 Frontier Town, the saga of the Roaring West. Frontier Town, El Paso, Cheyenne, Calgary, Tombstone. Frontier Town, here is the adventurous story of the early West. The tamed and the untamed. From the Pekos to Powder River, Dodge City to Poker Flat. These are the towns they fought to live in and lived to fight for. Teaming crucibles of pioneer freedom. Frontier Town. If you happen to like excitement and trouble in heartaches, well, there's nothing like being a Frontier Town lawyer like me, Chad Remington. Yep, if it isn't one thing, it's the next, and much of the time, it's all three. Excitement and trouble in heartaches all together. A pretty good example of what I mean occurred, oh, just about a few weeks ago. About the time I thought that for a while, at least, my life was going to be peaceable. I've got my law officers, such as they are, up over the DOSRIUS livery stable, which is owned by Cherokee of Bannum. Now that he's turned over a new leaf and stopped peddling his genuine Cherokee Indian rattlesnake oil. And to all intents and purposes, he's settled down. Well, things were quiet. It was just before supper, and Cherokee had wandered upstairs to try to talk me into eating with him at a place notorious for its bad food, but famous for its bottle goods. Have you ever heard about the Latin races, the French and the Italians? Well, it's certainly Cherokee. Not only have I heard of them, but I guess I know about as many Frenchmen and Italians as the next man. Why? What's all that got to do with eating supper and a dive? Well, they're pretty fine people. They're French and the Italians. And they've learned that the worst thing a man can do to his stomach is to eat food and wash it down with water. The fact of the matter is, you'll always find a bottle of something to... Oh, so that's it, huh? Well, I mean it. A little alcohol not only stimulates the digestive juices, but also relaxes a man. At the rate you've been going lately, I think there'd be nothing better for you than... Hold it, Cherokee. Wouldn't you say that those two men who've just tied off outside were coming up here? Where? Oh, yeah. In fact, they are coming up. Who are they? I've never seen them before. claimed if I know, but if there's a fee involved, those two gentlemen are just about to engage the services of a lawyer. Come on in. You, the lawyer, who's got that shingle up outside? Chad Remington? Yes, sir. My name's Kerr Remington. And this is a neighbor of mine, Vic Leach. Howdy. Mr. Kerr, Mr. Leach, shake hands with Cherokee O'Bannon. Howdy, howdy. You busy Remington? You got a few minutes to talk to us? I got all night if that's what it takes. Oh, sit down, gentlemen. Yes, thank you. Now, Leach and I come over from Sundown Valley Way. Oh, Sundown Valley, eh? Beautiful country over there. It was until them dad-blame-turned-farmers come in with their government homesteads. Oh, so? Ever since they moved in taking over half of the water holes and streams, us honest ranchers having a tough time trying to make a living. They've obtained these homesteads with the water rights legally, haven't they? Ah, legally, my neck. We were there first, and that water belongs to us. Our cattle's dying off like flies. We gotta do is get them homesteaders out of there. That's why we come to see you. Well, I come to see me about a thing like that. But you gentlemen need, isn't an attorney? Need a little commsense? Now, wait a minute. I'm afraid Cherokee's right. You see, even though I do practice law, I own a ranch too. A ranch my father left me, where I was born. Well, what's that got to do with it? I don't know what that has to do with your particular problem, but I'm just mentioning it so that when I say what I'm going to say, you'll realize that I know what I'm talking about. You quit beating around the bush. All right. We've got a water shortage over here in Dos Rios, too, just like you have over in Sundown Valley. Except that we've learned enough to know that small folks who come in here aren't to blame. We're the ones at fault. The ranchers themselves. Are you out of your head or something? Far from it. The whole trouble is that with the way the cattle market's been back east, all of us have been making money hand over fist. And as a result, we've overstocked our ranchers to the point that there isn't enough grass or water to support that much stock. Oh, oh, I suppose there's something wrong in a man making a little money. Not at all. Unless it's at the expense of someone else, Mr. Kerr. But that isn't answering your original question. As an attorney, and this advice is completely free, I'm forced to warn you that if you try to take the law into your own hands and attempt to get the homesteaders out, you'll be needing an attorney all right. An attorney to defend you in court. Now, if the undertaker hasn't got you before that, starting a reigns war... Well, you're a fine amount of help you are. We heard you was a smart lawyer. Well, I'm sorry to have disillusioned you, but my brains don't run in that direction. Yes, yes, yes. Well, don't go sending me no bill for this kind of advice. And if you happen to show up in Sundown Valley, all I can say is you better change your tune. Come on, Leech, this was sure a waste of time. Well, there go the first two-legged pole cats have seen since the circus side show. Cherokee, I'll go to supper at that place you've been ranting about if after we're through you'll throw saddles onto your horses and go for a ride. Go for a ride? Yeah, and be sure to take a night shirt and a toothbrush along, Cherokee. Because we're going over to Sundown Valley before Messers Leech and Kerr stir up enough trouble to blanket that whole place in gun smoke. While Cherokee and I were on our way to Sundown, we later found out that Kerr and Leech were already back there and making their own plans. Plans that met a range war if they ever got the thing wrong. Now, the way I see it, Leech, is to do the whole thing on the QT. Now, if we start blowing things apart, if Remington's right, we may end up in jail. Yeah, what do you mean, the QT? Well, you know, not try any strong-arm stuff. Just threaten them filthy messes. Make it uncomfortable for them. Scare them out. Well, I don't know. Messers icing don't scare easy. Yeah. You know, that woman lives down by the foot of White Oak Creek? What's her name? You mean, Violet Kennedy? Yeah. She's got five springs on that place they homestead in. And since her husband died, there's nobody but the old gal herself. And that kid she was going to. Yeah, how are you going to run her out of there? I don't know if you ever knew it or not, but before I moved into Sundown, I was born and brought up in the garter snake country, up in the Dakotas. Yeah. Something happened years ago up there that I don't think Violet Kennedy would want anybody to find out. And I think a little visit to her place will persuade Violet that she'd better do her bloom in someplace else. Yeah, well, come on. Now I'm going to need to get off my place or I'll blast you off. You're making a mistake, Mrs. Kennedy. We'll see who's making a mistake. Now, are you going to get off of here? Oh, sure, yes, we'll get off, but we're coming back. Coming back in 24 hours. And if you're still here, Mrs. Kennedy, you'll be the first woman a garter snake ever choked to death. Yeah, come on, Rach. Dirty, sniveling, backbiting bunches. When did you get home, Terry? I put the cow in the barn and came in through the back door. Who are those men? Why, oh, they were just neighbors of ours paying a little social visit, son. Gosh, that's strange. Ranges around here fight shy of our places. We let smallpox or something. Um, Terry, I've been thinking for a long time that now with your father dead, maybe you and me would be better off if we moved out west someplace. Maybe California. This, uh, climate, it's too severe for a boy like you and an old lady like me. Well, I don't want to go to California or any place else. I don't want to stay here. Well, my mind's made up since I always have believed in doing things when I've decided on them. Come on, Terry, we're packing up right now. Of course, neither Cherokee nor I, by this time almost a sundown valley, knew what Ker and Vic Leach had done, let alone did we know Violet Kennedy and her 11-year-old youngster. Nor as we jogged along across the trails, which lead over the green rolling hills looking down into the valley below, did we suspect that we'd meet the Kennedys as soon as we did, and under such tragic circumstances. Chad, I have no compunction in admitting that this long ride has stirred up a considerable thirst in my part's throat. Deed-it has. Deed-it has. Well, Senor O'Vannon, there's a homesteadist cabin down below, and I can see a well out in the front yard. A well? Bad enough having to bathe in that stuff, let alone pour aqueous liquids into one's delicate insides. And if your insides are delicate, then so is a railroad locomotive. And if you're not thirsty enough to drink water, what? Hello, what's that down there? A wagon loaded with household goods. Here's someone's moving out of Sundown Valley. It must be in an awful hurry to get wherever they're going. Look at that team run. Yes, look at that team run. Cherokee, it's dimes to donuts. Those horses have got the bits in their teeth, and they're running away. Run it away. Well, then come on, let's get down there, and see if we can't stop them before that wagon turns over. Mark on it, Cherokee, if a wagon that size turns over, there's not going to be much left of anything or anybody. Had our horses been fresh, we might have had a chance of getting there fast, but after the long ride, it seemed ours before we actually started closing the distance between us. We raked those poor horses' flanks, and their hooves pounded on the sun-baked road like war-maddened Indians on their drums. Then, just as we were overtaking the wagon at near to sharp turn, and as the panicky team drove into the turn, the wagon suddenly upended. Excuse me, son. I'll look at your mother. She sure is bad. She sure is, Chad. Her leg's broken just below the knee. More? Son, you'd be a lot more helpful if you got a hold of yourself and tried to answer a couple of questions. Yes, sir. The best thing for your mother is to get her into a bed as fast as we can. Did you live any place around here? Not too far, about six miles back. Good. And we'll make a squad drag and haul her back there till we can get some professional help. Oh, no. Can't go back. Can't. Better stay quiet, ma'am, and save what strength you have left. Oh, no. Can't go back there. I'm sorry, ma'am, but we've no choice. Unless you're taken indoors and cared for, you might lose that leg. More! No! Come on, Cherokee. We'll see what we can salvage out of what furniture isn't smashed to kindling, and after that, we'll get this lady back into Sundown Valley whether she wants to go or not. No, no, please. Please, please. We'll return to the second act of Sundown Valley, our exciting Frontier Town adventure in just a few moments. And now, Frontier Town. As a Frontier Town lawyer, I've knocked around a bit, but I'd never really seen fear until I looked into Mrs. Kennedy's eyes as we carried her back into the house which had once been her home. We patched up a bed frame as best we could and, improvising a splint with some pieces of broken chair, we made her as comfortable as possible, leaving Little Terry to watch over while Cherokee and I rode back out to the spot where their possessions were scattered for hundreds of yards over the road. Look here, Chad, look at this. Humpback trunk. Smash the smithereens and clothes and paper scattered every which way. I wonder what anybody would be saving an old newspaper for. Maybe it's got a picture of her in it. She was married. Yeah. Yeah, there is a picture of her in it, all right? See, I told you. I guess you never heard of a woman called Violet Stevenson, did you? Violet Stevenson. Name has a familiar ring. Well, years ago, back in the Gardersnake country of the Dakotas, Violet was quite a bell. By George, I remember it now. Didn't see the one who got into a scrape with the sheriff and perforated him with a little handgun she carried in her pocketbook. So the story goes, Cherokee. Violet Stevenson killed the sheriff and because he had been a big wheel up there in politics, it stirred up quite a commotion. The woman we picked up here was Violet Stevenson. How did she ever escape hanging? Well, best I can remember, nobody ever knew. The night before she was be hanged, she disappeared from the jail. Ah, and that's... that's the poor woman we picked up. No wonder she looked so frightened. I imagine she's spent most of her life since then being frightened. But since this happened almost 20 years ago, I don't know why that fear suddenly was all crystallized today. Yeah, that's right. I wonder why too. This may be throwing a wide loop, Cherokee, but did you notice that there seemed to be five little springs on her place? Yes. And if you remember, springs and water seemed to be the principal concern of those two so-called decent citizens who paid us that call yesterday, Kerr and Leech. You don't think they found out and threatened her, do you? Well, it seems to be the only thing that makes sense, doesn't it, Cherokee? Yes, it does. But now I don't know what to do. I'm helping a poor woman with a broken leg, but helping a fugitive from justice or something else again. Well, if she is Violet Stevenson, and there seems to be little question about it from her resemblance to the picture, I think I'm going to take advantage of an old friendship and find out what can be done. An old friendship? Yes, if he's still alive, the judge over in this part of the country is an old timer by the name of Amos Peabody. I've known him on and off ever since I was a boy. You and I are paying a call on the judge and finding out a few things, just as soon as we know that Mrs. Kennedy is going to have proper medical attention. Well, the doctor knew of Mrs. Kennedy and wasted no time packing his bag and heading out there. We weren't with him long, but while we were, someone else had gone to the judge's office and paid a call on him. Yep, you guessed it, Kerr and Leech. Now, has that Kennedy woman got a right to stick a shotgun in my face and ought to be off her place, judge? Yeah, if her homestead claim has been properly filed and all her assessment work done, the property is hers and she has a perfect right. Well, I don't see no sense in the government giving land away to every Tom, Dick and Harry. Their government isn't giving its land away. The government is the people when the land is theirs already. Now look, let's not yet into any complicated argument. Now, judge, if Leech and me made it worth your while, couldn't you issue some kind of an order? Are you trying to bribe me? Well, now nobody minds picking up a little easy money and sorry, that woman's got a pass. Get out of my office, both of you. There's a size of a reward. I said, get out. Come on, Kerr, there are other ways I'm sorry to tell you, Mr. Remington, that Judge Peabody died last year. They sent me down here to take his place. Is there anything I can do for you? Well, well, I'd known Judge Peabody all my life and I wanted to get his opinion on a few questions. Well, since the law is the law, I don't see why this eminently respectable jurist couldn't give you the same opinion, Chad. Well, this is a hypothetical case, Judge. But suppose about 20 years ago a woman had committed a serious crime. Since then, she has lived a decent life, married and has a son. And then someone finds out about it. And threatens to expose her? Uh-huh. And if she'd moved to a different part of the country from where the crime had been committed, well, what do you think the judge who has the jurisdiction in the place she's now living might do? Well, that might depend a good deal on the judge. If the man had slept badly the night before, he might go hard with her. Well, I'm afraid in asking a hypothetical question I was entitled to no more than a hypothetical answer. But actually, Judge, there is such a woman living here in Sundown and, well, if I can, I'm anxious to help her. Well, if I knew the woman and what the crime was committed. All right. The crime as I heard it was murder. She shot and killed a sheriff up in the Gardisnake country in the Dakotas. Do you mean to say that Violet Stevenson is living here, here in Sundown? Uh-huh. Now we are in for it. I haven't said who it is, Judge. But do you know Violet Stevenson? No. Well, I was the deputy sheriff who arrested her. And I've been looking for her ever since she, ever since she got out of jail. I thought I'd have to go and open my big mouth. Now, wait a minute. We haven't said this woman was Violet Stevenson. Oh, no. Well, I've been carrying the original warrant that was issued for her arrest. And unless you two want to go to jail for contempt of court, you are taking me out of where she is. And after all these years, my search will be over. Well, this is a fine mess with that Kennedy woman back there living in that cabin again. If that dad-blamed judge had a brain in his head, he would have helped us. But he didn't. Now, after boasting about how we got rid of her, we made a couple of fools ourselves. Maybe we have. Maybe. I just remembered. That cabin she lives in is right at the foot of Devil's Slide. The kitchen window is in 10 feet from the cliff. Yeah. Yeah. That's a dangerous place to build a cabin. I mean, there have been a lot of landslides down at Devil's Slide. What if there should be a landslide again? Hmm? That cabin, it looked like a busted matchbox. What in tarnation makes you think there's going to be a landslide? Oh, you're not headed it. Don't you see? With a little help from us up on top of Devil's Slide, a hundred thousand tons of dirt and boulders and hit that place just as if we aimed at it with a cannon. Well, I don't know her. Well, I do. So come on, Leech, we're getting out to Devil's Slide. And believe me, we ain't wasting no time. Well, as we rode back toward Kennedy's shabby little cabin, I spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself for having opened my big mouth. But had I known the facts, I wouldn't have wasted any sympathy on me. But I would have felt sorry for Violet caught as she was between the judge with his warrant and Leech and Kerr with her landslide. You're just wasting your breath trying to argue with me, Remington. Even a man with half a brain ought to realize that after looking for Violet for almost 20 years, I'm not going to give up now. No, sir, I'm not. Well, I certainly don't see anything to laugh at in this. Well, you will. You know, I've always flattered myself on being a pretty good judge a man, but you certainly fool me. Young man, after 20 years, this is one day when nobody can insult me. Well, if you're going to get any satisfaction out of slapping a warrant on a poor woman with a broken... Remington, that noise. What is it? Belly blue blazes, Chad. Hear that rumbling? Sounds like a landslide. It is a landslide. Look, you can just see where it's starting up there, about 4,000 feet up on the top of that cliff. Chad, the way it's starting, it's going to hit that house. That's Mrs. Kennedy's cabin. That's Violet's cabin? Get up there, you. Of all the cold-blooded. What do you want to do, serve that warrant before she's killed? Hey, never you mind about me. Just get that horse running. Come on now. Get up. Cherokee, come on. There's still a chance we may be able to get her out of that house. Come out of here. Get Terry out of here. Never mind me. I can't move. There, Violet, we're going to get you out of here if it's the last thing we do. Come on, boys. Let me ahead before there are a lot of us who kill her. All right, easy now. Up she goes. Terry, you open that door and then run for it. All right, Chad. Let's get her out of here now. Don't stop here. Come on. That landslide's almost on top of us. I'll hold her, Judge. Judge? Who are you? I never mind Violet. I've got you now and I'm never going to let you. Yes, well... I think that'll be a lesson to the homesteaders around sundown that night. Yeah, I wish that landslide hadn't kicked off so much dust. I couldn't see a thing. Oh, yes. We're better than mother nature. When we start a landslide, it's really a lie. Yes, Mr. Kerr, when you start a landslide, it'll land you in prison. All right, come on in, Judge. And you've got any idea of making a run for it? You two filthy, sneaking, double-dealing, dirty, yellow-spine buzzards? There are five more of these in my gun, and they're all going plumb through you two. I guess they lost all their fight, Chad. Come on, let's haul them back to town so we don't hold up the wedding. Violet, they pardoned you almost the day after I let you out of jail. Found out what really happened. What really did happen, Judge? Well, that confounded sheriff was jealous that Violet was soft on me. Got himself liquored up and tried to talk her into running away with him. Shot himself with his own gun in the ball. Oh, there you see, Cherokee. What happens to a man if he insists on drinking? I don't know about Mr. O'Banner. Well, it's a good lesson of me, am I? Yes, Terry. But I'm so happy right now that Jesse's found me again. I think I'll let you have a mouthful of champagne at the wedding. Can you hear that, Chad? Champagne, your bubbly. What's that to you? You can't drink the stuff at the wedding. It would ruin everything. Am I drinking champagne, ruin the wedding? Certainly. You know how it is with champagne. The bubbles get up your nose. Did I do, did I do? Well, by the time the bubbles got up your red nose, the wedding champagne would all turn to sparkling burgundy. Frontier Town, starring Reid Hadley and featuring Wade Crosby is a Brucell's production, Story and Direction by Paul Franklin. Music written and played by Ivan Ditmars. Be sure to be with us again same time next week for another fine action adventure story with your favorite young western star, Reid Hadley. And now this is Bill Foreman telling you that Frontier Town comes to you from Hollywood.