 Slaughter's my name, Luke Slaughter. Cattle's my business. It's a tough business. It's a big business. I got a big stake in it. There's no man west of the Rio Grande big enough to take it from me. Luke Slaughter of Tombstone. Luke Slaughter of Tombstone. Civil War cavalryman turned Arizona cattleman. Across the territory from Yuma to Fort Defiance, from Flagstaff to the Wachukas, and below the border through Chihuahua and Sonora, his name was respected or feared, depending on which side of the law you were on. Man of vision, man of legend. Luke Slaughter of Tombstone. It was a long, hot ride to Laredo. The last day I pushed it hard, eating dust all the way. I didn't know if I'd be in time or not. When I rode up to the cantina in town and went inside, I saw I was, barely in time. The two of them were sitting at a corner table. From the sound of it, the deal was just about closed. Me and my boys will bring that herd up across the border for you in good shape. Hell, I hope so, Hancock. The association's pretty worried about all the trouble we've had on these drives before. Excuse me, gents. You've been Wilkins? Why, yes. President of the Cattleman's Association? Yes, that's right. I don't think I know you. Look, mister, we're talking business. That's why I'm here, Hancock. How come you know my name? Wilkins, I understand you're aiming to bring a herd of cattle up from Mexico into Texas. Well, what's that to you? You're missing a good bet. Why don't you drive them west to Arizona? Arizona? That's right. Haven't you heard about the new mines openin' up around Tombstone? Everybody and his brothers headed out there, and they all gotta eat. That means a good market for beef. A lot better price than you get around here. He's crazy, Wilkins. That's too far to drive a herd. Yeah, sure. Too dangerous, anyway. Wilders, banditos, rustlers, even Indians, maybe. I took a herd out there last month. There wasn't near enough to take care of all those beef eatin' miners. I'll drive your herd out there for you, for a percentage. Now, you just shut that big mouth of yours, mister. Whoever you are. I'm the one drives Wilkins' herds. Wherever they go. Oh. Wilkins, you can't afford Jess Hancock anymore. What do you mean? The last herd he brought across the border for you. How many did he, uh, lose along the way? Why, 43 head. Could've happened to anyone. Banditos, that's what it was. Mexican bandits, huh? Here's a bill of sale might interest you, Wilkins. Seems last week a rancher named Hollister bought 43 head in good faith. Paid for improper. Man who sold him was Jess Hancock. That's a lie. Take a look, Wilkins. That Hancock signature? Sure is. Nobody's gonna accuse me of wrestling. Don't try it, Hancock. I can kick that gun out of your hand before you get it loose from their holster. You just try it, man. You convinced Hancock? Who are you, mister? Slaughter. Luke Slaughter. Oh, I've heard of you, Mr. Slaughter. I didn't know you was in these parts. You don't have to mister me, Wilkins. Just Slaughter's good enough. Hancock, the association's gonna hear about this. If those are the same 43 head... You got no proof. We'll see about that. Slaughter, you said Arizona, huh? A lot of hungry miners in Tombstone. Bigger price, huh? Half again as much. Meet me back here in an hour. You got yourself a job. I'll be here, Wilkins. You hear me, Slaughter? I don't care what your reputation is. You ain't gonna beat me out of this. Here I am, Hancock. And now's as good a time as any. Go ahead. You can talk mighty tall with my gun laying there on the floor. Oh, yeah. Your gun. There it is, Hancock. And I'm just as far from that table it's sitting on as you are. Now go ahead. He's, uh... He's other ways, Slaughter. Other ways. Alex Slaughter, when you signed for this job, you guaranteed me six good trail hands. I didn't know you were just gonna pick them cold on the bar here. That's a difference, Wilkins. They're not good hands and now they will be by the time we get to Tombstone. I'll sue to that. Yeah, I guess you will. How many you got so far? Two Mexican boys who know the country pretty well and a cook. Still leaves you three shy. I'll get them. Say a mystery. Your name, Slaughter? Yeah. Mine's rusty. I hear you're looking for trail hands. Maybe. You ever been to Tombstone? Not with a herd, didn't know anybody had. This'll be the second. I've been almost every place else you can take a herd, I guess. Dodge City, Cheyenne, the Panhandle. You name it. Alright, I'll take you. You the one that's higher than Mr. That's right. But you look a little old for the drive I've got in mind. Tombstone's a long way. Don't worry about that now, I'll keep up. What's your name? They call me Wichita. Alright, Wichita, you're on. Got room for one more, Slaughter? Who are you, son? Name's Carson. Jim Carson. You ever ridden trail before? No, but I don't figure it'd be too tough. Besides, Slaughter, I come in handy when there's trouble. Oh. How about when this will work? I'll work. I need the money. I want to buy me a gun. You already got a gun. I want to get me another one. Alright, I'll put you on. You say your name was Jimmy? It's not Jimmy, it's Jim. I don't like being called Jimmy. Go get your stuff together, Jimmy. I guess you didn't hear me, Slaughter. I said I don't like being called Jimmy. You want to come along or don't you? I want to come. Then get moving, Jimmy. I don't like that one, Slaughter. He's on the prod. Could be, Wilkins. I take a chance with him then. I don't want any trouble with this herd. Now, just a minute, Wilkins. I didn't guarantee no trouble. Matter of fact, I'd be surprised if there wasn't. I guarantee just one thing to bring that herd through. That you can count on. I have seen young punks like him before, Slaughter. They go running with a chip on their shoulder trying to show how tough they are. He probably heard about you. What about me, Wichita? Since you've got a kind of reputation, that's all. Punk like that sooner or later, you'll probably want to find out how tough you are. Maybe. I heard him shooting off his mouth at the bar earlier about how he'd gunned down a couple of men here and there. Oh. I bet he's awful green on the trail, though. You can show him the ropes, Rusty. Maybe the trail will take some of the toughness out of him. Anyway, I need what men we can get. He goes with us. You're the boss. Where are we heading from here? Wichita. Little town below the border. That's where we pick up the herd. When we're leaving. Soon as we settle up. Tonight? Yeah. We should be able to hit the trail with the cattle tomorrow afternoon. Make a few miles toward Tombstone before dark. What's a hurry? There's a man named Jess Hancock who wouldn't mind making a little trouble for me. I want that herd all in one piece. To start with, anyway. Pretty good-looking herd, Rusty. Yeah. But no herds worth pounding leather like we did all the way down here to Delgade. Slaughter said he wanted to make it, but this afternoon he did. Where is he, anyway? Sign the papers over there at the pins. I don't see why we can't hang around town tonight. Leave in the morning. Well, why not take it up with the boss? Here he comes. You think you're pretty funny, don't you, Wichita? Just once in a while, son. Well, I guess we're already. Rusty, how about the cook? Oh, he's got all the grub loaded in the chuck wagon, ready to roll. Good. Senor! Senor! What? You're Slaughter? Yeah, who are you? I'm Carlotta. And you are going to Arizona? Yeah, Tombstone. Why? Take me with you. What? I want to get away from this place. I want to go to Arizona. Please, take me with you. Sorry. What are you doing here, Carlotta? Come on, back to the canteen to where you belong. Well, well, Jess Hancock. How come you're down here? This is my stamping ground, Slaughter. Or was? I ain't forgot. I didn't figure you had. First you take my job, now you try to take my girl. Just a minute, Hancock. Don't get things any more twisted up than you can help. Get moving, Carlotta. You leave me alone! Get! I hope you have a real pleasant trip to Tombstone, Slaughter. I better have. Getting pretty dark, Slaughter. Don't you reckon we'd better get that herd better down for the night? A little further. You've been avoiding the regular trail. Expectin' trouble? I usually do, Wichita. I've been watchin' you around horses, Slaughter. Been thinkin' you was in the cavalry. Oh. I heard about a man named Slaughter once. Commanded a regiment from Illinois in the war. Yeah. Raiders, they was. Used to raid across the line. This Slaughter I heard about, he always used to come back leadin' a string of confederate horses with their saddles empty. I've been thinkin' you're the same Slaughter. And I've been thinkin' you're a pretty nosy old man. Yep, that's me. Oh, this is far enough. Last egg. We'll bet down here. Wichita, that chuck wagon of ours. I just saw the tarp move. There's somebody inside. Yeah, I saw two. All right, Carlotta. Get outta there. Please, senor, I want to go to Tombstone. You picked the wrong way. But you don't send me back now. It's night. It's wild country. You wouldn't do that, would you? You counted on that, didn't you? All right, you'll go with us. Ah, gracias. But you'll earn your way. You'll help the cook. You'll clean up after him. You'll wash the dishes. Work me like a horse, huh? Or worse. Maybe you like the horses better. There's one big difference. I invited the horses. After we betted down the herd, the cook wrestled up some grub. Carlotta was plenty sullen, but she worked. Jimmy kept eye on her, so I figured I'd better put him on night herd. I turned in around midnight. Everything was peaceful. But I didn't stay that way very long. Slaughter, you hear that? Yeah, where'd they come from? Well, I don't know. But it's got the herd growled up. There they go. They stampede in, Slaughter. They stampede in. In a moment, Luke Slutter of Tombstone returns. Somebody ought to set Jack Benny straight about how to make a movie because he's at it again. When you join him later on today, CBS Radio's misguided Matt and A. Idle will attempt his own version of a famous movie. To make it even better, Hollywood producer Stanley Kramer, who made the movie, will be right there when he does. For a hilarious example of how not to make a motion picture, here the Jack Benny show later today on most of these same stations. Henry Morgan and Mitch Miller will be around following Jack Benny. Henry Morgan is host on the fast and funny guessing game, Says Who. His star-studded panel of experts spark one laugh after another as they try to identify memory-teasing mystery voices. And speaking of stars, you'll find an hour of fast and funny conversation with the biggest name stars of Hollywood and Broadway waiting for you on CBS Radio's Mitch Miller show tonight. And now, act two of William N. Robeson's production of Luke Slotter of Tombstone. Wichita, turn him in. We gotta get him turned into Miller. You're getting too close, Slotter. Okay, rest here. Over there. I can't turn the bunch in the lead. Slotter! Watch out! They'll run you down! Yeah! Yeah, get around! Lead stare! That's it. That's good of us. That was close, Wichita. Yeah. I thought I'd seen everything, Slotter. But I guess I was wrong. What do you mean? Well, riding into that hurt the way you did. You know a better way to turn them? You could've been run down, Kill. Maybe. To me. Come out over here. Look! Look, Slotter, up on the ridge. Small fire. Could be Indians. We'll go up and take a look in a minute. What do you want, Slotter? Those two shots that started the stampede sounded like they came from over near where you were. You fire those shots, to me. I said, did you fire those shots? Yeah. Why? Well, I thought I saw something moving in the dark near me. Figured it could be trouble. So you just holed up and blasted away, huh? Pretty spooky with that six gun of yours, aren't you? I tell you, I thought someone was coming at me. You almost cost us the whole herd. You want two of those guns, but one's too much for you. I'm taking your six gun, Jimmy. No, you ain't, Slotter. I'll leave you your rifle in case you run into trouble with that tombstone, but I can't take any more chances on that itchy trigger finger of yours. I'll hand it over. Ain't nobody gonna take my gun away from me. I'll draw on you before I let you. No, you won't. I'd... Maybe you ain't heard about them two-man-eye guns, Slotter. You were shooting off your mouth about it in a saloon, but I don't believe it to me. You never gunned a man. And you're not gonna start now. I'll hand it over. But first... I... Let's have it. All right. I'll get back to the herd. You've taken a lot away from that kid, Slotter. First calling him Jimmy and now taking his gun. I had no choice. Even so, you cut him up and he won't forget it. You're trying to be my conscience or something, Wichita. Oh, like you say, I'm just a nosy old man. Then let's go nose around that fire up on the ridge. There's dirt on that fire, Wichita. Get it out. This could be a signal fire. Think it was Indians at Lyric? I doubt it. I think it was intended as a signal for Jess Hancock, so he could locate the herd. You suggesting somebody in our outfit set off the fire? Could be. But the stampede, we was all there. The fire could have been lit just before the stampede. You say somebody in the outfit, that it included me? Yeah. Right now, Wichita, there's only one person in the outfit I'm sure of. Who's that? Me. I tell you, I didn't start the fire, Slotter. I wouldn't help Hancock. I told you I want to get away from him. I know that's what you told me, Carlotta. But you don't believe me. You think I'm still Hancock's girl. Why don't you trust me? Why don't you be nice to me, huh? Maybe I could be your muchacha. Sorry. Right now, my job's riding herd on cattle, not women. Oh, you make me sick. You don't care about nobody but yourself. Is she right, Slotter? What? Oh, Wichita. I might have known you'd be listening. Yep. Well, Slotter, the herd's quieted down. Two Mexican boys are keeping an eye on it. Did Carlotta admit anything? No. I wouldn't trust her, any. Don't, Rusty. You want us for anything more, or can we turn in? In a minute. I want to lay out the plans for tomorrow. I think we're in for some trouble. How so? We've got two possible routes through the country ahead, Rusty. Through a narrow pass or along the river bottom. The question is, which way to take the herd? You expecting to be drag-goached? I wouldn't be surprised, Jimmy. That narrow pass would be the logical place for a bushwhacking. Why not take the herd through along the river bottom? Well, there's one thing wrong with that, Rusty. It could be just what Hancock wants you to do. Right. He might be trying to out-figure me. There's a lot of willows and underbrush along that river bottom. He could be holed up there. That's why we're going to take the herd through the pass. We'll start right after sunup. I didn't know if my bluff would work or not. It was the only way I could find out who Hancock's spy was. I ran away from camp toward the herd. Whoever it was, I had to give him a chance to make a move. And it didn't take long. Pretty soon I heard muffled hooves moving away. I ran back to camp and took a look. It was Rusty. He was gone. Carlotta's gone, too, slaughter. I guess she wasn't so anxious to get away from Hancock as she let on. So Rusty's gone to tell him that we're bringing the herd through the pass? It's just what I wanted him to do. Unless he knows this country a lot better than I do, he's going to lead me right to Hancock. You're going after him? Yeah. They should give me the slip. We're going to be in for some trouble. What do you want us to do? Split the outfit in two, which is to take half the herd through the pass, the other half through the river bottom, and be ready for trouble, especially in the pass. Let me take the pass, Slaughter. You, uh, you sure you want to? Yeah, real sure. And I think I can handle it. I think you can, too. Oh, and, uh, you might be needing that six gun of yours. Here it is, Jim. Thanks. Luke? Slaughter will do. Get moving its son up. Join up on the other side and wait for me. I picked up Rusty's trail. He was headed for the ridge between the pass and the river bottom. He was getting light when I reached a shortcut where I could gain some ground on him. But I gained too much. Just as I got back to the trail again, a horse came pounding around the bend carrying Rusty and Carlotta. He pulled up when he spotted me and shoved Carlotta off. Then I saw I'd been holding a gun on her. His slug burned my shirt as I dove at him. Oh! Slaughter, you... You all right, Carlotta? I think so. Rusty made me go with him. He was taking me back to Hancock. Slaughter. This came from all those rocks up above there. Take cover. All right. Behind this rock, you'll be all right. There. Sit here. You'll be safe now. I was wrong about you, Slaughter. What do you mean? Gracias. It's got to be Hancock up there in those rocks. Here. Take my rifle and stay put. I'm going to try and circle around behind him. It was a big shoulder of rock above me and to my left. I could get around that. I might be able to get behind Hancock if he didn't hear me coming. There he was. 20 yards away. He's back to me. His gun in the holster so he could get a better handhold as he edged his way along the rocks. The holstered me. Hancock's. I hosted my own gun and stepped out into the clear. Hancock. Yeah. Here I am, Hancock. Now go ahead. Draw. I don't like it, Wichita. Slaughter should have been here by now. He'll belong to him. Maybe we ought to head up there and see if we can find him. He could be in trouble. He said wait for him here. Even so, maybe. Oh, Carlotta's with him. Ain't that Rusty's horse? She's riding? Yeah. Slaughter is leading another one. Uh-huh. With an empty saddle. Heard all right. Yeah, all in one piece. No trouble. But it looks like you had some. A little. Is it Hancock's? It was. But how come you... Jim, you've got a couple of things to learn. It isn't getting your gun out of your holster that's the most important thing. It's what you do with it once it's out. Uh-huh. You figure Hancock was after the herd or after Carlotta. I didn't take time to ask him, Wichita. Next week at this time, we return with... Slaughter's the name. Luke Slaughter. When we meet up again, you can call me that. Luke Slaughter.