 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. 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, and it makes a man watchful, and a little lonely. What's the matter, Chester? Well, I just can't figure out how he'd done it, Mr. Dillon. Out who did what? Well, that fellow with the medicine show over back at the Dodge House. Oh, that I can't put. Sam and me had it all figured out. Sam had walked from one side, and I'd walked from the other, and when he'd move them three walnut shells around, we just knew which one the pea was on. Sure you did. And by and by, somehow we still lost six dollars a piece. I've been fooling with it here, trying to puzzle out how he'd done it. There ain't nothing to it except three walnut shells and a pea. And a pretty smart man operating them. Well, now, me and Sam ain't exactly dummies, you know. Well, uh... Yeah, Matt, you better come quick. Well, what is it, Doc? Well, Bregan and some of his riders, they're up at the livery stable. They got hold of some strange urn. I think they're flexing to hang him. Huh? Come on, Chester. By a king they mean business, and if you don't look at that rope. Yeah. What do they do, Doc, to get Bregan all riled up? I didn't wait to find out, man. Well, they don't take much, but if they get Bregan all up, then that's for sure. Hey, Bregan! What's going on here, Bregan? This ain't nothing the law need bother about, Marshall. Uh-huh. We caught this here saddle bum dead to rights, and there ain't no use wasting time on a trial. I see. It looks to me like you've already pushed him around and something. Is he conscious? He will be before we string him up. I want him to know just why we're doing it, Doc. Take a look at him, will you? Sure, man. Uh, just stand back there and listen. Let me have a room. Now, Bregan, suppose you tell me why you're about to lynch them, man? It ain't none of your concern, Marshall. Think about your business and take Doc with you. Ain't no use patching up a fellow that's going to be dead in ten minutes anyhow. Hasn't anybody told you we got laws in Doc's city now? Laws for them that need it. This ain't the first horse thief I've hung. Those days are over, Bregan. And so's the hanging, boys. You come on down out of that loft and you bring the rope with you. Marshall, we caught this man with two of my best horses. Blood and stock. It's been missing off the ranch since last month. If he's stolen the law, I'll deal with it. Marshall, we'll deal with him. Bregan, you keep your hand away from that gun. I will. When you get out of here and leave us be, you will right now. Here, Chester. Get Bregan's gun. Yes, sir. There you go. How's the fellow, Doc? Well, he's been beat up some, kicked around a little bit. He'll be all right. Well, let's get him out of the jail. Say, give me a hand here, little Chester. Sure, Doc. All right, you men drag Bregan over there to the horse trough and you stick his head on it. Tell him he can pick up his gun at the jail as soon as he cools off. And another thing. The next time any one of you brings a rope into town, you keep it tied to your saddle. You understand? The shoveling started at the little town of Rome in New York State back in 1817. And on July 4, 1967, the post office released a special sesquicentennial stamp there in honor of the big ditch, they dug, which it says on the stamp in my album here was the Erie Canal. Now, in case you don't know, that canal went all the way from Buffalo on Lake Erie to the Hudson River, connecting the great lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. The biggest waterway ever built in the United States at the time, and it was done mostly by the Irish just over from the old country, who did their digging with spit and mussel. Made lots of money for years on tolls. And the traffic and freight and people through the canal was mainly responsible for building up the Midwest and keeping business in the East busy doing it. Well, of course the Erie Canal ain't what she used to be, because the railroads do most of the job now, but the big ditch is still there, and so is all the history that went through it. That's right. I'm Jesse Hyatt. How did I get here, Marshall? We carried you here, Jesse. How do you feel? Marshall, I couldn't feel no sore if they drove a herd of lawn horns over me. Now, that could have been worse, you know, they were fixing to hang it. You know something, Marshall? Dodge City ain't the friendliest town in the world when it comes right down to it. Not for horse thieves, anyway. I didn't steal them horses. I tried to tell them that, but they wouldn't listen, especially that red-faced mouthy fellow. That's Del Breggan. They're his horses. I hit town, left the horses there at the livery stable while I went up the street to eat. When I come back, they all jump me. You did have his horses, though. Who says they're his? Well, I do, for one. I went over and took a look at them. They disappeared off his ranch about a month ago. Well, I don't know nothing about that. All I know is that I bought them, fair and honest. Where? From the horse dealer in Wichita about two weeks ago. Yeah. What was his name? I don't know. I think he was just traveling through. He offered me a bargain, so I bought him. I was coming on West, and I needed a pair of good horses. You remember what he looked like? Oh, well, none of the good, fast-talking fellow, black whiskers, dressed like most anybody else. I ain't even sure I'd know him if I was to meet him again. I see. Well, I didn't pay him no special mind. There were no reason to. Marshall, I bought them horses. No matter what anybody says. That's going to be kind of hard to prove, isn't it, Jesse? Not if you find that trader I bought them from. Where would you look for him? I don't know. You see, that's what I mean. Are they going to have a trial on me? Yeah, breaking his file charges. What do you think will happen? No. It's kind of hard to say how a jury will figure it. I ain't got a chance, have I, Marshall? Now, there's always a chance, at least you're not swinging on a rope. Tell me, what are you doing on a dodge in the first place? Just passing through. I got an aunt who lives alone upriver. She wrote she needed help running the place. I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Jones, but there's somebody out there to see. Oh, all right. Jesse, if you can think of anything else that might help, you let me know, huh? There ain't nothing, Marshall. I'm a goner. We both know it. I think you're kind of rushing things, Jesse. All right, come on, Jesse. Mr. Dillman, it's that young and Adele Bragan. You mean Tommy? Ah, hello, Tommy. How have you been? Oh, fine, Marshall. Could I see that fella, please? What fellow? The one that Paul tried to hang this morning. That one he treated mean. Like he treats everybody mean. Well, your pa thinks he's doing right, Tommy. He ain't right to be like he is. I know it ain't right. And someday the devil's going to get him. Oh, Tommy, that's... Could I see that fella, Marshall, please? I want to tell him I'm sorry. All right, Tommy. Go on back through that door there. He's in the last cell. Oh, thanks, Marshall. Do you reckon that Jesse fellow is guilty, Mr. Jones? I don't know, Chester. But I don't know one thing. A jury's going to think so. Kitty. Matt, what's this story Adele Bragan telling? Well, I don't know, Kitty. What story is he telling? About how he's going to take some fellow out of jail and hang him if the law doesn't get a move on. And how he'd have done it this morning only you hit him when he wasn't looking. Well, he's got more imagination than I gave him credit for. Well, he's sure been malvenoff over there at the bar. To anybody, oh, listen. I thought you'd want to know about it in case. Uh-oh. Here he comes, man. Yeah. You know, I've never seen that man when he wasn't mad about something. What have you done about that horse thief, Marshall? Not a thing, Bragan. That's up to Judge Benton. What are you aiming to do with a man? Keep on coddling him until old Benton gets up the gumption to hang him? Well, I'm going to feed him and keep him locked up. That's what you call coddling. And for the rest of it, stealing horses is not a hang and a fence under the law. It is under the law, I go by. How long is it going to take you down? Take me to what? To get it through that thick head of yours that the old days are finished over with. There's law on the frontier now. Things work better without it. Maybe for a bully like you. But like it or not, the law's here to stay and you better understand it. For your boy's sake, if not for your own. What about my boy? He's going to have to live in a different world from yours in a hard-headed way. You act as much of an example for him. Tommy will do all right. Don't you worry. He knows what he'll get if he don't. He said the fear of the Lord beat into him. And with less beaten and more understanding, he might not hate you so much. Hate me? He don't hate me. He respects me. Respects? Well, you call it that if you want. But I wouldn't want to be in your shoes the day he reaches your size. You trying to...