 This used to be the prettiest town in Colorado. Now the gunfighters have taken over. And if you don't stop them, there won't be a sticklet standing. Gun will travel. Playing Mr. John Dana as Paladin. San Francisco, 1875. The Carlton Hotel. Headquarters of a man called Paladin. Oh, Mr. Paladin, two telegrams for you. Oh, thank you, hey boy. Yes, sir. Oh, no, this is what I think it is. Yes, Charles Foster, agent in charge, Rio Grande Railroad Pueblo, Colorado. And with John Suki, agent in charge, Western Pacific Railroad Pueblo, Colorado. Oh, Mr. Paladin, seems like you're very popular in Pueblo. Well, I'll tell you what. Listen, this clipping from Tuesday's paper. Railroad companies clash. Pueblo, Colorado. A state of open war has developed between the Western Pacific and Rio Grande Railroad over ownership of the right-of-way across Raymond Gorge. Gunmen hired by both sides have destroyed track and intimidated passengers. The town of Pueblo is an armed camp. Oh, too fast. I have very pleasant memories of a time I spent in Pueblo some years back. When I read the article, I sent my car to each of these gentlemen. Oh, that's very good, Mr. Paladin. No partiality. Exactly. However, providing we can come to terms, of course, one of them shall have my allegiance. Oh, good. Now we have a lot of partiality. Oh, as I remembered, it was a bustling, pleasant, friendly sort of town. It wasn't that way now. It was a scared town. As I walked down the main street, I noticed that the places of business that had moved out were boarded up as though prepared for sea. The few citizens I saw moved hurriedly, wore anxious and wary expression. It was easy to recognize the imported gunmen as they stood in silent groups or solitary watchfulness. It wasn't pretty. I turned into the office of the Rio Grande Railroad. Yeah. I'm looking for Rio Grande's general agent, Charles Foster. I'm Foster. I'm Paladin. Oh, yes. I got your car. No, I got your wire. This is Ralph Coe. Hello, Paladin. Seems to me I've heard of you, Mr. Coe. Aveline, isn't it? That's right. Coe is my deputy agent. It's an imposing title for a gunman. Yeah, isn't it? Well, Paladin, if your guns were high, where can you start? That depends. I'm paying 25 a day and found. Is that your top price? That's standard for a good gun. Good day, gentlemen. Where are you headed, Fran? Across the street to western Pacific. You don't care which side you've gone for, do you, Paladin? I do indeed. The side that pays the most. John Suckey? That's right. What can I do for you? My name is Paladin. I got your wire. Oh, you're Paladin. The opposition can turn you down. That's how you leave their offices. I'm shopping, Mr. Suckey. What have you got to offer? A prevailing rate. Twenty, thirty dollars a day. I'm not interested in pen money. Have you an opening for a deputy agent? I might have. Do you know what this fight's all about? Control of the transcontinental route. More specifically for control of a rail right away from Pueblo across Raymond Gorge, which we say they lease to us and they claim they didn't. So now it's a deadlock. We have the gorge, but they have the Pueblo depot. One's no good without the other. And you need someone who can break the deadlock, isn't it? Yeah, but that won't be easy. The depot's heavily guarded. The man in charge is Ralph Cole. You know him? We've met. He's smart, tricky, very fast with a gun. Man, I hired had to be smarter, trickier, faster. We want that depot. What sort of fee will you pay? I might go a thousand for a good man, but how do I know what you can... Haliton. Don't shoot. Cash box, please. Huh? The cash box. Haliton, well... A lot of money here, Suckey. It's all right. I'm putting it all back. Here. You can put it away. I just wondered if you could afford me. You can. Well, no. You gave me a start there. It'll cost you $2,000, Suckey. That gun came out awful fast, Haliton. You're hired. All right. I'll need some men handy with weapons. I've got them. All right. Where you going? Down to have a look at that depot. What is it, Joe? I'm in a hurry. If you joined up with Western Pacific... That's right. And I think maybe we ought to have a little talk. I have time now. I'm going down to have a look at that depot. I intend to take away from you. I've got 35 men guarding that depot. You plan to do it single-handed? I haven't decided yet just how I'll go about it. You have quite a reputation, Haliton. It seems to me I'd like to challenge it. We'll be fighting soon enough. Maybe soon enough for you isn't soon enough for me. It'll have to be. It's a matter. Scared? Busy. Maybe you're not as tough as the talk makes you out to be. I don't think you're tough, Haliton. I think you're scared. I sat on a bench in the deserted town plaza and made a careful study of the depot just across the street. The building had originally served as a fortress. It had thick walls and high-recessed windows. With 35 armed men guarding the place, I realized that my job was going to take a bit of figuring. Haliton, I've been looking for you. Oh, hello, Tsuki. Sit down. This plaza is the only place these days. I want to talk to you. No, I was thinking about my last visit to Pueblo. All these benches filled with people enjoying life in their town. There were kids just playing around under the trees over there. Pigeons roosting on an old relic of the cannon. It was very pleasant. Now even the pigeons have deserted me. Now, Peloton, I saw you meet Co out there in the street. I'm not paying up $2,000 to a man to walk away from guns. You hired me, Tsuki. I hired a gun. I signed to take the depot, and I'll do the job in my own way. Now I'm going over to see the sheriff. The sheriff? I want legal eviction notice to serve on Co. Legal eviction? Well, Vicky, you don't know what you're talking about. You may want it, but you won't get it. I'll get it. Look, Halitin, the sheriff in this town is a straddle offense. He won't take sides on anything. We'll see. Then I want something from you. What? First of all, how much is this fight costing Western Pacific? That's in your concern. In lost passenger and freight revenue, payroll for your gunman, damaged or rolling stock and equipment. How much? Maybe $7,000, $8,000 a day. Why? Along with the eviction order, I want to offer Co. $10,000. $10,000 is the rent of the depot, are you? $10,000? Less than you're paying out in two days now. Well, you think he'd listen? No way of knowing until he's asked. That's not a bad move, Halitin. That's not bad at all. Who'll make the offer? I will, under certain conditions. What are they? That I can assure him the deal is for cash, but it's firm, and there'll be no haggling about the price afterwards. Agreed. All right. Now I'll go see the sheriff. I met Sheriff Quinn, and after some argument got the eviction notice to serve on Co. A few minutes later, as I walked toward the entrance of the depot, I was aware that from every one of those recessed windows, a rifle was flamed on me. Co was standing gun in hand in front of the heavy iron door. Stop right there, Halitin. What do you want? I want to talk to you. In private. You're not very smart coming here like this. Will you hear what I have to say? Throw your gun down. Easy. Yeah, what do you want? I volunteered to serve you this. Halitin, you amazed me. Abide by it, you'll be more amazed. $10,000 worth. $10,000? Darling, for what? Just to honor this eviction notice. Who pays me? Suki. Cash? Yeah. A lot of money. Well, what makes you figure I'd sell out? Because it's a lot of money. It's been fairly well-established that every man has his price. $2,000 or $3,000. I hold my men, and it leads me... $7,000 or $8,000. You got yourself a deal. Where's the money? You'll get it as soon as Suki's in the depot. Is this on the level? Yes. I think you just bought yourself out of some trouble. You'll tell Foster that he's been evicted, that he's lost the depot? Yeah. Yeah, he won't like it, but... Fortune's a war, eh, Halitin? Now that the war is over, as soon as I tell Suki the depot is his, I'll meet you for a drink, huh? All right. At the bull's head saloon. Halitin? Oh, hello, Joe. What do you have? I just talked to Suki. Uh-huh. He said he'd give you the money that you was to turn it over to him. He did. Now, let's have it. Suki was lying. He hasn't paid me my fee. The money. Cole, if I had your money, would I be waiting here for you? Halitin, once more, let's have it. Suki lied. You better believe me, or we're going to waste a lot of valuable time. You may be a big man in San Francisco, but you just ask around Texas about Ralph Cole. Cole, will you listen? Try to keep me, you San Francisco dude. Get up, Halitin. Wait a minute, Cole. You're a lion. Oh, you wait. I'm not going to fight you. Will you listen to me? There's no point cutting each other up. Suki's still got the money. Is that for sure? Yes. Where's Suki now? He's holed up in the depot with 20 of his hired guns. All right. What chance do we have against this depot? None. It's really that strong, huh? It's really that strong. It's really that strong you'd need a cannon. A cannon? Well, I can get one. And it shouldn't be too hard to find some blasting powder in primacles. What are you talking about, Halitin? I just happen to know where there's a cannon. Now, come on. Where? In the plaza. It's like a team of horses, and a good deal of pushing and shoving in our part. But just before dawn, we were ready. The old plaza cannon in position in front of the depot. I don't know about this, Halitin. We aren't alone in our faith in cannon. Napoleon placed great store in them, too. He did it, yeah. I mean, it was the last time he tried to take a depot with one cannon and two men. Well, this doesn't work. I think you're going to be able to ask him personally. As soon as it gets light, they're going to spot us out of here. You got it loaded? Yeah. Yeah. Steel scraps from the railroad yard. All right. I'll fuse the charge. This cannon looks like it was left over from the Revolutionary War. And it's been a pigeon-roost for a good many years. Halitin. What? Well, this barrel's rusted almost. Yeah. Well, we fire it. The whole thing will blow up. Well, we know that, but Sukina's men don't. Well, we can't take a chance on it. There'd be a muzzle burst to blow us up, not them. They'll give up before that happens. How do you know? I don't know. I just have a good deal of faith in the cowardice of men. I caught some movement up there. I think they'd seen us. Well, I guess we're ready. Now they start firing. Get down behind this armor plate. I want to talk to you. Call off the fire. Sukina, I'm warning you. You men in there. We want Sukina, not you. Unless he surrenders, we're going to fire this cannon. You'll all be blown to bits. Not one of you stand a chance. Those men, they're handing it to Sukie straight. Give up or be pushed out. Sukie must be putting up a strong argument. All right, men. This deal is set for one minute. I'm lighting it now. You have just 60 seconds. We'll destroy the walls and fill that people with flying scrap metal. You're not really going to like that thing, are you? Sure am. Here we go. When this thing fires, the only flying metal is going to be that rusty old barrel. And we better be out of the way. I know it. You have 45 seconds. 40 seconds. 35. Turn that thing the other way. You can have Sukie. Come in together. All right, Joe. The door's open. When we get inside, you cover the men. I'll get Sukie. And hurry before this thing splatters all over. Time when I got my hands on Sukie's cash box, I saw it to it that his accounts were straight before I gave it back to them. Then, Joe and I went to see Sheriff Quinn. So for now, anyways, the depot is unoccupied, Chair. But you better move fast, or the whole thing will start all over again. What would you suggest I do, Paladin? Well, I suggest that you deputize some of your citizens to keep order until the courts decide who is legally entitled to the right of way. Well, another thing, Quinn. You want to run a clean town, you get the gunman out of here. They give a place a bad name. But you and I... I know. We're leaving. I mean, here's my 500. Where's yours, Co? Oh. Here. Now, here's a thousand dollars, Quinn. What's that for? We want you to put up a statue in the plaza. What kind of a statue? Oh, it really doesn't matter. There's something that'll make a nice pigeonroof. We owe it to them. Oh, Mr. Paladin, good to see you. Oh, you a subtle problem of Pueblo Colorado? I think so, hey, boy, for the time being. Oh, when you make your choice, which side to be honored with you, so you make a wise choice? Well, I'll tell you, hey, boy, loyalty has become rather a confused issue in this matter. Oh, Mr. Paladin, oh, you have luck eyes. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's very beautiful. Who'll give you that? Who's friend of mine? Bill Bravo, created by Herb Meadow and Sam Robb. He is produced and directed by Norman McDonnell and stars John Boehner as Paladin with Ben Wright as Hayboy. Tonight's story was written by Terence Maples and adapted for radio by Ann Dowd. Featured in the cast were Vic Farron, Joseph Kern, and James Nasser. Cue Douglas speaking. Join us again next week for Have Gun, We'll Travel.