 Gun Smoke, brought to you by L and M Filters. This is it. L and M is best, stands out from all the rest. A round-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. Gun Smoke, starring William Conrad, the transcribed story of the violence that moved what 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, and it makes a man watchful, and a little lonely. What is it, Justin? Look up the street there. What? Coming out of the long branch. Come on. I don't understand it. I didn't hear no gunshot. Well, that man, they carry him, got hurt somehow, Justin. If he'd only passed out drinking, they'd probably left him under the bar and stood on him to improve their reach. Oh, I've seen that happen, Mr. Dillon. I've really seen it. Now look, there's Doc with him. He's got better ears than I have if he heard any gunfire. Well, there are other ways of killing men, Justin. Oh, yes, sir, that's true, Mr. Dillon. I saw a man killed with a bull whip once. Oh, that was bad. You didn't carry him up to my house. The door's open. I'll be long as soon as I talk to the Marshal. Okay, take him on the way. Matt, you better get into the long branch, or there's going to be more of this. What happened, Doc? That's Bill's aunt they're carrying. I don't know him. Neither do I, but that's what they said it is. Well, it doesn't matter what happened to it. He's been cut bad with a bowie knife. Who did it? That big drunk buffalo man, Noley Meeker. Noley Meeker, huh? Is he still on the long branch? Yes, he is, Matt, and you watch out for him. He's in a mighty dangerous mood. Do you see it? Well, I saw part of it. I was in there having a beer when it happened. Zant had a knife too, but Noley Meeker knocked it out of his hand. Oh, then Noley did this himself. No, he didn't. Everybody says Noley started it. Well, I've got to go and take care of Zant before he dies. Now, you watch out for Noley, Matt. Nobody can get anywhere near him. Come on, Justin. I saw Noley Meeker drunk once, Mr. Dillon. He sure does get me. You mean enough to start killing people? Yes, sir. But when he's sober, he always seems pretty calm. I just don't know what happened to him. Now, that's what happens to other people I don't like. Being drunk's no excuse for murder. No, sir, it sure ain't. Oh, look at him. He's got the whole bar to himself, Mr. Dillon, and oh, that bloody knife in his hand. How are you going to take him? You stay here. Evenin', Noley? Get away from me, Marshal. Why don't you drop the knife, Noley. You're in enough trouble now. I killed Zant, didn't I? I'll kill you next. Zant isn't dead yet, Noley. Then I'm going to have to keep you in jail till we find out if he's going to live. I ain't going to jail. Not if I have to cut me a path all the way out of Dodge. If Zant dies, you murdered him. You're not leaving Dodge. Now, you can't be so drunk you don't understand that. Come on, Marshal, let's fight. But my six gun against your bowie knife, you wouldn't have a chance, Noley. Now, why don't you calm down before you get hurt? You go get yourself a knife. No, I'm not going to go get myself a knife. He will fight this way. Forget about fighting, Noley. I can cut good with this knife, Marshal. I can throw it, too. Stop it, Noley. Didn't know that, did you? What? Well, you don't throw too good when you're drunk, Noley. This is it. L&M is best. Stands out from all the rest. This is it. L&M filters. Perfect gift for Christmas, too. Light and mild. L&M filters. Holiday cotton. Just for you, just for you. This Christmas, why not give the very best to all the filter tip smokers on your list? This is it. L&M is best. Stands out from all the rest. L&M stands out for flavor. The miracle tip draws easy. You enjoy all the taste. L&M stands out for effective filtration. No filter compares with L&M's miracle tip. King size or regular, L&M is best. Stands out from all the rest. It's got everything. Feel pretty good today, do you, Noley? I got a head like I've been sleeping under a buffalo. Yeah. Well, you don't deserve it, but I brought you some coffee. I'll put it right there. I'd do better on a pi to triple X. You sure learn hard, Noley. Go away. Go away. Let me sleep, Chester. Last time I scalded my thumb bringing in coffee. You're in great. It's our prisoner this morning, Chester. Well, I don't think it's the liquor so much as the way you hit him, Mr. Dillon. Well, he had it coming. He sure did. That knife couldn't have missed you more than an inch. I still don't know why it didn't shoot him. Well, how would it look for me to shoot somebody that didn't have a gun? Besides, I don't think Noley really knew what he was doing. Well, I ain't sure he knows yet. Good morning, Mac. Chester. Hello, Doc. How's that coming along, Doc? Well, that's what I came to tell you, Matt. Zant's going to live. Huh? He's going to be awful thin for a while, but he'll live. Bring Noley in here, would you, Chester? Yes, you. Nothing vital was cut, Mac, but the man bled so much. It took me over an hour to get it stopped. And for a while there, I thought he'd surely die. You know, it's too bad that he's in some way to get blood back into a man when he loses that much. Well, I don't know how you could do that, Doc. Oh, if I could. I'd save twice as many lives as I do. Well, I'm going to go to bed, Matt. It's been a long night. Thanks for coming down, Doc. That's all I'm complaining about, sweet and holy. You just escaped years and years of it whole century. I'll take that on any time, Chester. What do you want, Marshall? You sober enough now to tell me why you took your knife to the Zant last night, Noley. First no matter? Well, maybe you better tell me whether it's personal or not. I'm not going to turn you loose to go stab him again. Turn me loose? He didn't kill Zant. He's going to live. Now, what were you fighting about? A woman. Is that all? You got something against women, Marshall? That's not what I meant. I've known you for a long time, Nolan. You never seem like the kind of a man who'd try to kill somebody over a woman. When I'm drunk, I get mean, Marshall. I'll fight over anything. Even a woman, huh? Now you're fogging me up again, Marshall. Okay. Why did you know Zant? We've both been working for Ezra Marcy. Collecting buffalo bones? We gather them up off the prairie and bring them back to Dodge and sell them to Marcy. And he ships them back east on the railroad. Beyond me, huh? They can make fertilizer and China and stuff out of them little buffalo bones. Noley, you and Zant work together, is that it? No. I've got my own wagon. He's got his. But I still don't like him. You're going to leave him alone? Marshall, I wouldn't hurt nobody less than I was crazy drunk. You tried to kill me, too, do you know that? I did? Oh, Marshall, I don't believe that. You threw your boy-knife at me. And you're lucky I didn't shoot you. I shouldn't have done that. Well, you start drinking again and I'll throw you in jail as soon as I see you. All right, you can go now, Noley. But you came off all close to hanging. You just remember that. My pal always said I'd hang. I won't cause no more trouble, Marshall. Go on, Chester. Goodbye, Noley. Mr. Dillon, do you believe that about them fighting over a woman? No, there might be more to it than that, Chester. Why don't you ask Zant about it? Well, if Noley's lying, Zant'll lie, too. But whatever they were fighting about, I doubt that it's over. He hurts aren't too bad for that. Oh, kitty. Are you waiting for the stage to come in? No. No, I just got tired sitting in my office. That's a funny thing about your job. You're either doing nothing sitting in your office or standing around the plaza like some bum. Or you're the most violent man in Kansas. Well, that's a good thing. I don't get paid for the job, isn't it? You're a star. Oh, hello, Marshall. Hello, John. But still, nobody could ever pay me enough against Noley Meeker and his knife the way you did a couple of weeks ago. Well, I could have shot him, kitty. No, you couldn't. Not you. It's just what'll get you hurt someday, Matt. Or worse. Look, kitty, I'll die when my time comes, just like everybody else. Matt, I'll feel better when I've got some breakfast. Oh, haven't you eaten yet? I don't get up as early as some people. I'll go with you, kitty. I can use a cup of coffee myself. Here comes Ezra Marci. Look how he wants you. Morning, Miss Kitty. Marshall. Hello, Marci. Marci. I got a job for you, Marshall. Uh-oh. I wish I'd never made a deal with them men. Neither one of them. What do you mean, sat and Noley Meeker? They have been complaining and fighting more than they've been gathering buffalo bones for me. Oh, why don't you deal with somebody else? Most men would rather hunt for hides and bones, Marshall. Pays better. I buy both, so it don't matter to me, but even so, Zandt ain't been much use since Noley cut him up. Now, he ain't no use at all. Why not? Noley's got a shack down past the opera house in the edge of town, Marshall. Let's go ask him. He got drunk again last night. I thought you were talking about Zandt. It's about Zandt I want to talk to Noley. Oh, why do you need me? Noley killed him, Marshall. What? Zandt was doing with a wagon load of bones this morning, and he was late. So I rode up the river to look for him, and I found him sitting on his wagon with a hole through him like a sharp sphifty he'd make. You think Noley did it? Well, Noley tried to kill him before didn't he? He came in with a load of bones yesterday, and I paid him off, and he went and got drunk. Of course Noley killed him. Does Noley have a sharp sphifty? He used to be a hide-hunter until he got tired of it, and it was a sharps that killed Zandt who anybody can tell that. Yeah, I guess they could. That Noley makers a murderer, Marshall. You go arrest him. Did you leave Zandt at the river, Marcy? I ain't gonna bury him. Come along and show me where he is. All right, I'll send somebody out to bury him, but let's go find Noley. I don't want no murderer to get away. I'll talk to Noley later. No, we'll get him first. We're going to the river, Marcy. Now, I went by the office and picked up Chester, and he and I followed Marcy up the river. Zandt had stopped in a little cottonwood grove. Apparently, the water is oxen, a couple of miles above Dodge, and we found him there. Slumped over the seat of his big Studebaker wagon, shot in the back. The wagon, piled high with sun-bleached buffalo bones, was headed toward the river, but the oxen had stopped when Zandt was hit and were standing patiently, waiting for their next command. We laid Zandt's body onto the sand, and then I had Chester lead the oxen down to the water. A few minutes later, he was back. You're gonna bury Zandt out here, Mr. Dillon? Well, it's as good a place as any. While we're fooling around here, Noley's probably on the run. I'll find him, Marcy, to prove he did it. Well, you got all the proof you need. What if he's got a good alibi? What if he can prove he was someplace else when this happened? Marshal, I ain't gonna miss Zandt, but I ain't gonna watch your murderer go free neither. I'm kinda against murder myself, Marshal. You're awful slow showing it, wasting time coming out here and now all this talk about proof and such. I'm telling you, Marshal, if you don't see Noley Meeker hung for this, the lunch talks something I won't stand for, Marshal. I don't make it around me and don't start making it around Dodge. You're threatening me, Marshal. I don't threaten people. I warn them. Now, you know me. You know what I mean. We'll go find Noley and see what he has to say. Chester. Yes, sir? We'll send somebody out for the wagon and those oxen, they can stand here a while longer, they've had their water. Well, you know, that's the funny thing, Mr. Dillon. Them oxen didn't drink no water. They didn't? No, sir. And they hadn't been to the river, neither. There wasn't no tracks between where they were standing in the river. Then why was Zant heading them toward the river? I don't know. But you think Zant would have known if they wasn't thirsty? Of course he would. Well, I guess it don't matter much, Mr. Dillon. I'm not so sure, Chester. I'm not sure at all. Now let's go find Noley. No filter tip smokers, this is it. Ellendem is best. Stands out from all the rest. Yes, Ellendem is best. Stands out from all the rest. Ellendem stands out for flavor. The miracle tip draws easy. Let's you enjoy all the taste. Ellendem stands out for effective filtration. No filter compares with Ellendem's miracle tip for quality or effectiveness. Ellendem stands out for highest quality tobaccos. Low nicotine tobaccos. Ellendem tobaccos. Light and mild. Ellendem's got everything. King size or regular. It's America's best filter tip cigarette. Yes, Ellendem stands out from all the rest. This is it, Marshal, right here. I just hope Noley ain't awake in watching this out of one of them cracks. You can ride back if you like, Marshal. No, I want to be here when you talk to them. Okay, I want to talk to you, Noley. What's Marsy here for? You're still drunk, ain't you? No, I ain't drunk. I done slept it off. Were you drunk last night, Noley? I didn't cause no trouble last night. Were you drunk? Of course I was. I didn't see you on any of the saloons. I was out here, sitting on the ground. I was sitting right there against the wall, me and a friend of mine down to jug of corn whiskey. Took this most all night. What did you want to know for? You had a friend with you? He was here till about an hour or two ago. Who was it? Well, you don't know him. He's an old Indian, a shy ant. Where is he now? He's on his way home. Where? Absaroka Mountains. Absaroka Mountains in Wyoming? That's what you're doing here. Looking for him because he run off the reservation down south. Well, you won't find him, Marshal. That old shy ant's traveling alone and he lives like a wolf. You'll never find him. Now, I don't expect we could. Well, there goes his alibi. What are you talking about? About Zant's murder. Zant's murder? You'll hang for it now. Wait a minute, Marshal. Zant was shot in the back with a Sharps 50 this morning over a couple of miles up the river. Marshal, you were thinking I did it? How did you try to do it once before? I didn't kill him, Marshal. If I was to kill a man, I wouldn't do it that way. I ain't no coward. Arrest him, Marshal. He can do his talking in jail. I didn't do it, I tell you. You know I ain't that kind of a man. I ain't a good man, but I ain't like that. Okay, Lily. I believe you. I couldn't prove it anyway. Now, look here. Shut up, Marshal. And you remember what I told you. I don't want to hear any talk out of you. Come on, Chester, there's something I want to do in town. You after down here to the depot, Mr. Dillman? I don't want to talk to Sam Vestal, Chester. Just hope he's in. Hello, Marshal. Chester, come on in. All right, Sam. Fine, Chester. What can I do for you, Marshal? Sam is agent for the Santa Fe Railroad. I figured that you might know something about Ezra Marseille's bone shipments out of here. What is it you want to know, Marshal? Well, I want to know if there's been any trouble about them. There sure has, but how do you know? Marseille told me not to say anything about it. Tell me about the trouble, Sam. Well, the buyers back east have been calling Marseille a crook. But I know he ain't, Marshal. I weigh them loads myself, and I'll personally guarantee they ain't short on weight when they leave here. But they are short when they arrive back there. Some of them are. Zantz. How do you know that? I guess that... Well, you're right. I checked on it for Marseille. And it's the loads Bill Zantz brings in that come up short back east. Marseille pays Zantz by the load, doesn't he? Sure, sure. But it made Marseille terrible mad being called a crook like that when he ain't one. If you ask me, maybe it's them fellas back east. They're the crooks. All Marseille wants is to be paid for the weight of the bones he ships out of here. They come up short back there? Ain't his fault. Well, thanks, Sam. I'll go talk to Marseille about it. I, uh... I think maybe I can straighten this whole business out now. Hey, Marseille's coming, Mr. Jones. I found him in the Texas trail. You know what he was doing. What, Justin? Stirring up a bunch of men in there about how they gotta go get an oldy meeker. He was telling me you ain't gonna do nothing about it. I'm gonna do something about it. Here you come. It's no use, Marshal. You can't stop me now. I already got ten men in there on my side. Well, that's eleven to one against noly, isn't it? You shouldn't have much trouble taking him. Except for one thing. You ain't gonna stop us. I'm stopping you right now. All I gotta do is yell. They'll be out here, Marshal. Marseille, I had a talk with Sam Vestal down at the depot. What? The bones Zant's been hauling in. They've been losing weight on their way back east. All right. So he told you. That's my trouble, Marshal. I'll handle it. You've already handled it. What are you talking about? You're scared to death, aren't you? I don't know what you're saying. Those oxen weren't thirsty at the river. Zant wasn't headed for water because of them. It was to soak those sun-dried buffalo bones. You figured it out, too, didn't you? Waterlogged they weigh in heavy here, but with the time they're weighed again back east, they're dried out. Zant was a crook. Yeah, sure he was. But you shouldn't have murdered him, Marshal. Me? Murdering him? I'm arresting you for it. Oh, no. Oh, you ain't... I'm gonna take your gun, Marshal. No. He shouldn't have tried that, Mr. Dillon. He's about the poorest gunfighter I ever saw. Yeah, he was slow, Chester. But he'd have killed me if I'd let him. Why'd he try it? I don't know how you could have proved he murdered Zant anyway. I couldn't. But Marshal was feeling so guilty and so scared he didn't stop to think. If he had, he might have bluffed the whole thing out and gone free. Now it was his own guilt that did him in, Chester. And now our star, William Conrad. When you are choosing Christmas gifts for Filter Tip Smokers, you can figure a carton of L&M's will please them most of all. Filter Tip Smokers know that L&M is best. Stands out from all the rest. And L&M's come in just about the handsomest Christmas carton you ever laid eyes on. Give King size or regular L&M's. And you're giving America's best filter cigarette. Gun smoke, transcribed under the direction of Norman McDonald, stars William Conrad as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal. Tonight's story was specially written for Gun Smoke by John Meston with music composed and conducted by Rex Corey. Sound patterns by Bill James and Ray Kemper. Featured in the cast were John Boehner, Herb Ellis and Frank Cady. Marley Bear is Chester, Howard McNeer is Doc, and Georgia Ellis is Kitty. Join us again next week as Matt Dillon, U.S. Marshal likes to bring law and order out of the wild violence of the West in Gun Smoke. Tuberculosis can attack at any age, and it can invade any home, rich or poor. But Christmas seals fight tuberculosis. Help protect you, your family, and all of us from our country's number one infectious killer. This year, use Christmas seals on your cards and packages. Why not go home for the holidays with Perry Como? That's the title of Perry's new RCA hit record. We'll sing it for you next week when Chester Field brings you all the top tunes on radio. Perry invites you to be his guest every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and reminds you to get a carton of Chester Field for the weekend. Remember, listen again next week for another story of the Western Frontier when Marshall Matt Dillon, Chester Proudfoot, Doc, and Kitty, together with all the other heart-living citizens of Dodge will be with you once more. It's America growing west in the 1870s. It's drama. It's gun smoke. Brought to you by L&M Filters. This is the CBS Radio Network.