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
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 chancey job, but it makes a man watchful and a little lonely.
Music
Well, Marshal Dillon, come in, Marshal, come in.
Hello, Peters. You've got time to give me a haircut. I think I kind of need one.
Yes, you're the only cut your mom had in an hour, Marshal. Just hang your coat and your gun belt right over there and I'll get things ready for you.
All right.
Hey, I haven't seen you around town lately, Marshal.
I've been over in Appleton for a week. I just got back late last night.
You must have come in on the midnight steam.
Yeah, that's right.
I sure wish I could get out of Dodge once in a while.
Not the way I'd do it, you wouldn't. You'd just be glad that you can stay here, Peters.
Yeah, maybe you're right, Marshal.
All right. Isn't this a new chair you've got?
Yes, sirree. It's the finest barber's here west of St. Louis.
Wow. Wow, wow, wow. That's pretty fancy.
You betcha. Try it.
Now, you comfortable?
I'll tell you after I find out if you've raised your prices to pay for it.
Here, let me get this cloth over here.
Here we are.
Yeah, haircut's still a quarter, Marshal.
A shave?
Yeah, too tight around your neck.
Oh, that's okay. What about shave?
Price of a shave is going up a dime, Marshal.
A dime?
Now, Marshal, you wouldn't want to stand in the way of progress for the sake of a dime, would you?
Who's progress?
Well, anyway, you don't need a shave. Not today, anyway.
That's a good thing.
Just take a chair there, stranger. I'll be with you in a few minutes.
In a few minutes?
Yep, you're next, right in line.
Barbara.
What?
I ain't next.
Why, of course you are. There ain't nobody ahead of you.
I said I ain't next.
You mean you won't wait?
That's right. I won't wait.
Oh, sure you will. I work fast. It won't be longer than ten minutes at the most. Now, you...
You don't understand. I want a shave. I want it right now. You can cut his hair later.
What?
You heard me.
Now, look, mister, you don't know who you're...
Shut up, Tater.
Get out of that chair, mister.
All right, Tater, just take the sheet off of me.
All right. Here.
Okay, Mr. I'm out.
Then move. I want to sit down.
You don't quite understand.
I don't understand what?
I didn't get out of that chair so you could have it.
You're going to be troublesome, ain't you?
Mm-hmm. There's not much you can do about it.
Isn't there?
You don't see very well, mister.
What?
I'm not wearing a gun that's hanging on the wall over there.
Oh.
You're going to shoot an unarmed man in front of a witness?
Go get your gun. Put it on.
No.
Do it.
You're licked, mister.
How are you going to make me do it? By shooting me?
Put your gun on.
I don't like killings.
But if you don't turn around and walk out that door,
I'm going to half kill you with my fist.
Now you get moving.
All right. You got me this time.
The next time you'll be wearing a gun.
It'll be some different then.
My goodness, Marshal. You took an awful chance here.
Who was he, Tidders?
I don't know. I never saw him before.
He might have killed you, Marshal.
That would have been murder.
You get hung for murder.
Why don't you quit shaking and let's get this haircut over with.
He won't be back.
Oh, dear.
Hello, Mr. John.
Hello, Chester.
I was looking for you.
I've been right here in the office the past half hour.
I know you have.
I went by the barbershop and Tidders told me.
And he also told me how you handled that fellow.
Oh, did he?
Tidders described him to me, Mr. Donah.
I know who he is.
You do?
He came here about a week ago.
Just after you went to Albany.
What's his name?
Springer. Nate Springer.
What?
That's right.
Are you sure that was Nate Springer?
Well, it couldn't have been nobody else.
Well, why? You said you don't know him.
No, I don't, but I've heard about him.
You have? Where?
All over.
Nate Springer's got quite a reputation.
Is he a gunman, you mean?
Yeah, he's a gunman, all right.
They say he's the most nervous gunman that ever lived.
He's all ice.
Fat Masterson told me once that out in Arizona,
a man got the drop on him and Springer started to laugh.
Laugh?
He asked him what he was laughing about.
Springer said he never had before and he didn't want to die
without seeing what it was like.
Oh, my, what happened?
It's kind of hard to shoot a man who's enjoying his first laugh, Chester.
Oh, me darn.
What do you reckon he was doing in Dodge?
Springer's a killer, a paid killer.
That's all he's ever done anywhere.
Well, why don't you go arrest him?
He's not wanted that I know of.
There are no circulars out on him.
Well, but you can't just wait till he kills somebody.
You know, and I can't put him in jail till he does.
You got time for another cup of coffee, Matt?
Take time, Doc.
Good.
Here you are.
Thanks.
Well, things pretty wild up in Abilene.
It's still a camp with a hair on, Doc.
Worse than Dodge?
No, I wouldn't say that.
Then I'll stay here.
Why? You're usually complaining about Taj.
I'm thinking of business, Matt. Business.
What's there to do in a peaceful town?
Aside from delivering a baby now and then,
setting a broken leg.
You sound pretty bloodthirsty, Doc.
I don't do the shooting, Matt.
It's men like that Nate Springer that you were telling me about.
Doc, uh, Nate Springer's sitting over there in the corner.
He is? Where?
Right over there.
Alone, but he's back to the wall.
Oh, yes. Yes, yes.
He looks like a killer, R.
He is.
You see how he keeps looking around there?
It's like he thinks everybody in this room's his enemy.
And like that doesn't have friends.
He doesn't even take his hat off, you see there?
He's all ready to shoot and jump out of the door.
How can he eat if he doesn't even look at his plate?
Uh-oh, he's getting up, Matt.
He's coming this way.
He hasn't finished his dinner.
You better turn around, Doc.
Okay, but you keep your eye on him. I don't like that man.
Hey, you.
Me?
What was you staring at me for?
I wasn't staring at you.
No man stares at me without a reason. I don't like it.
I want to know why you were doing it.
Well, now, look here, mister. You're getting all upset over nothing.
You ruined your dinner working yourself up.
You tell me why you were staring at me or I'll put a hole in you.
I'll do it.
Well, you're awful jumpy for a big gunman.
Don't tell me, I said.
Hold it, Springer. This is Doc Adams. He doesn't carry a gun.
He doesn't?
No, but sometimes I wish I did.
Wait a minute, Doc.
Uh, you getting into this, mister?
I am.
Who are you, anyway?
Matt Dillon.
Matt Dillon.
That's right.
I knew I'd run into you sooner or later.
Why?
In my line of work, there's always some lawman wanting to interfere.
Sure, it'll happen here, Springer. You kill anybody.
Fair fight's a fair fight, ain't it?
Not when you're paid to pick a fight with a man.
Like I said, Marshal, I knew I'd run into you.
Springer, when I find out who you're after, I can probably find out who's paying you.
Then I'll jail you and him both.
But you're going to lose a lot of sleep trying to find out, Marshal.
I can stand it.
You're the one that needs sleep, Springer, a lot of it.
Without any bad dreams.
I...
Hmm, there. Looks like the man of ice is starting to melt, man.
Something's happening to him, Doc.
Whatever it is, it isn't good.
Kitty.
I didn't see you in that.
Why don't you sit down, if you've got time.
Oh, I don't have to go to work till after sundown.
Guess I might as well sit here and watch Front Street with you, if anything else.
Good. Little air's good for you.
There's a lot of it, beading better.
You know, Kitty, you ought to buy a horse.
Huh?
Take a ride up the river every day or so.
I'm too broke.
Well, I'll lend you one. I've got a little bay that's pretty gentle.
Imagine having more than one horse.
That's about all the government does give me, Kitty, a couple of cheap horses.
I've seen you riding your own.
I've got to keep him in shape in case I decide to quit.
The day you quit, that horse will be as old as a man.
You may be right.
Hey, look, man.
What?
There, walking down the middle of the street.
Springer.
Now, who'd expect a man like Springer to have a little yellow dog?
I don't know that the dog's his, Kitty.
Maybe he's just following him.
Well, he's right at his heel.
I don't think Springer knows it.
Oh, he's trying to sniff at me.
Snap!
Destroy them!
Poor little dog, he didn't do anything.
I'll be back, Kitty.
Well?
What do you want, Marshal? Just a dog.
You think he was going to bite you?
Might have.
How'd I know?
I didn't know what it was. Could have been anything.
Or anybody, huh?
I knew it wasn't a man.
Yeah, but you just said...
Who cares what I said?
That dog shouldn't have been sniffing around.
Not around you, that's for sure.
Well?
Why don't you go get a drink, Springer?
I think maybe you'll need one.
I don't drink, Marshal.
Never.
You don't have any vices, do you?
Marshal?
Huh? Yep?
Nothing.
Go ahead.
Mad, is he crazy or something?
I don't know, Kitty.
Well, he's the meanest man I ever saw.
He...
He didn't shoot that dog out of meanness, Kitty.
No? Well, why then?
He's jumpy.
Well, if he's that jumpy, nobody need worry about him.
I worry about him, Kitty.
You?
He's dangerous.
He's more dangerous now than the way everybody tells me he used to be.
What do you mean?
Well, suppose that instead of a dog smelling at his heel,
it's been a man who had happened to bump into him.
I'd hate to be the man. He'd probably get killed.
That's right.
Then Spring shouldn't be carrying a gun, Matt.
Yes, I know.
Well, why don't you take it off him, or run him out of town?
If I did that, whoever's paying him
would just hire another gunman, Kitty.
The only way to stop this killing is to find out who that is.
Well, I hope you do, before it's too late.
That night I had Chester follow Springer or Ron and keep an eye on him.
But all he did was buck the Pharaoh bank for a few hours
and then go to bed earlier than the most respectable citizens.
Next day Chester went back to trailing him while I sat in the office
and tried to figure a way to trap him into telling me who'd hired him.
By mid-afternoon I was no further than when I'd started.
The only idea I had was to choke it out of him.
Mr. Gillen?
Yeah, what is it, Chester?
That mate Springer, he dug on me and shot a girl over there.
What?
One of the girls who worked at the Long Branch.
What do you mean he almost shot her?
He stayed in his room at the Dodge house all morning.
Never mind that, what about the girl?
That's what I'm getting to.
Well, just afternoon he went over to the Long Branch and started gambling.
He was sitting at a table in the corner with his back again,
one of them wooden windows, you know, and one of the girls that worked there,
well, I guess she needed a breath of air,
so she slipped in behind Springer's chair and started opening that shutter.
No wonder she got that far.
He just won, he was raking in the pot.
But when he heard her, I never see a man move so fast, Mr. Gillen.
That poor girl near about fainted the way he jumped around at her.
She's lucky she didn't get shot.
He had a six gun stuck right in her face.
He was within a hair, letting go of that hammer.
And when he seen who it was, he started cussing her something fierce.
Now he's getting worse.
Yeah, and he's going to kill somebody, sure, acting a fool that way.
Yeah.
And he probably won't even be the one to come here to kill, neither.
Imagine him, about to shoot a woman.
I guess I can't wait any longer, Chester.
What are you going to do?
Well, I'm going to shame him first.
If that doesn't make him talk, I'm going to have to run him out of town.
All right, come on.
Miss Gillen, I can't help you.
I can't help thinking all your friends who told you about Nate Springer was mighty poor judges.
He's about the uncoolest son I ever saw.
I agree about that, Chester.
Who was it told you about him last?
I don't remember. It's been two or three years.
Maybe just a lot of rumours.
You know how the talk gets started sometimes.
Wyatt Earp was the first man to tell me about it.
Oh.
When we get inside here, you go to the bar and you stay there, huh?
That's right.
It's been a long year, Miss Gillen.
Yeah, I've seen him.
Springer.
Springer.
Come over here.
You're interrupting my game, Marshal.
Your game's over, Springer, if we could.
What does that mean?
Get out of Dodge.
What?
If you've been paid in advance, you better give him back his money.
You're not going to earn it.
You're saying I ain't?
It's an hour to sundown. Be out of town before dark.
It's a long time since a man's talked to me like that, Marshal.
How long's it been since a dog scared you into shooting him
or since you drew on a woman?
You've lost your nerve, Springer. You're not going to kill anybody.
Shut up.
I'll shut up.
If you tell me who hired you.
No.
No.
Then who are you supposed to kill?
I won't tell you.
I didn't think you would.
Then be out before dark, Springer, and don't come back.
Ever.
Hello, Matt.
Doc.
What do you stand out here for?
Why aren't you inside with your feet on your desk the way you usually are?
I'm waiting for somebody, Doc.
Oh.
Oh, you sound serious.
Nate Springer, Doc. He's got about 20 minutes to leave town.
Oh, is that so?
Well, you finally had to come around to it, huh?
Yeah, he's still on the long branch over there.
If he doesn't come out before dark, I'm going in after him.
Well, there comes somebody.
Huh?
Oh, that's Chester.
Oh, yes.
Is there going to be a shooting, Matt?
I doubt it, Doc. Springer's already back down.
Well, you never know, huh?
I'm going to get my things ready just in case.
Yeah, sure, Doc.
Mr. Don, I thought I'd better come tell you.
What, Chester?
Springer's been bellied up to the bar over in the long branch for the last half hour.
He has?
Yes, sir.
Been drinking down one glass after another.
Yeah, Doc was right. You never know.
What?
He's getting ready to use his gun, Chester.
I'm going over and stop him.
He just come out.
Yeah.
He's headed this way.
You stay here.
Marshal?
I thought you didn't drink, Springer.
I never did before.
You started too late.
If you haven't time to find your man, you're leaving Tom.
I've found him.
What?
You, Marshal.
It's you I'm going to kill.
Who had you, Springer?
Let's draw, Marshal.
I feel like it now.
Let's draw.
Don't be a fool, you're drunk.
Not that drunk.
I can kill you.
And then I'll be all right again.
Now.
No.
You shouldn't have tried it, Springer.
I had to.
Why?
Humor of prison.
Two years.
I come out scared.
Lost my nerve in that prison.
And why did you take this job?
I had to.
Who hired you, Springer?
I did, Marshal.
I hired me.
I had to face somebody like you to get my nerve back.
Don't you understand?
Yeah.
I understand.
Didn't work?
No.
And I paid everything I had for it.
It cost me everything in the world.
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 John Messon.
Featured in the cast were John Forcombe and Jess Kirkpatrick.
Harley Bear as Chester, Howard McNear as Doc, and Georgia Ellis as Kitty.
This is George Walsh inviting you to join us again next week when CBS Radio presents another story of the Western frontier.
When Matt Dillon, Chester Proudfoot, Doc, and Kitty, together with all the other hard-living citizens of Dodge, will be with you once more.
It's America growing west in the 1870s.
It's Gun Smoke.