 I can't believe I'm seeing you again. I buried our love 12 years ago when they told me you were dead. Gun. Will travel. Starring Mr. John Daner as Paladin. San Francisco, 1875. The Carlton Hotel. Headquarters of a man called Paladin. Are you want some more of these stuff, Mr. Paladin? Well, hey boy, how could you talk that way? Well, what do I say? Well, you don't say do you want any more of this stuff. You call it by its name. This is Triep à la mode de camp. Triep à la mode. Oh, no, hey boy, I can't say all that, Mr. Paladin. All right, you want some more of this stuff? Yes, I do. Uh-oh. Get that, will you, hey boy? Oh, darling, Mr. Wong's not. Come here, Mr. Wong. Oh, yes, I am here. What is it, Mr. Wong? Come for you, Mr. Paladin. All right, set it there, please. Army man deliver a special for you. Very urgent. All right, now, thank you, Mr. Wong. He say it's long time coming. Come from very far away. You want me to open it now, don't you? Yes, sir. All right, let's see. You should not insist like that, Mr. Paladin. Oh, I'm not insisting, boy. I just deliver a message. Hey, Mr. Paladin, are you sick? I can't believe it. Mr. Paladin, your face are white. Early grumping, bad news. Hey, boy. The stage that left this afternoon, it stops overnight at Cove Canyon, doesn't it? Well, you saw Cove Canyon. Oh, why, Mr. Paladin? I've got to get on that stage. Oh, then you did get bad news? No, not exactly. It's just that I've heard from a friend, a woman I thought had died 12 years ago. She's in Dakota territory and needs me. Then it's good news to hear from woman friend. Yes, Miss Wong, I think it's the best news I've ever had. In the hills of South Dakota, a shrine of American democracy has been carved. 500 feet above ground on Mount Rushmore, giant faces of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt look out at the surrounding countryside. Guts and Borglum began work on what is the world's largest sculpture in the year 1927. He continued his efforts until his death in 1941. The project was carried to completion by Borglum's son Lincoln, who had worked with his father for 14 years. The faces of the four presidents are designed to the proportions of men who would be 465 feet tall. In spite of their size, the countenances are quite realistic in detail and expression. Each month, thousands of visitors to Mount Rushmore National Memorial remind us of the rich heritage that as Americans, we share and stand ready to defend. Ellen Stonem had been a nurse in my outfit in 112th Illinois. I'd once spent years looking for her. Now the telegram said I could reach her through an Indian Asian named Baxter at Fort Randall Dakota Territory. When I arrived, they told me I could find him in a wooden building that was used to store government supplies. Inside was a man instructing three Selam Indians on the finer points of loading a wagon. Come on, you dark soldiers! Get that thing loaded and get it out of here! The wagon wouldn't break down. Too much grain wagon bed. That's a good one. The first time I ever heard an Indian tell me I was given up too much grain. The wagon break down. Too big load. Make another trip. Oh, no, you're not coming back here. Take it all now, engine. What do you want, stranger? My name is Paladin. I'm looking for Mr. Baxter. I'm Wade Baxter. What do you want? Ellen Stonem said you would direct me to her. Stonem? I don't know any Ellen Stonem. Wait a minute. Is she a good-looking woman, a light hair? Yes. Well, it might be her, but her name is Stonem. It's Ellen Carson, Mrs. Carson. She used to work for me keeping records. Now she teaches them engine kits. Where would I find this Mrs. Carson? Probably up at the schoolhouse. That is if she's got any engine kits left to teach. What do you mean? Oh, yeah, there's been a lot of engine trouble here. Red Cloud talked a bunch of them into leaving the reservation. It's all right with me. It makes my job that much easier. Where do I find this schoolhouse? Right out two miles south of Fort Rindel. Can't miss it. Thank you. All the way out to the schoolhouse, I kept hoping that a mistake had been made. That this Mrs. Carson was not Ellen Stonem. That I could go back to Mr. Baxter. We'd start all over again. And then he'd remember Ellen Stonem. It wasn't to be. I found the schoolhouse with no difficulty and walked to the door of the tiny, locked building. I thought I'd lost the great ocean to come to the shores of America. Here, they were able to worship as they... Yes? Aladdin. Children, you may leave now. Don't come over here. Don't you come in, Captain Allen. It is not Captain anymore, Ellen. No, of course not. I'm sorry. Ellen, they told me you were dead that you had died in a prison camp in Florida. It was another woman in the camp. They buried her thinking it was me. I refused to believe you were dead. I asked for my discharge in the south to look for you. Then I... When I came to the camp in Florida, there was this grave with your name on it. After that, I went west. I finally escaped. I looked for you, Paladin. For the longest time I looked for you. I even went to the Department of War. They told me that you were missing in action in North Carolina. I was for a while. They never could keep their records straight. I met Mr. Carson. They asked me to marry him. Ellen, please, you don't have to explain. No, it's not necessary. But I feel like a shameful woman. No, don't say that. But I do. Ever since I married, I've always had a feeling that you were still alive. Well, it's too late for us now. You are married. There's nothing we can do about it. Now, why did you send for me? It's my son. He's been taken by the Indians. I want you to get him back for me. Your son? I'll do everything I can, Ellen. I don't even know if he's alive. Well, now, ain't that interesting? Wade. That's real interesting. Fort Randall's just full of soldiers waiting for an excuse to kill Indians. But she don't tell them the Indians got her son. She tells everybody here she sent the boy back east. It's because I don't want the soldiers to know. There would be a fight and the Indians would kill Jimmy. Oh, don't you worry, Ellen. Nothing will happen to Jimmy. I'll get every able-bodied man in this town and the soldiers. We'll get them back. Don't you think that's up to Mrs. Carson or her husband? Husband? She ain't got no husband. Oh, Paladin, you're new here. You just let me worry about little Ellen. I've been watching out for her ever since Carson got scalp of the Indians two years ago. Wait. Now I'll get on out to the fort. Wait, please, don't. I'll teach them Indians. The lady said not to go out there. Are you going to stop me? If I have to. Not if I can help it. I'm sorry, Ellen. When he wakes up, tell him I've gone to talk to the commanding officer at the fort. Although most men, by nature, don't feel in a combat mood much of the time, there are some who just can't get enough of a good fight, particularly if there is good sound reason for it. In July 1900, when American fighting men were protecting the rights and liberty of their fellow countrymen during the boxer uprising, the battle was a furiously fought affair. Army Private Robert H. von Schlick, serving with Company C of the 9th United States Infantry Division, was in the thick of the fracas. Although he had been wounded previously while carrying a wounded comrade to a place of safety, he rejoined his command, which partly occupied an exposed position on a dyke. Private von Schlick remained there after his company had been withdrawn, and in spite of the hail of bullets around him, single-handedly continued to fire into the enemy ranks. Oblivious to the fact that he was a conspicuous target, he refused to leave the fight until he was literally shot off his position by the enemy. Private Robert von Schlick earned the Medal of Honor for valiant devotion to duty and added heroic background to the code of conduct of American fighting men. I don't know, Mr. Pelladin. If they've taken a white boy, it's our duty to go after him. What good would that do, Colonel? They'd kill a boy. And you'd have to kill a lot of Indians. But it breaks down the morale of the settlers if we don't do something. Colonel, aren't you a little remiss in your duty already? What do you mean? I mean, Red Cloud's been off the reservation for what? Two months? Shouldn't you have gone after him before this? Well, technically, yes. But my command was split. I had some of my troops up north. We heard a rumor that Sitting Bull was in the Badlands. Sitting Bull's in Canada, and you know it. Yes. Yes, you're right, Pelladin. When I heard that Red Cloud had left the reservation, I sent two companies up north, ostensibly looking for Sitting Bull. Purposely splitting your command. You must have had a good reason. I did. If I'd been Red Cloud, I'd have left the reservation, too. Why? They were starving. Government policy, I guess. Seems we make agreements with the Indians to get them on the reservation, and after they're there, why don't we start cutting back? Baxter gave them a million pounds less meat this year than last year. And he has government sanction for that? I assume he does. I don't much care for the man, so I stay out of his affairs, and he stays out of mine. Well, that's fine, except that now Red Cloud has walked out and he's taken a white boy with him. And you're going to track him down and kill a lot of starving Indians. I don't have to track him. I know right where he is. He joined up with Crow Dog. What? He's out in Crosscut Canyon. The old devil's just sitting out there, hasn't moved. I had to keep an eye on him no matter how I felt. Colonel, let me try something, will you? What? Let me go out and talk to Red Cloud. What good would that do? Well, did it ever occur to you that maybe he's just sitting out there waiting for somebody to come out? I don't know. The town will be up in arms when Baxter tells about the boy. All right. You make your move, but just hold off and let me go in first. If I fail, well, you can do what you have to do. If anything happened to you, Mr. Paladin, I don't know. If it does, nobody will miss me. All right. But be careful. Thanks, Colonel. I'll leave right away. It was almost sundown when I reached Crosscut Canyon. I didn't try to conceal myself coming into Red Cloud's camp with the result that upon my request, I was taken immediately to see the Chief. Red Cloud talked long. He told me the whole history of himself, and of his tribe, the Sioux, and even of his part in the battle with Custer. And he told of how afterwards, he'd been lured to the reservation with promises of grain, corn, and of meat. Promise is fine, but not true. We get less and less food for Indian. Great Chief Red Cloud, this still gives you no right to take White Boy and kill him. Not kill White Boy. Take him. Wait for a long time now. Hold for bargain. Make agent Baxter give full treaty rations to Indian. Well, what does Baxter have to do with this? Baxter cheat. Cheat Indian. Cheat his government. How? He tell government more Indians on reservation than we have. And he get more supplies. Tell Indian government send less than even ration. He keep the rest. Tell us hog root or die. We die. I see. Then he sells the surplus. Yeah, make much money for himself. Red Cloud will get fair deal, or White Boy will die. No more talk. All right, Red Cloud, I will go. He won't take our stock. What do you say? I don't want to go. Sure. Paladin comes and talks of peace, but he does not travel alone. You tell Colonel take soldiers back to Fort Randall tonight, or Boy be dead by morning. Let us have peace. These were the words spoken by General Ulysses S. Grant when he accepted the nomination for the presidency in 1868. And they are the words which are carried over the entrance of Grant's tomb in New York City. The interior of the memorial to the general who led the Union forces to final victory in the Civil War is somewhat like that of the tomb of another skillful military leader, Napoleon Bonaparte. But what a contrast there is between the Empire seeking little corporal and the American military man who fought with distinction in the Mexican War and the Civil War, and only peace for his nation. Each year many visitors pay homage to Ulysses Grant at his tomb, which is circled by New York's busy Riverside Drive. The memorial contains twin burial faults with the remains of the general and his lady. Grant's tomb is a lasting reminder of the rich heritage that as Americans we share and stand ready to defend. I rode back to the Colonel and asked him to give me another day to get the boy back without bloodshed. I told him I had a plan. He agreed. And then I was able to go to Ellen and tell her her son was still alive. Oh, Paladin, I knew you'd find him. But we haven't gotten him back yet, Ellen. But he's alive, and you will get him back. Well, try. Ellen, there's something I have to know. Yes? You didn't tell me your husband was dead. Why? I thought that it wasn't fair to tell you. When I learned where you were, I asked you to come here because I knew you were the only man who could get Jimmy back. Not to pick up where we left off. You had no right to decide then. I didn't think you'd want me after so long. I've never stopped wanting you. Paladin, Mr. Carson was one of the finest men I've ever known. He wanted to help the Indians when everyone else wanted to kill them. After Kuster was killed, a lot of people wanted to leave Dakota Territory. But not Mr. Carson. He vowed he'd never leave Dakota no matter what. Ellen, don't do this, please. I wanted to know the kind of man he was that I didn't just marry anyone. He went out that day, and he tried to talk to some Indians he saw. He was alone. But some friends could see him from a distance. We never got his body back. It was right after Kuster, and it was too dangerous to go out. Oh, Ellen, oh, Ellen, please stop this. Ellen, listen to me, Ellen. I've always loved you, Ellen. I still do. Please don't say this. It's true. Ellen, I want you to go to San Francisco with me. Are you sure? Will you, Ellen? What about my son? Oh, of course. He'll love San Francisco. We'll see when we get Jimmy back. All right. I'll have to work fast. Tell me, do you know where Baxter keeps his government papers? Yes, they're in his warehouse. Why? Oh, he's been cheating the Indians, and if I could only prove it. If we went down there before it got light, we... We? Yes, I can show you right where the papers are. Finding evidence against Baxter was a simple matter. The Edmund ordered to increase his allotments, not to cut them, and to even receive more goods. What I planned to do, I needed the Colonel as a witness. Together, we forced Baxter to go with us to Red Cloud. There, he admitted having cheated the Indians. The Colonel promised a full report to Washington and punishment for Baxter. The chief was satisfied, and suddenly waved an arm towards one of his braves. What's he doing now, Paladin? I'm not sure, Colonel. Look. Well, that's the boy. They're bringing him out. Paladin, look. There's a white man with him. Yeah, I see. That man's been... Why, his scalp has been lifted. Che muti, nakatu lima. Che magosri. The boy is in harm, Paladin. Yes, I see, then. Who is the white man with him? He is a man found by a crow dog two years ago, almost dead. He was cut. His tongue taken out by renegade Indians. We fix him good to work, get about. But he would not go back to own people that way. The boy tell me he would not leave without him. The boy has good heart. Paladin, I believe that's... Yes, it is. That's Carson. Carson? The boy's father. I'd barely recognize him, but I'm certain. Eh, you go now. The Red Cloud will bring tribe back to reservation. Eh, you go. The boy had not recognized his own father. But he had persuaded Carson to come with him. Somehow the child knew that a man should be with his own kind, no matter what. The chief provided horses and the Colonel agreed to escort them home while I rode on ahead to tell Ellen. You realize what this means, don't you? Yes. I can't leave him. I wouldn't even if I could. He's my husband. I understand, Ellen. Do you? I wonder if you could possibly know how I feel. Ellen... You'll be leaving for San Francisco now, won't you? Yes. I'll have to be getting back, Ellen. Yes, of course. Well, Captain Paladin, I... I'd better pull myself together, hadn't I? My son... and my husband are coming home. Yes. Come in. Oh, hello, Miss Wong. Miss Wong, ever since you come back from trip... Here. What are you doing, Miss Wong? Oh, no more sitting in the dark room. Beautiful San Francisco, the outside. Hey, Miss Paladin, this is not good for you. No. I suppose you're right. Lisa, I'm right. Hey, boy. Hey, boy. Oh, Miss Paladin. What are you and Miss Wong up to? Oh, no. You'll be happy. Well, what have you there, hey, boy? Happy water, Mr. Paladin. Champagne. That's your one thing... That's one thing Mr. Paladin got. Plenty champagne. Yes, hey, boy. That's one thing Mr. Paladin will always have plenty of. Champagne. With Ben Wright as Hey Boy and Virginia Gregg as Miss Wong. Tonight's story was specially written for Have Gun Will Travel by Thomas Hanley. Featured in the cast were Lou Krugman, Bartlett Robinson, Ralph Moody, James Nusser and Lillian Bayef. This is Hugh Douglas inviting you to join us again next week when CBS Radio presents Have Gun Will Travel. Have Gun Will Travel is brought to you through the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces, radio and television service.