 and in the territory on west there's just one way to handle the killers in the spoilers and that's with the 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 the story of a man who moved with it matt dillon united states marshal the trip from haze city to dodge was long enough horseback but by stagecoach it seemed endless there were only two passengers besides me after the first hour on the road we stopped talking just sat there in silence waiting for the ride to be over i've been up late the last few nights so i raced myself into one corner of the coach and fell asleep i vaguely remember the stage pulling to a stop and somebody shouting he came fully awake when the door was jerked open and a man behind a bandana stuck a shotgun in my face get out of the coach hands in front of you it'd be a pleasure to blast you open take his gun charlie now get on out how come you didn't start shooting when they stopped me marshal well i was sound asleep hank well i'm sure glad of that he put up a fight that fella with a shotgun would have blowed me clean off the seat how many up mother just sees two it's all i've seen could be somebody with a rifle hiding in that clump of elder over there could be that'll learn him charlie hey look he killed him marshal now the man was a fool to try that i'll keep an eye on these two here and marshal greenhorn got himself killed he shouldn't have tried to shoot charlie now he shouldn't not with a little derringer charlie got hit right now yeah i saw it i just don't want nobody chasing us for murder under the circumstances it was murder it was well and the only thing to do is shoot the whole bunch of you and have done with it you can't do that mister i got a wife and two kids in dodger what i hear dodging a very good place to raise a family anyway look you're in enough trouble already besides you didn't kill that man your partner did that's right charlie they'll be after how much money is there in that box driver i don't know they never tell me we'll find out he's got it open now load it in them saddle bags charlie i got an idea you're new at this game look if a man was holding a shotgun on me and i was unarmed i wouldn't have no ideas about nothing marshal you always carry a shotgun mister why we might meet sometime when you don't have one you're gonna make me shoot you yet hey look your partner's ready to go okay don't you make a move till we're out of sight we'll ride back and kill every one of you you understand i guess there's nothing we can do but stand here that's all hank for right now anyway what you do kitty burn your mouth again darn it yes what do you mean again well it seems like you always do the coffee's hot enough thanks for the sympathy as much as you gave me about the stage hold up the other day all i said was i'm glad you were asleep you're a lot safer that way well being safe isn't exactly my main goal kitty yeah i know how much money was there matt two thousand dollars you'd think they'd have paid a man to ride shotgun any idea who did it no they were both masked i hear wells fargo put up a reward for them now there's a thousand dollars for the one who killed a passenger dead or alive they must want him real bad that's not good for business people getting murdered what about the other one a three hundred for his capture and if you recover the stolen money kitty well they'll give you half of it if i found that money they'd give me all of it you'll end up in jail yet well the texas trail isn't far from being a jail for me anyway i gotta get back there pretty soon matt sure hey you waiter come here and take this money i'll throw it at you another gentleman in town kitty i don't want to turn around what does he look like well i think it's the one with the black beard you heard me waiter get over here before i bust your neck that's a one all right is there anybody with him no he's alone and he's leaving now oh good no no don't stare at him i don't want him to see me well he's not even looking this way he's going out the door matt all right come on i want to follow him is that him ahead of us there a big man yeah how is he matt i'm not sure but he sounds an awful lot like somebody i won't you gonna arrest him no not till i'm sure maybe not even then look he's going up the docks yeah so he is uh kitty i'll leave you here okay thanks for the supper matt sure any time tomorrow i might be real busy tomorrow i figured that so long matt goodbye kitty his arm is infected to me how'd he do it well he just tore it on some wire well why didn't you bring him into town it might be gang ring is that bad compared he could lose the arm or even die where is he anyway on the prairie camp isn't there some medicine or something i could take back oh hello matt good evening dark oh go right ahead i just came up for a smoke oh sure sit down and sit down now look mister there isn't a medicine in the world never mind but i'm telling you forget it i'll talk to you tomorrow everything's okay you better not wait too long i won't we'll take care of everything tomorrow hold on that man's crazy that's what no he's not crazy dark no you should have hurt him i did what do you mean you did i was outside the door dark he's going under the oliver ganza i guess he isn't too worried what's this all about matt uh dark i'll explain it to you later right now i gotta find chester well chester yes he's down in the office and i sure hope he's had a lot of sleep lately what's that he's gonna be pretty busy tonight i'll see you later dark follow him all night chester oh mr. dillen i'm about ready to drop everything's getting hazy where is he in the restaurant yes so that's where he went he gambled the entire night i swear out on a high he stays awake i can't hardly keep my eyes open rub a rosary to back a juice on him chester that'll help oh my goodness he just come out the door he's seen us stand steady yes sir i uh i gotta complain now is that so sure is i had an idea this man's tracking me all night had something to do with you oh how'd you know i was following you mr. you might as well have been wearing snowshoes with cowbells tied on him now that's not true that's a dog never mind chester never mind what is your complaint mr well you can't a decent citizen ride into the dodge and do a little gambling without being haunted by your man here well that depends on how decent the citizen really is what name do you go by anyway my own germo germo is that all there is to it that's all yeah well germo i just didn't want you to leave town without my knowing about it why not i ain't done nothing a doc told me about your partner the one who tore his arm on some wire what about him i'm curious to see if you're gonna take care of him that's all well of course i am he'll die if you don't hurry well i i'm going after him when well it's no business of yours when anybody following me is likely to run into trouble from a shotgun germo i don't use a shotgun marshal your partner is dying germo you're wasting time and he's dying he's my partner not yours i'll take care of him sure germo but you better hurry we will return for the second act of gun smoke in just a moment but first since 1910 the work output of each of us has more than double and the average annual income has gone from $2,400 a year to about $4,000 yet about 18 hours has been cut off the average work week these facts add up to the better we produce the better we live now the second act of gun smoke chester had been up all night so i sent him to bed and i hired a kiawa indian i knew to keep an eye on germo but even though his partner was dying of gangkring the bullet wound he'd received at the stage hold up germo didn't leave dodge that day or the next he knew i'd track him to their hideout and to the stolen money if he did and he wasn't the kind of a man who would risk his own neck just to save his partner's life and since i had no real evidence yet there was no use arresting him so all i could do was wait indian is a wonder to behold mr. dillon he hasn't slept a wink in two whole days and he don't even look tired no but germo looked tired the last time i saw him oh he's been sleeping regularly i know but all this is warring him out just the same and he's getting pretty spooky well i should think you would with what he's got on his conscience i better ask satank if he knows another kiawa who could spell him for a while i think he's got a cousin around here somewhere oh it makes my bones ache just to think about him not sleeping tall marshal i got something to tell you huh? who are you? my name is verd but i'm nobody marshal just a cowboy well there's nothing wrong with being a cowboy verd sometimes there is like yesterday what's the trouble? i found a dead man marshal out on the prairie how'd he die? well it looked to me like he got shot that's why i come to you did you bury him? no i wrapped a blanket around him where is he verd? not far from here maybe 15 miles now chester yes sir get our horses we'll ride out and have a look nothing's been eating on him he sure got himself hid out here it's a wonder anybody ever found him uh verd you uh you want to take the blanket off of him? sure uh how did you know he'd been shot? well his arm it's all swole up marshal and then you see here i noticed that bullet hole in his sleeve there yeah well looks like you've made yourself a thousand dollars verd what? wells fargo offered it for this man that are alive he rubbed a stage a few days back he did well ain't I in luck and there's another thousand for whoever finds the money still it's probably buried around here some words don't you think mr. dillon? hey that reminds me i noticed something funny over there in the manhills like the ground being dug up show us verd yeah sure marshal right over here wait there see it right there right by that big one yeah well i declare probably i think he's right mr. dillon yeah something been buried here all right yeah i think i can see yeah there it is looky there marshal it's it's a money bag and i found it didn't i that's right very here look at that it's real money all right marshal i found it so i get the reward won't i i knew where it was yeah you sure did we dug up the rest of the money and then made the hole into a grave and we buried the dead man right there on the way back to dodge i told verd he could talk all he wanted about finding the bandits body and the reward he'd collect for it but that he wasn't to say a word about the money we recovered he couldn't understand why and i didn't explain it to him but i warned him he'd never get a penny of either reward if he didn't do as i said back in town i didn't let him out of my sight for the next two days i figured it would make germo pretty worried and it sure did you know it's mighty good to get off of that prairie just for change i think it would be you don't come to town much do you i've never seen you around here before well i've been too broke just well sir it sure takes money to see the elephant in dodge now a day i'll be able to afford it soon enough ain't that right marshal ah it looks that way verd yeah you've been mighty lucky so far what do you mean so far nothing evening marshal ah hello germo this fellow found your bandit for you yeah i was just telling him how lucky he is yeah all that reward money thousand dollars isn't it yeah yeah that's right is that all you're getting mister what do you what do you mean is that all well there was more reward than that offered oh you mean the stolen money oh it's too bad about that wasn't it verd we didn't we didn't find no stolen money you didn't oh it looked everywhere there's been some digging nearby but there's nothing in the hole yeah well now what do you make of that just plain disappeared huh yeah yeah looks that way well that's sure too bad ain't it but you can't have all the money in the world mister i ain't got all the money in the world i'll see you later marshal i did like you told me i didn't say nothing you did fine for just fine when we left the saloon a little later i noticed germo standing in the darkness of the alley waiting i was pretty sure he'd follow us as we crossed the plaza and walk up front street when we reached kelly's stable verd wanted to go in and see if his horse had been fed so we said good night and left him there chester and i walked on a little ways and we turned off the street we went back entered the stable from the rear inside we could hear voices and we sneaked up from stall to stall until we were close enough to make them out tell me where the money is verd what did you do when i told you germo the marshal's got it you're lying now who turned in two thousand dollars to collect one thousand you stole it and hid it somewhere no i didn't i tell you the marshal himself said there'd been some digging nearby what'd you do with it verd now tell me before i kill you no listen a minute germo look when you didn't come back i figured you got caught and then charlie died i got scared and you always was a coward that's why we left you in the bushes with a rifle when we stopped the stage no that don't matter but look germo don't you see this way we're both safe because i'll split both the rewards with you you know i will you're lying and i'm going to kill you for it no now don't you hold it your next marshal your shotgun killed you with the holder was my big mistake if he'd have trusted verd you both could have got by with us he was telling me the truth he was and you'd have never been convicted on what evidence i had well i guess it remains entitled to to make a few mistakes marshal under the direction of norman mcdonnell stars william conrad as matt dillon us marshal the night story was specially written for gun smoke by john meston with music composed and conducted by rex quarry featured in the cast were vik perron john daner and laurence dobkin parley bearer is chester howard mcneer is doc and georgia ellis is kitty join us again next week as matt dillon us marshal fights to bring law and order out of the wild violence of the west in gun smoke this monday night frank lovejoy stars on cbs radio suspense remember monday night frank lovejoy in on a country road presented by radios outstanding theater of thrills suspense over most of these same stations georg wall speaking for mystery mixed with merriment join mr and mrs north tuesday evenings on the cbs radio network