble, that's all, Lila.
Little trouble to kill Bob and rode off of Mrs. Gillette and the child, that's all.
Oh, no.
Now, Si, why don't you go get yourself another drink, huh?
Yeah, well, I was just thinking about doing that.
Well, I suppose it'll be easier in Mrs. Gillette once she learns to talk crow, but still, it's
a hard life on a white woman, suddenly being made a squall.
The jug's almost empty, Si.
You better hurry, huh?
By golly, hey, fellas, I got another swatter coming up.
Liquors workin' on Si, Lila.
Don't pay no mind.
Jim, is it true what he said about that poor woman?
Now, Lila, don't you fret about that.
Is it true?
I want to know, Jim.
Yes.
Jim, if you stayed in Dodge City tonight, well, you could start out before dawn tomorrow.
Oh, no, Marshal.
Jim thinks it's best we leave tonight.
There's nothing to fear, Lila, but if you'd rather stay, we can go.
We'll go, Jim.
If you'll excuse me, I'll go change into something more suitable.
Goodbye, Marshal.
Goodbye, ma'am.
We'll see you in Dodge City real soon, I hope.
Of course.
I'll be down shortly, Jim.
Maybe it was best that way for Lila to face on her first night on the prairie not far
from Dodge.
Nothing would bother her that close to town, and it would make it easier for her on the
next night.
And they left.
And that's all we heard about them for a whole month or so.
Dodge City was fairly quiet except for one week when a Texas herd arrived.
Two boys were killed the next night and another a few days after, but then things cooled off
and became peaceable again.
Tank blues is in town, Mr. Dillon.
Oh, no, Chester.
Well, there ought to be a law against it, that's all.
He said he was coming here to see you in a few minutes.
Look, you talk to him, Chester.
I think I'll go upstairs and pick on the doc for a while.
Oh, he doesn't want to see me, Mr. Dillon.
I'll send him up when he comes.
Uh, Chester, no.
Yes, sir, but he'll ask me where you are, sir, and then what am I going to tell him
to do?
Marshal, I want to talk to you.
All right, Hank.
Go ahead, talk.
You think I was lying about Jim Cobbett, don't you?
Well, listen to this, Marshal.
Lila's disappeared, too.
What?
I saw it with my own eyes.
I mean, I saw she isn't there.
What are you talking about, Hank?
I'm telling you, Marshal, Lila's gone, just like Jim's first wife up on Hackberry Creek.
She's plain disappeared.
Well go on.
Well, I got a runny bay mare that's always running off and I rode by Jim's place to see
if he'd seen her.
Jim was just sitting there and he hardly paid me any mind at all.
He was all alone and when I asked him about Lila, he just walked off, wouldn't say a word.
Well, maybe she was just out on the prairie somewhere.
Then she stayed a long time.
I was back next day and still didn't see her.
Stock's gone, too.
When was this, Hank?
About a week ago.
Now, Marshal, I think you ought to get out.
I do my own thinking, Hank.
Well, all right, but you better get out there, Marshal.
I've told you now.
Yeah, you've told me and you can forget it.
Just stay away from the Cobbett place, you understand?
All right, Marshal, I've done my duty.
You better do yours.
Goodbye, Hank.
Well, I...
Goodbye.
What are you going to do, Mr. Dillon?
Only thing we can do, Chester.
Go settle our horses, will you?
I got some things to clean up around here.
Yes, Mr. Dillon.
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And you may win a 53 Plymouth or one of hundreds of cash prizes.
But entries must be mailed by Monday midnight.
So hurry, get an official entry blank containing all the easy rules tomorrow when you go in
to meet the new 53 Plymouth.
Now the second act of gun smoke.
Sure looks quiet around here, Mr. Dillon.
Come on, they're probably inside.
You think Lyle is here, don't you, sir?
We'll soon find out, Chester.
Hello, Jim.
Come in.
How've you been, Jim?
Hank Luce told you, didn't he, Marshal?
Where is she, Jim?
Hank Luce said I killed her, didn't he, Marshal?
Oh, no, Jim, you know I don't pay any attention to what Hank Luce says.
Then why'd you come here, Marshal?
To help you?
You're in trouble?
Lyle isn't here, and I'm in trouble all right.
What happened, Jim?
Where is she?
I don't know.
What?
Well, the Indians party of crows, they took her.
They took her.
Indians?
My goodness.
You mean you were raided here?
Maybe ten days ago, a war party, about 12 crows.
Well, what happened?
Well, Lyle was out there with the spring.
It was just getting dark, and I was sitting on the floor right there, men in a satellite
torn the stirrup off open.
I heard her come running up the path out back.
It was all in the sweat and yelling.
Jim!
Jim!
I saw something out there.
Oh, Jim!
Jim, I think it was an Indian.
Come inside, quick.
Get on the floor.
In the corner there.
How many?
How many did you see?
Oh, Jim!
I saw his skin behind that little thrive.
Oh, Jim, don't let him get me.
Come here, Lyle.
No.
I don't see a thing out of this one, do I?
Take a look over here.
Nothing.
I must have heard you yell.
Oh, Jim!
What do we do?
Stand them off.
That's all.
Wait a minute.
There's one.
Oh, no!
Getting hard to see.
Jim!
They have decided.
They'll sneak up on the other side.
There won't be one behind that log out there.
Oh, no!
We'll just wait.
If they get bolder in the dark, I can pick them off easy.
Oh, Jim!
Jim, they'll carry me off like they did that other woman.
I can't stand it, Jim!
Here.
Take that six.
Yeah, I will.
I will.
It won't take you while I'm alive.
I promise you that, Lyle.
Wait a minute.
They're down to Correll.
Oh, no!
They're after our horses.
That'll show them.
Here he goes.
There was one behind that log.
Oh, Jim, I can't stand it!
They're sneaking up on us.
We'll just wait.
Let them get me open.
Wait till they're a little more.
Then when they jump and run on us, I'll...
Oh, go on, Jim.
What happened then?
Yeah.
What'd they do when they rushed you?
Well, one of them must have got in the window behind me.
When Lyle screamed, I was knocked out.
And when I come to, the engine was gone.
Lyle was gone, too.
Were you shot, Jim, or what?
No.
The engine must have got behind me somehow and clubbed me.
That's all.
Did you try to follow them?
How could I, Marshal?
They ran off.
The horses stole them.
Yeah.
I see.
Anyway, I was out a long time.
I wasn't a sign of anybody when I come to.
Ah, they could be in the Rocky Mountains by now.
We'll never find them.
I'll report this to Colonel Jenkins at Fort Dodge, and he can spread the word through
the Army Post.
Thanks, Marshal.
I'm sorry, Jim.
But I guess that's all I can do for you.
Sure, Marshal.
Come on, Chester.
Let's take a look around outside and then get back to Dodge City.
Yeah, sure.
So long, Jim.
I sure am sorry it happened.
So long.
Seems pretty broke up, Mr. Dillon.
Yeah.
That's terrible.
And her a squaw now.
Yeah.
My, aren't those pretty, Mr. Dillon?
What?
Yeah, that bunch of columbine there, growing right in a row.
I think I'll just put one in my hat.
Uh-oh.
Wait a minute, Chester.
I wouldn't pick them, Chester.
They're too pretty to pick, huh?
Well, all right, Jim.
Jim Stock is gone, all right.
You know, Mr. Dillon, Jim Carbott ain't the luckiest man in the world, is he?
Oh, he sure isn't, Chester.
Come on, let's get out of here.
It was the day after we got back to Dodge City that the trouble started, as I expected it would.
Chester spread the story about the Indians kidnapping Lyla Cobbett,
and it wasn't long before some of the men began to question it.
A group of them, headed, of course, by Hank Luce, came to see me.
Marshall, we want to know when you're going to arrest him.
Hank, it would be better if you let somebody else do the talking.
Your record against Jim Cobbett's pretty strong.
Marshall's right, Hank. You always did talk too much anyway.
I want justice done, that's all, and I need to get it.
Oh, shut up, Hank.
Marshall, Hank sort of talked us into thinking you don't need to do anything about Jim Cobbett.
Is that true?
Well, what's your idea, Merrick?
Go out there and arrest him and find Lyla's body, if you can.
Do you think Jim murdered her, is that it?
Looks that way. You sure don't believe his story, do you, Marshall?
No, not all of it.
Jim did her in just like his first wife, that's what.
It's a sure thing, Marshall, no Indians would have stolen the woman,
left Jim lying there without scalping him.
Indians just made that up.
Merrick, I don't know what happened out there, but I'm going to find out.
Then what are you waiting for, Marshall?
The doc.
The doc? What's he got to do with this?
Well, Miss Prillifugh had a baby this morning.
The doc was up all night and he's sleeping today.
We're going to ride out to Jim's tomorrow.
Well, I don't know what you need the doc for, but we'll wait and ride out with you.
You won't ride anywhere, Hank.
When I need a posse, I'll ask for it.
I don't want a single man of you anywhere near the Cobbett place, is that clear?
All right, now get out of here, I've got work to do.
It's a mighty lonely looking place, man.
I wonder what Lila Cobbett thought when she first saw it.
She must have been mighty fond of Jim to come here at all, seems to me.
Yeah. Well, I hope Jim's still there.
Isn't that him there? Down by the corral there, isn't it?
Oh, yeah, yeah. He's got a new horse.
Hello, Jim.
What are you doing here, doc?
I had to bring the doc, Jim, to perform a sort of autopsy.
Autopsy?
On Miss Cobbett.
It's necessary, Jim, or I wouldn't do it.
Marshal?
Now, don't do it, Jim, you wouldn't have a chance.
No.
Take his gun, Chester.
Yes, sir.
All right, Jim, let's you and me go on into the house, huh?
Don't imagine you want to watch this.
Where is it, man?
You want to tell him, Jim?
Over there, under that row of Columbine.
Well, I'll... So that's why you wouldn't let me pick any, Mr. Dillon?
I watered the ground a lot to make it hard.
It was a good job, Jim.
Come on, let's go in the house.
Shovels out back at the corral.
I'll get it.
All that water didn't do me good.
Music
In the house, Jim sat with his back to the wall, his hands clasped tightly across his knees.
He was so gaunt and leathery that I wondered if he'd bothered to eat anything at all since this had happened.
He just sat there as if waiting to be sentenced and not caring very much one way or the other.
Finally, Doc and Chester were finished and they came into the house.
We put her back, Jim, right where you had her.
Yeah, and it wasn't easy, Matt.
Yeah, I know, but what did you find?
Well, she was killed by a.45.
Fired at close range.
A bullet entered her head just under her...
Never mind, Doc.
Jim's gun here is a.45, Mr. Dillon.
You want to tell us about it, Jim?
You think I killed her, Marshal?
Well, it looks that way, Jim, but I still can't believe it.
Thank you, Marshal.
If you did it, Jim, you're going to hang for it.
The crows didn't attack the house, Marshal, and they never aimed to.
They just dodged around out there, some of them to cover for the ones that ran the stock off.
They didn't want to fight, just to stalk.
Yeah, it's happened before.
Lila screamed and screamed.
I guess she went kind of crazy, then I heard a shot.
At first I thought she was shooting at the engines, then I saw her on the floor there.
I didn't care after that.
They could have come right in there.
They could have done anything they wanted.
I didn't care.
You, uh... you had given her your six-gun, is that it?
Yes.
The crows didn't bother you after that?
They just took the horses and left?
I didn't care about them.
I buried Lila out there right away, and I sat there on the ground all night.
I never think it had been all right, Marshal, but when Hank Lewis came by, I got scared.
I didn't want to talk to him, but I knew what he'd say.
So I put water on the grave and tried to hide it, except for the flowers I'd planted.
I just couldn't not have planted flowers there.
He's telling the truth, man. Jim isn't lying.
No, no, sir, he certainly isn't.
There's no reason I know of why Jim should stand trial.
What about Hank Lewis, Mr. Dillon? He'll make trouble.
The three of us here have heard the story and seen the evidence.
Hank's talk doesn't mean a thing. I have no cause to arrest him.
Then I can go, Marshal.
Go? Go where?
I don't want to live here anymore.
It's like the other place up north after my first wife rode off.
She just said goodbye and rode off one day.
I was ashamed of that, so I never told nobody what happened.
I left the place. I can leave in this one.
Well, you've got to settle down sometimes, Jim.
No, no, I don't. I've got bad luck both places.
I won't settle down no more.
We won't stop you, Jim.
I think I'll go now, Marshal.
I don't want to spend another night here.
I'll get my things together.
Yeah, we'll wait outside.
Come on, Chester. Doc.
Now, half hour later, Jim was packed and ready to go.
Silently, he shook hands with each one of us and then mounted and rode off.
Yeah, the prairie had dealt hard with Jim Covey, but the land was too tough and dry not to survive somehow.
He wouldn't try again to be happy, but he'd live. He'd make his way.
We watched him disappear while the sun went and the land cooled and became still and quiet.
Hey, hurry! The Big Plymouth Contest closes Monday midnight.
Your last chance to win a new.53 Plymouth free or a big cash prize.
Go to your nearby Plymouth dealers tomorrow. Meet the new Plymouth.
Look it over stem to stern. Ask questions. Find out all about this new kind of low-priced car.
Then, on an official entry blank in 50 words or less, tell what you like most about this great new beauty.
But remember, entries must be mailed by Monday midnight, so be sure to visit your Plymouth dealers tomorrow to pick up your contest entry blank and meet the new.53 Plymouth.
Gunsmoke Under the Direction of Norman McDonald stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
Tonight's story was specially written for Gunsmoke by John Meston with music composed and conducted by Rex Corey.
Featured in the cast were John McIntyre and Jeanette Nolan with Paul Dubov, Jack Crouchon and Harry Bartel.
Harley Bair is Chester and Howard McNeer is Doc.
Gunsmoke was brought to you by Plymouth along with a reminder that you visit your Plymouth dealer tomorrow and enter the Meet the New Plymouth Contest.
Remember, entries must be mailed before Monday midnight. Clancy Cassell speaking.