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 a U.S. 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, the 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.
I don't know, I've looked all over.
He ain't up there, Mr. Dillon, he has just plain vanished.
There's no note anywhere, are you sure of that, Chester?
Nothing, I looked again all over.
Well, it's two days now, this just doesn't like dark.
What do we do, Mr. Dillon?
I don't know, might start asking people, Chester.
Try the saloons and the store, maybe the depot.
All right, I'll go right now, but I don't know where they are.
Well, I do declare that wouldn't...
What's the matter?
Look, riding right up front, you'd as make as life.
Look.
That old rascal getting us all worried about him.
For land's sake, you sure are a sight for sure, I duck.
We're in the world of you man anyway.
Hello, Chester.
Matt?
You had us worried, Doc.
Matt, son?
You've been gone two days, you know.
I know.
Well, next time leave word, Doc.
I will, I surely will.
If I can.
Well, it sure would save us a lot of fretting in general, I've said.
Wait a minute, wait a minute, what do you mean, Doc, if you can?
Just that, if they let me, I'll leave word.
Come on inside, Doc.
Well, you want to tell us about it?
I can tell you part of it, the least important part.
I made a promise about the rest.
You know how it is, Matt.
No, but tell us.
Well, the other night, let me see, it was Wednesday,
a couple of riders cramped right into my office.
They said a man was hurt bad, and some was out past Fort Dodge.
But naturally, I went along with them.
Well, why didn't you leave a note and say so?
They didn't tell me exactly where we were going, Chester.
But they sure told me not to leave any note.
They told you what?
Will you let him talk, Chester?
Of course, I figured that must have been a shooting,
but my job is to take care of everybody, sinner and saved alike.
And so, when we finally got to this place the next day...
What place, Doc?
Well, that's part of what I promised not to tell Chester.
There was a young man there who had got himself shot in the back.
The bullet lodged right in his spine.
I dug it out and did all I could for him.
And then I just sat there for quite a spell.
Then I put my things away and walked out into the other room.
Well, Doc, how is he?
He's dead.
The shock of extracting that bullet was too much for him.
Bad place, the spine.
You killed him, huh?
No. No, I didn't kill him.
He's dead, ain't he?
Look, mister, that boy wouldn't have lived more than a couple of days
anyway with that bullet where it was.
Whoever put it there murdered him.
You want me to shout at you, man?
Not yet.
Doc, tell me something.
You know that boy in there?
I do.
And the three of us here, you know any of us?
Him? I've seen him around somewhere.
Dodger, I guess.
That settles it. He ain't walking out of here.
Shut up.
You know his name, Doc?
No, I don't.
Might come to me, though.
Let me think about it.
You don't seem to understand.
He wants to kill you already.
Now you're trying to remember his name.
That's just going to make it worse.
I can't kill a doctor for following his own...
I shot that boy when he tried to get away,
and I can shoot you just as easy.
Don't be a fool. I'm a doctor,
and since there's nothing more I can do here,
I've got to be available to other patients.
I've been away too long as it is.
What are we arguing about?
The sooner we shoot him, the better.
What kind of a man are you anyway?
Don't you know I'm the only doctor within a hundred miles of Dodge?
Right now, that's one too many.
Now, wait a minute.
I'm kind of thinking the Doc's right.
He ain't like an ordinary man.
A doctor, well, it's almost like he ain't quite human somehow.
He's human enough to tell what he knows
to that hard-headed, martial-legged-gotten Dodge,
and we'll have him on our tail,
and we'll never get our 20,000.
The way I figure it, it's us or the Doc.
I'm not interested in what you figure, mister,
and I've lived too long to be afraid of dying.
But right this minute,
there may be several folk needing me real badly.
You know, he's right.
We can't kill him.
Well, I can, and if I...
Now, you'll do what I say, you hear?
Doc, listen to me.
If I let you go,
will you promise not to tell about anybody you recognize there?
And if I don't?
Then doctor and no doctor, I'll kill you myself.
Well, yes, I suppose you will.
All right, I'm here as a doctor, and nothing else.
I promise.
Word of honor, Doc?
My word of honor.
Okay, get out.
One other thing, Doc.
What?
You break your word.
You tell anybody where this place is
or who you saw here, and we'll get to you.
We'll kill you no matter where you try to hide.
I gave you my word, didn't I?
Yeah, you did.
But just don't forget what I said.
We'll kill you, we'll die trying.
Well, that's quite a story, Doc.
And you played it right smart if you asked me.
Who was he, Doc?
I say, who was he?
I only recognized one of them, Chester.
Besides the man they'd shot.
Yeah, that's what you said, but have you thought of his name yet?
Chester, you don't understand.
I gave my word, I wouldn't tell him.
Yeah, but Doc, they're just a bunch of killers.
Matt, wouldn't you have done the same if you were in my boots?
It'd be a hard choice, Doc, but...
Yeah, I suppose I would.
Well, any man would, at least as far as any man of honor.
Yeah, I guess I wasn't really thinking about it that way.
I'm gonna get some sleep.
Matt?
Yeah, Doc?
That was a good boy they murdered.
I hope they hang for it.
How are we ever gonna find Mr. Young?
I don't know, Chester.
We don't even know who they killed.
Marshall?
Huh?
Well, Jake, where the hell are you?
You haven't come to Dodge in six months.
I'm here now, Marshall.
Oh?
Is there trouble, Jake?
I'd call it that.
Well, you know that cottonwood, that big one right down the brandy bend?
Yeah, in the hole down by the roots, the north side of it?
I put a sack in that hole.
Oh, I see.
Well, I guess you could call it that.
Yeah, in the hole down by the roots, the north side of it, I put a sack in that hole this morning, Marshall, with $20,000 in it.
Twenty th- That's a lot of money, Jake, even for you.
No, it ain't.
If Hank gets back, all right.
Hank gets back.
And that's ransom money, huh?
Your boy's been kidnapped?
He didn't show up the other night, Marshall.
Next morning I found a note tacked on the corral.
Said, leave the money or else they'd kill him.
Oh, come on, Jake.
We ought to get there before they pick up the money.
No, no, Marshall, I won't take any chances.
They'd shoot him sure if we did that.
Look, Jake, if they killed Hank, you'd want him hung, wouldn't you?
I'll hang him myself if it comes to that $100 move.
All right, then let's go.
Let's get down to Brandy Bend and wait for him.
No, Marshall, I already told you-
Hank's dead, Jake.
What?
They already shot him.
He's dead.
What are you talking about?
Where is he?
I don't know.
How come you know he's dead?
I can't tell you.
Marshall!
Well, Marshall, I had about enough of this.
Look, we're wasting time here.
Now, come on, Jake, I'll tell you what I can on the way to the river.
You better, by heaven, or one of us are never going to get to the river.
Jake Worth was known as a hard, hot-tempered man,
but he was straight as they come.
And all he wanted out of life was his ranch and his three sons to work it with him.
It was hard to tell him, but without mention and doc, I said what I could.
And when we reached the Arkansans, we hid our horses in a clump of bush
and worked our way on foot up to the big cottonwood.
And then we saw it.
They'd do it.
They'd do it.
I gave them the money. What?
I'm sorry, Jake.
The Marshall.
Marshall, I've been kind of confused by all this.
I swallowed your story on the way down here.
Now I want the truth.
I want every bit of it. I told you, I don't know who they are.
You know a lot you ain't telling me.
What's going on with you anyway?
I told you all I can. Marshall, is my boy laying here?
Take it easy now, Jake. Will you talk?
I don't know anything, Jake.
The man who told me about it had to promise not to name anybody.
What man? Who is he? I'll get it out of him if I have to cut it out.
I know. I know.
That's why I can't tell you who he is.
I'll give you 24 hours to name those men.
After that, me and my sons are coming to Dodger and there'll be blood spilled.
Jake, I give you my word. I don't know who...
I don't believe you.
Come on, I'll help you take your boy home.
Get on back to Dodger. I'll manage here.
You're making a bad mistake, Jake.
You got 24 hours, Marshall.
You got 24 hours, Marshall.
All right, mate. I'll do whatever I can.
It might not work, Doc.
You'll be exposing yourself to a lot of danger if you thought about that.
Yes, I have.
I've also been thinking about the men who killed young Hank Worth.
We could wait till they start spending their money or...
till one of them gets drunk and maybe talks too much somewhere.
Yes, we could.
Meantime, you and the Worths will have a gunfight match.
All right, then, Doc, let's go.
I want to get out of the ranch before dark. Come on.
I don't see anybody around.
Maybe they're hid out.
Far enough, Marshall.
Just watch him, boys, if he makes a move, you shoot him.
Jake, I came here to stop a shooting, not to start...
You can stop it, Marshall.
Just tell me who killed my son.
If I knew, I'd be on his trail, Jake.
I'm not going to let you get away with this.
I'm going to get away with this.
I'm going to get away with this.
I killed my son. If I knew, I'd be on his trail, Jake.
What's Doc doing here?
You tell him, Doc.
Jake, I took the bullet out of Hank.
He died soon after.
What? That's right.
Now come down here where we can talk like friends and I'll explain it to you.
Stay where you are, boys.
All right, Doc. Let's hear it.
Well, they got me out of bed, Jake.
And led me out into the country.
Hank had been shot in the back and I extracted the bullet.
But it was no use. He'd have died anyway.
There were three men there and I recognized one of them.
Who was he?
I had to promise I wouldn't tell. Are they the killers?
That don't matter now.
Wait a minute. Just think about it, Jake.
Doc gave him his word and you're asking him to break it.
Will you think about it for a minute?
I'm thinking.
I'm thinking about my boy, too.
You want to help get the man who did it, Jake?
Don't ask fools.
Will you listen to me? Those men told Doc if he talked, they'd kill him.
And they meant it, too.
Now, I've got an idea, Jake, and I want you to hear me out, will you?
Now, look, we'll spread it around that Doc has identified the killer.
Go on.
And we'll just wait, see.
One or two or maybe all three of them will come into Dodge to kill Doc some night soon.
Still, he might get away.
I'll deputize you and your boys right now and you can wait for them with us.
But you're going to have to stay hidden like me.
And Doc could rather make himself a target for them killers and break his word to them?
Yeah, Jake, that's right.
Now, look, Doc, and I'll go back to Dodge now.
I'll see that the story gets started and the day or two you and your boys can ride in,
but separately, though, otherwise it might cause talk.
I understand.
And you come straight to the Docs.
We'll be there. Don't you worry.
For the next few days, Doc never left his office.
The rest of us sat around in his back room and waited.
Chester kept us supplied with food and coffee.
We began to get pretty restless cooped up like that.
And for the fifth night, we were being real careful with one another and over polite.
But on the sixth night, about midnight, we got our game.
Mr. Jones, I think it's Sam.
What?
He just rode up the street.
Three of them. They're tying up outside right now.
Doc, come on out here, will you?
What do you want me to do, Matt?
Take cover in here and stay out of sight.
Let's go downstairs and meet him.
No, no, we'll just scatter him that way.
Now listen, one of them will probably stand guard on the street while the other two come up here to get Doc.
Chester, you and the two boys go down the back way and Jake and I will wait here.
But don't jump that man until we go into action up here.
You understand, Chester?
I got it.
All right, then move fast.
Come on, Jake.
Now what?
We just wait here in the dark.
Good.
Fix Doc's blanket on the couch here so that we don't think he's under...
They're on the stairs now, Mortimer.
Oh, okay.
Just get back in the corner.
Jake and I will be shooting each other.
Be quiet.
Don't start shooting until I do.
Doc, wake up, you lion.
Let's just shoot him and get out of here.
Wait, he ain't here.
What?
Get your hands up here under arrest, both of you.
Jake, you all right, Jake?
I got one on my arm.
All right.
Doc, Doc, come on up.
What?
They're dead.
Light the lamp.
What do you think?
All right, Mr. Dillon.
Come on in, Chester.
We got the one in the street.
He tried to get away when he heard the shooting up here, but he ran smack into one of the worst
boys.
He's dead.
Good.
Well, Doc, you can tell us now.
Is one of these the man you recognize?
This one here.
Well, Jake, I guess that's it.
Oh, Marshal, I...
What?
You're...
I doubted you, Marshal.
I'm sorry.
I forgot it, Jake.
No, it's best I remember it.
Man shouldn't make mistakes like that.
Well, there was no harm done the way it worked out.
Yeah.
I'll buy you a drink before we leave, Marshal.
I think I kind of like that, Jake.
Gunsmoke.
Produced and directed by Norman MacDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S.
Marshal.
The story was specially written for Gunsmoke by John Meston.
Featured in the cast were Lawrence Dobkin, Vic Perrin, and Harry Bartel.
Harley Bear is Chester, Howard McNair is Doc, and Georgia Ellis is Kitty.
Join us again next week for the fourth of the five most popular Gunsmoke shows.
It is called Bloody Hands.
This is the CBS Radio Network.
Now, get more miles per dollar with Texaco's Sky Chief Supreme from Texaco's Tower of
Power.
We'll be right back.