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 U.S. Marshal and the smell of gun smoke.
Music
Guns, Wolf, starring William Conrad, the story of the violence that moved West with young America,
and then 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.
Music
Everything sure is closed up tight, Mr. Dillon.
Don't look like nobody's here at all.
Somebody better be here. Only the horses here at the side.
Aren't you?
It don't seem likely that Will Hunter will just be sitting out here when he's supposed to be in court.
Well, he's got to be someplace, Chester. This is as good a place as any to start.
Hello. Anybody home?
Open up. It's Matt Dillon. I want to talk to you.
Sure don't seem like nobody's here.
I'm not so sure. Open the door, or I'll break it in.
You ain't got no business with me.
Are you, Miss Hunter?
Will Hunter married me.
Where is he, ma'am?
He ain't here.
I'd better talk to you. Can we come in?
I told you. You ain't got no business with me.
Look, it's very important that we find your husband, Miss Hunter.
It ain't important to me.
Well, it should be. He was supposed to testify today against the man who stole your horses.
I don't know nothing about it.
You know Mort Sealy?
I ain't got nothing to say, Nosh.
Look here, Miss Hunter. I arrested Sealy on charges made by your husband.
Now I kept him in jail waiting for the circuit judge, and he came today,
and I sent word out here to Hunter, but he didn't show up.
Now if he doesn't show up tomorrow, the judge will have to tell me to turn Sealy loose.
Now is that what you want?
What I want ain't in it.
You won't answer my questions, then?
I told you, Marshall. Will ain't here.
That's all I know to tell you.
All right, Miss Hunter. I just hope you won't be sorry.
I'm used to being sorry.
Come on, Chester.
What did she mean by that?
I don't know. She's not likely to tell us either.
Well, what about Will?
Looks like he changed his mind, or somebody changed it for him.
Well, Chester, did you find Will Hunter?
No, sir, Judge, I didn't.
Well, I told you. Ain't no case against me.
Now just a minute, Sealy. Did you look the town over good, Chester?
Yes, sir, Mr. Dillon, I sure did.
I was in and out of every eaten place and saloon in town.
He ain't been seen. That's all there are to it.
Did you check the hotel?
Yes, sir.
Delivery's stable?
Yes, sir, and my skirmish ain't signed either.
I'm sorry, Marshall. I can't delay things any longer.
Now wait a minute, Judge. You're going to let him go?
There's nothing else for me to do.
Of course there ain't. I know it all the time.
Turn me loose, Dillon.
Hold on, Sealy. Look, Judge, this man's guilty.
You can't prove that much.
But, Judge, there was a witness.
Well, maybe there was, but under the law he's not guilty if the witness doesn't testify.
I'm sorry, Marshall.
Well, I ain't sorry. Come on, West, let's get out of here.
Judge, please.
I have to dismiss the case, Marshall, on the basis of lack of evidence.
You'll have to let him go.
You tell him all about it, yes.
I swear I sure do hate to see him just walk out of here, Mr. Dillon.
Yeah, Chester, so do I.
The law tries to protect everybody equally, Marshall.
I know that, Judge.
Sometimes people are scared to take advantage of it.
All right, Chester, let's go.
You know, Mr. Jones, I got me an idea that it's just as well as not if a body don't know too much.
Oh, how's that?
Well, now, if the judge hadn't known so much out of them law books, they wouldn't have been no couple at all.
How do you figure?
Well, we all know Sealy was guilty, didn't we?
Yeah, he's guilty.
All right, then.
I believe knowing all that legal business just got in the judge's way.
You know something, Chester, for once I'd like to agree with you.
Uh, Mr. Dillon.
What?
Setting in the courtroom that way sure does make a man hungry, don't it?
All right, Chester, you go on.
Go on, get your dinner.
Well, ain't you coming?
No, not yet, I got some work to do in here.
I'll see you later.
Go on.
All right, Mr. Dillon, I will just go get it.
Well, come on in, Dillon, it's your office.
What are you doing here, Sealy?
It ain't a very friendly question, Dillon.
You've been right anxious to keep me here till now.
What do you want?
Tell him where.
Me and Brother Mort come to pick up his gun.
You riding out of town, Sealy?
Why, what's that got to do with it?
You don't get your gun until you do.
The Marshal sure ain't real polite about it, is he, what?
You fixed it, Mort.
Well, ain't nothing to it, where.
The Marshal just heard that judge tell him to let loose on me,
and he knows he can't do nothing about it.
Don't you, Dillon?
I can keep your gun as long as you're in Dodge.
Sounds like that Marshal don't trust me, don't it, where?
He can't do nothing about it.
Don't count on it.
Well, you heard the judge, you're on your own.
Let me tell you something, Sealy.
I know you're guilty, and you know I know it,
unless somebody else who knows it.
And who is that?
Will Hunter.
I ain't worried about him.
I'm going to tell you something else.
I think you fixed it so Hunter couldn't show up today.
You'll have plenty to worry about if he ever does.
Dillon, you forgot something.
I don't think so.
You forgot a man can't be tried twice for the same crime.
I'm not worried about that, Sealy.
If I ever find Will Hunter, there'll be a brand new crime to try you for.
Cheer up, you're acting like a liar, just lost a big case.
I did lose one.
No you didn't, Matt.
You did your job.
If the law wouldn't back you up, it's not your fault.
I'm beginning to agree with Chester.
How's that?
He thinks too much law just gets in the way.
Well, Chester makes a point sometimes.
Yeah, I guess he does.
There's no use worrying about it, Matt.
Hey, you know what?
What?
There's going to be dancing tonight.
Oh, is that so?
Yeah, that's so.
I thought you might like to come.
A little good honest hard work like dancing with me might take your mind off your troubles.
Oh thanks, Kitty, but I'm not much of a dancing man.
Oh, hold it.
There's the marksman.
Oh, there's Doc.
Over here, Doc.
Why nobody's so excited, am I?
I couldn't see in this dark place.
I was coming out of the light, you know.
Well, sit down, Doc.
Oh, well, I shouldn't, Kitty, but...
Uh, Matt.
Yeah, Doc.
Haven't you been looking for Will Hunter?
I sure have.
Why, have you heard something?
I found him.
Where is he?
Well, Matt, you know that spot out west of town, where I like to go fishing when I get a chance.
Is Hunter there?
No, wait a minute, Matt, I'm trying to tell you.
Well, go on.
Well, I had a call to make out the rain's place, and I just stopped off to see if that big channel catfish was still running things in that pool.
God, you're spelling this story out like a woman.
All right, but that's the way it happened.
The way what happened, Doc?
The way I found Will Hunter.
I heard him moaning in the bushes, Matt, and there he was.
And he was hurt bad, awfully bad.
Was he shot?
Might as well have been.
He'd taken as bad a beating as a man ever took, and he was left there for dead.
And he just about was.
Well, what did you do with it?
Well, I got him into the buggy, and I took him home.
Oh, Mrs. Hunter took on something terrible when I brought him in.
Well, she hadn't heard anything from him for three days.
Yeah.
Is he going to make it, Doc?
I don't know, Matt. I did everything I could.
I'll be looking in on him tomorrow, and I'll try to find out something for you.
Thanks, Doc, but I think I'd better try to find out for myself.
Right now.
["The Star-Spangled Banner"]
I declare, Mr. Dillon, I sure do hope that woman is gladder to see us this time
than she was the last time we was out here.
I don't expect she will be.
Doc said she was mighty upset.
Well, now, Mr. Dillon, it just could be that she'd be glad to see us
showing an interest in Will and all.
Are we stopping here?
Yeah, let's go up to the house on foot.
Get on, Jester.
She sure ain't no friend here, is she?
Oh, not exactly.
Mrs. Hunter.
What's the matter with the enforcement, Mr. Dillon?
They've got a big old squirrel gun.
She aims to kill us.
Yeah.
Mrs. Hunter!
It's the Marshal.
I want to talk to you.
I'm coming in.
Don't come no closer.
I've got nothing to say to you.
We've come to help you.
Will, now, will you put the gun down?
Will don't get no help.
He just gets hurt.
Ain't nobody else coming near him.
I'm coming in, Mrs. Hunter.
Will wants to see me.
Why don't you leave us be?
Put the gun down.
Why don't you leave us be?
Put the gun down, Mrs. Hunter.
Jester.
It's all right now, Mrs. Hunter.
It's all right.
What's she doing?
Help her over to that chair and get her some water.
I'm going to go see Will.
Yes, sir.
Now, don't worry now, man.
Will.
Will.
Yeah.
How is he, Mr. Dillon?
He's dead.
Will don't get no help.
He just gets hurt.
He just gets dead.
Oh, that's terrible.
Hunter, do you know who did this to your husband?
Oh, it don't make no difference no more.
Yes, it does.
Sealy's brother Wes was out here, wasn't he?
Going after him won't bring Will back.
No, Mrs. Hunter, it won't, but if I know Will Hunter, it'll make him rest easier.
It ain't no use.
It's over. I'm done.
Now, you listen to me.
Will was no coward.
If he'd had the chance, he'd have spoken up.
I know he'd have wanted you to do the same thing.
No, he didn't hold with cowards.
All right, then tell me, Mrs. Hunter,
was Mort Sealy's brother out here while I was holding Mort in jail?
He come three days ago.
He told Will he'd take him where the horses was,
the one Sealy had stole.
And Will rode off with him.
And he didn't ride back?
Dr. Adams brought him back to die.
Huh.
Just a minute, Mr.
I want you to do exactly what I tell you.
All right, sir.
I want you to go to Dodge.
And leave you here?
I want you to go to every place you can think of,
to Delmonico's, the hotel, the livery stable.
The Long Branch?
The Long Branch, and I want you to do a lot of talking.
Well, I don't understand just what you're getting at.
I want you to tell everybody you see that Will Hunter is doing fine, just fine.
But, Mr. John.
Just do what I say, Chester.
Tell the story all over town.
But now, if them Sealy brothers hear about this, they'll head right out.
That's what I'm counting on.
Well, now, I ain't going off and leave you alone again a pat of hand like that.
Get going, Chester.
Chester.
Yes, Mr. John.
It's good of you to do the burying, Marshal Dillon.
That's all right, ma'am.
I have to thank you for that.
You could have waited in my house, Mrs. Hunter.
It's my place to be here.
That digs hard, don't it?
The prairie gets baked hard.
Hard ground.
Hard living.
Hard dying.
Yes, ma'am, I know.
Nine years, nine years Will spent scraping the place out of this hard ground, denying himself to me, too.
I know it hasn't been easy.
Nine years of flying in the sun, fighting to keep from being washed away when it stormed, being bone-tired, not seeing folks, and me dying up alongside him.
Mrs. Hunter.
We got to get the place going, Halley, see?
Now he ain't going no place else.
Ain't that funny, Marshal?
No, ma'am.
He got the place started, and now it's finished.
Why, sure that's funny, Marshal.
That's a real joke.
Mrs. Hunter, look, why don't you go away for a while?
Where do you figure I'd go, Marshal?
I don't know, a rubble maybe.
It just seems to me that it's good to leave.
Marshal, I hate this place with a mortal hate.
I ain't never done nothing else but hate it.
But Will Hunter scraped it out for me, with his bare hands it seemed like.
And he lies here.
I ain't never going to leave.
There might be more shooting.
Oh, there'll always be more shooting.
No, I mean here, Mrs. Hunter, when the Seeley Brothers come.
I'll be proud to wait for that, Marshal Dillman.
Well, aren't you afraid you could get hurt?
There ain't nothing for me to be afraid of, Marshal, not ever again.
I tell you, Mort, I hope I won't be making this right, Mary Morton.
I should have known you never could do nothing right the first time.
I done just like you told me, Mort.
Come and I got him, and I rode out with him, and I left him in a jet.
One thing you did not do.
How's that?
You didn't kill him.
Now, Mort, I don't understand that.
I just rightly don't.
He ain't got no call to be living, not after what I done to him.
Well, I just want to tell you one thing, Brother West.
Don't you make no mistake this time, else you won't have no call to be living neither.
Sure, Mort.
There won't be nothing to it.
Just see to it that there ain't.
Mort, what about the woman?
She's a witness, ain't she?
Sure, but I don't want no witness living.
Miss Hunter.
Marshal.
They're coming.
They're riding in the gate right now.
I'm ready.
Now, I want you to stay quiet and out of sight.
I ain't afraid.
I want them to make their first move.
You understand that?
I understand all about it.
All right.
I'm waiting till they come up on the porch.
You just stay quiet.
I'm going back to the window.
Hunter.
Come on out, Hunter. I ain't going to do you no good laying there and hiding.
Hunter, me and West, we're going to finish it this time.
They're leaving our horses.
It'll go easier if we don't have to come in after you, Hunter.
It'll go easier on your wife.
If we come in there, Hunter, West's going to give a chance to beat on you some more.
Ain't that right, West?
No.
Right, Mort.
No, you ain't coming in.
No, Miss Hunter.
No one's going to beat on nobody.
No, Mort.
Hunter, come back. They'll kill you.
Mort, Mort, she went and shot me, Mort.
She killed me.
The woman went and killed West.
Yeah.
You killed her.
Crazy woman, running around with a gun.
She nearly blowed my arm clean out.
You know, that's a terrible thing, a woman running around shooting people.
Anyway, she sure ain't going to be no witness now.
That's right, Sealy. You only got one witness to worry about now.
Who was that, Mort?
Me. Now you stand steady while I bind up that arm.
I want you in good shape to stand trial.
Gun Smoke, produced and directed in Hollywood by Norman McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal.
The story was specially written for Gun Smoke by Marion Clark, with editorial supervision by John Messon.
Featured in the cast were Jeanette Nolan, Lawrence Dobkin, Vic Herron, and Frank Catey.
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 Gun Smoke.
This is the CBS Radio Network.