 on Dodge City and in the territory on west there's just one way to handle the killers and the spoilers and that's with the U.S. Marshall and the smell of gun smoke. 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 Marshall, the first man they looked for and the last they want to meet. It's a chancey job and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely. Let's dump them down good. I'm slightly bigger than these tin pills we got. Here let me give you a hand. Water. It doesn't seem like nobody has worked this thing for a long time. Bucket's still a long way down there. Wait a minute, hold it. Maybe I can hold it up by hand. Can you get it? Yeah, I can get it. That rope can hold a bucket or not. Nothing else again. That rope was crumb rotten. Yeah, well maybe up in the barn in the shed you can find something to haul water in. Sure, I just don't figure how he got his water. He sure didn't use it as well. He? Well, the fellow that lived here, there's the one Albie dragged out of the cabin. Well, where'd he take him? He's on there on them trees. You check the barn, Chester, I'll see to Albie. He's just a cinder. That's all I can think. He's just a cinder. A little blanket here. He ain't a man at all. He's a cinder. On the cabin? I couldn't believe it. He was sitting at the table. His head was slumped forward and there was fire all around. And then I seen he was on fire. He was just sitting there on fire. And I got to him and he toppled off right under the floor and he laid there burning. He doesn't know at all. I seen trees burn. I seen fields. I seen logs. I never seen a man burn. Let's forget about it. You know, it's funny. A man on fire. First thing you do is put a blanket on him. He's burning hot. So you smother him. You put the fire out, Albie. That's the way to look at it. You put a blanket on his hinder. You put a blanket around his cinder. Were you talking to me, Marshall? A blanket. It was in the cabin? A blanket. It was on the floor, right by the table. Now, it's wet. It felt wet when I grabbed it. It's a funny smell, isn't it, Marshall? Yeah. Whiskey and kerosene together make a funny smell, Albie. Is that what that is? That's what it smells like. Mr. Dillon, can you come back here? Yeah, right away, Chester. You rest yourself, Albie. You've done more in your share. Oh, I'm all right, Marshall. Where'd you find them, Chester? Look at me looking. All thin fleshed. Somebody neglected them for a long time. They're about starved. Any feet in the barn? Ain't nothing in that barn, but rusty cans and a broke plow. Everything in there is crumbling. It's at the raft. There's grass down by the creek. We'll lead them down there. It don't seem like this was Indians. It doesn't, Mr. Dillon. It looks queer, Chester. We've done what we could, Mr. Dillon. You hadn't been riding by and come to Fetcher's. We couldn't have done this much, Albie. I couldn't do enough alone. Funny, in a way. It seemed too far from Dodge, but, you know, I didn't pass one settler on the way in. He doesn't see anybody around here, you know? Not a soul. It's just odd. That's what is odd. Odd is can be. Well, you've got to figure he was alone. Except for them two starving horses. I don't know his name. Can't mark his grave. Can't help wondering about him. What's a man like that lives alone? What's his place called a rust and rubble? That horses starve. And that well? I don't know when that's been used. I don't think he drank water, Chester. You mean that smell of whiskey on the blanket, Mark? Might be he drank himself into a stupor and knocked the whiskey over along with it a kerosene lamp. And it started fire that it burned him out of there. Yeah, that must have been the case. Well, if he was all alone, maybe it doesn't matter what we know. Well, for the love of... What? Listen, look. Coming out from the creek bed, you know? Maybe he wasn't alone after all. Well, that's just a child. She can't be more than nine or ten. I'm afraid I know the judge. I'm Marshall Dullin from Dodge City. Who are you? Charity. How's that? Charity, Charity Gill, that's my name. It was a big fire, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. You live here? Where have you been, Charity? Up the creek. I play up there, stay up there all I can. I like it up there. You knew about the fire, Charity? I tried to make him move. But he was too big, I couldn't move him. I tried. See, I burned my dress. He was your father? You know, he married Mama and me when I was little. She said I was to call him Daddy, and I did, but... I didn't like him. Where is your mama, Charity? Oh, she's dead. She died when I was seven. I'm almost ten now. She's dead, ain't she? I didn't like him. I don't know. It'd be hard to think when I chest her. I'd say you're a pretty healthy young lady. I've never been to a doctor before. Yeah, never had. Well, you take it to me. You stay away from her. You can't, Charity. You're funny. Well, some folks think so. Now then, I guess you can... slip into your dress yourself. Yeah, I always do. I'll be waiting for you in the other room when you're ready. I won't be long. What about her, Doc? Oh, she's fine. She could use some more meat on her bones, but there's nothing really wrong with her. The way her dress was burned, I thought maybe the fire got to her, too. Well, it's not a sign of a burn. You know something? She seems a lot older than ten, doesn't she? I don't know anything about kids, Doc. Well, I don't mean she is older than that. She just seems older than a year. I guess she's seen a lot. You talked to her much about fire? She said she tried to move her stepfather. Couldn't. She didn't like him. She keeps saying that. I'm hungry, Mr. Diller. Yeah, well, we'll fix that pretty quick now. Matt, get Chester to eat with it. He sets a mighty good example. It does affect him. Charity. You tell us about the fire. What about it? Oh, how it started, for instance. Well, it's almost happened lots of times. Mama used to tell him that it happened sometimes she wasn't careful. She'd drink out of that jug, and then he'd fall her free. But if the lamp was neary, he'd knock it over. What happened this morning? I guess so. I went down to the creek to get my breakfast. He didn't like me. He didn't like me. He didn't like me. I went to get my breakfast. He didn't talk to me ever, so I didn't talk to him. He was just sitting there with the jug. Your breakfast, Charity? Yeah, the berries are nice done, by the way. Oh, you ought to eat more than berries for breakfast. He wanted to know about the fire. That's right, we do. When I came back from breakfast, the lamp was on the floor and everything was burning. I tried to make him move, but he was too big. And when my dress started to burn, I ran away. Just you and your stepfather. That's all that lived there, huh? Mm-hmm. And Coley and Sue. Coley and Sue? Yeah, the horses, Doc. We brought them into Mars. Marshal? Yeah, Charity. Will I live with you now? No. We'll find a place for you, but... Do you like me? Well, sure. I like you all right, honey. Is something, Doc? Huh? No, no, no. Come on, Doc. Help me make her understand now, would you? You wouldn't let me be alone, would you? No. She's settled with Moss Mawley for the night. She's a woman who runs a boarding house. What's a boarding house? Home to sleep in and your meals. Can I eat with you? I have a lot of questions, Charity. Well, that's how you learn asking questions. What was she? She had a little girl like me. Like Moss Mawley? She had a little girl? Well, I think she used to be, yeah, but... Well... Don't, honey, but I just don't figure I'm the one to make you understand. Now, come on. You're young and a girl. You talk right up to her, don't you, Marshal? There's more around, Rob. Can't start that soon. I was asking after Maw. Where is she inside? No, she is not. Then where is she, Rob? Medlin. That's where she is, thinking and talking free with a whole sewing circle of half-wit women who should have been buggy with a long time ago. Is he mean, Marshal? Yeah, he's mean as a butterfly. Ain't no mean about it. Just sitting down the back, stating the case, you might say. Now, if someone had put Maw and him, others in their place, when they were this young in their age, we'd have had a warm supper this evening, and a few of the comforts us men both would be tied up. Rob, you're going to run down pretty soon and tell me where Maw is. Clean all the way to Wichita. Wichita? Left on the morning's hand to feed, because you please her and the dorsi girls, boss Grimmick's wife, Fanny Dory. Hold up a minute, will you? You're calling off every woman and Dodge. They can't all be at Wichita. Well, you're the Marshal. Make yourself a house-to-house search. What's going on? Suffering. Rob, you talk straight to me now. That's what they call it, suffering. They all met for it. Women from all over the state, Gordon and Maw, pouring into Wichita on every single one of them got suffering on their minds. Suffering? You mean suffering? Oh, it's one of the same thing. It's that sneaky way women folks have it talking. Why don't they just come out and plain and say that they want the vote? Oh, they got to call it, suffrage. Suffrage. Well, you let them vote a while and see if the country ain't suffering. I'm also sleepy, Marshal. Yeah, me too, Charity. Curious man. You're the only woman in town, Kitty. It's only natural that you'd want to take care of her. I know. In a saloon, there's nothing natural about that. He can sleep in your room, can't she? My room, the long branch. Any of this. I should know it isn't. You think one of my jail cells is better, maybe? Well, it's no worse. Honestly, Matt, I know this is a problem, but I don't think I'm the solution. There must be someplace in town or even out of town, some family. We rode out to Albie Stevens. He's got eight kids. Yeah, they're stacked up out there, and they're all boys. What about Mrs. Stevens? She gone to Wichita with Maw Smalley and the rest of them. Eight kids and she wants to vote too? Well, Albie says she went for the outing. I guess she can't blame her for wanting to get away. Hello. Oh, hello, honey. Did you get the drink you wanted? Well, the man said he didn't have any milk, so I had some water. Yeah, I have milk, Matt. Well, yeah, but... Why don't they keep a cow at Delmonico? Oh, yeah, I guess they do. Well, go and get it, son. Caddy will be all right here for the water. Um, here, honey, you sit on here and you wait with Miss Kitty, huh? You're not going to leave? No, I'll be back as soon as I get you some milk. I like him. Yeah, I like him too. You're pretty. Do you think so, honey? And you smell pretty too. Only... Only what? You got your face painted. Mommy used to tell me only Indians painted their faces. Maybe your mother was pretty enough without using powders and things. Oh, she was pretty. Freckles. She had freckles. Oh! Wow, that proves it. I don't have any freckles. This is a funny play, friend. Kind of funny, yeah. Listen, I don't understand grown-ups, Miss Kitty. Outside, there's alfalfa and sweet clover to smell. You quick water to drink and currants and wild gooseberries and sheep's shower to eat. But grown-ups are always crowding together. And now they're smoking, drinking whiskey and talking loud. What is that? I don't know, Charity. I just know they do. And if they didn't, I'd be out of business. I just don't see the need of this at all. I've never been in jail before in my life. Stop acting like an old woman, Chester. You're not in jail now, really. Poor Hagrid McPeters isn't the same dog I've ever seen. I've never seen a dog Hagrid McPeters isn't the same dog I've ever seen. Well, they took him off the hay city to hang. You listen to me, Chester. It's been a long day. I had about all the joy and I can handle. Charity's going to sleep in your bed. I'm going to sit up in mine and you're going to sleep on that cup there and that's the end of it. Now, shut up. Yes, sir, I understand. But I don't see why I've got to be locked up. You're not locked up, Chester. You closed the door. All right, all right, all right there. A sight better. Good night, Chester. Good night, Mr. John. Yes, I guess Charity's asleep but not all right. She probably was before we started this ruckus, yeah. Oh, poor little thing. Whatever is going to come of her, Mr. John. Anyone who wants kids that hasn't got them anything like this before. Keep on going on you. That is long like a little stray. Too bad you can't keep her. Oh, you're out of your head. Well, now I can see it ain't the most practical thing in the world. Chances are you'd feel a lot better having a little boy but all the pain. Chester. Yes, sir. I'd feel a lot better having nothing at all. No boy, no girl. Well, yes, I suppose so. You're more used to that. Good night, Chester. Good night, John. I never can sleep when I'm thinking. I guess the secret's to quit thinking then, huh? I'm worried about you, Marshal Dylan. Worried? You don't know what to do about me, do you? I guess you're tired of me, too. I'm not tired of you, Charity. I know what to do with you. You don't want me to live with you, do you? Honey, you can't very well. You've seen how I live here. It is not the right place for a little girl. You ought to have a real home, Charity, with folks close to you who see that you care for, who will love you. Mm-hmm. Like my Aunt Annie? Annie? Oh, maybe I hadn't told you about Aunt Annie. Maybe you haven't. At first I thought it'd be nice to live with you. But mostly you and I just walk around. I get tired. Charity, where does Aunt Annie live? Just on Yonder, somewhere I used to live before it's fire. Maybe five miles not far. Marshal Dylan? Better now. How's it with Frito's corn chips? Munch, munch, munchy, munchy, frito. Some things you eat because they taste good. And some things you eat because they're good for you. But Frito's corn chips are one snack you can eat for both reasons. Recorded in Hollywood by Norman McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal. The story was specially written for Gunsmoke by Kathleen Hite, with editorial supervision by John Meskin. Featured in the cast were Ann Whitfield, Joseph Stearns, and Lauren Stubbkin. Harley Bear is Custer, Howard McNeer is Doc, and Georgia Ellis is Kitty. Music This is George Walsh inviting you to join us again next week when CBS Radio presents another story on Gunsmoke.