 suspense. And the producer of radio's outstanding theatre of thrills, the master of mystery and adventure, William M. Robson. For years and years and years, the western story has been as stylized as a Punch and Judy show. There were the good guys and the bad guys, the blonde school marm and the brunette dancehall girl. And there was old Texas slim who loved old paint more than he did either of these females. They were one dimensional characters with no more depth than the page in which they were printed or the film in which they were photographed. Then something happened to the western, something which had existed in the old west all the time. People, real people, each with good in him and bad. People with human frailty and human strength. Around such a person is our western story of suspense told. Listen. Listen then as Jackie Kalk stars in sundown, which begins in exactly one minute. Memo on medals, information about our military awards and decorations. The awarding of American medals had its beginning during the Revolutionary War. Certain military and naval commanders were presented gold medals to commemorate their victories. The first medal in our nation's history was given to General George Washington after he had forced the British to evacuate Boston. That medal is now in the Boston Public Library where it was placed on exhibit in 1876, 100 years after the historic event it commemorates. Technically, early medals were not decorations in the strictest sense. They honored both the victorious event and the officer in charge. Also, they were not designed to be worn as later medals were. Therefore, they were presented in a suitable case for safekeeping. What we now know as the Purple Heart Medal was originally a badge of cloth material specified in Washington's establishing order to be a figure of a heart in purple cloth or silk edged with narrow lace or binding. Foreign decorations and medals are worn to the left of all American decorations. They are never worn alone but must appear with at least one American medal. Few tributes are as meaningful and as cherished as the awards and decorations of our armed forces. And now, sundown starring Jackie Kelk, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense. It's sundown. That's why the town looks like a ghost town. There are folks around all right hiding behind door cracks and windows. Here's what they're hiding. There's Kirby Hunsaker coming out of the saloon at one end of town and there's Ben Ford coming from the livery stable at Tother. Walking toward each other slow. Right hands hanging an inch from their gun holsters. In a minute, one of them will be dead. Kirby Hunsaker or Ben Ford. Nothing but a baby when I picked him up off the desert 14 years ago. Hold up a minute Sam. What is it? Over by that dried out waterhole. It looks like a mane. It's on my hand right enough. A couple long ways to water and come to the wrong place. Give me your hand William. Is he alive? Just about. Got it. Got it to my way. My kid. Yeah, yeah. Where are they? Up there. A lot of agents. Need water. He's gone. Yeah. We'd better find his wife and kid. There's anything left to find. There was something left. A sunbaked wagon. A dead woman. And a five-year-old boy. His face was burned and his lips cracked with fever. He didn't cry. He didn't even whimper. And he didn't talk. We gave him water and he took it. Then he sat there, staring away into the desert as we buried his mother. Hey, what do we do about him? I'll take him with us, I reckon. Nobody but us on the range. Nobody to take care of him. Ain't nobody here either. We'll do what we can. He'll grow or he'll die. He grew a big, raw-bone kid. By the time he was 12, he could handle a man's work. I had a feeling for him. A feeling like he was my own. He did some strange things that nobody else could understand. Like riding off in the desert and coming back with his face blazing and his lips split. He couldn't have said why. But he was fighting back at the desert because it had robbed him. It was like a cactus was growing in him. I couldn't get to the root to pull it out. Until one night it suffered. Dan? Yeah, Bill? Do I have any money? Well, I reckon you do, boy. You work for your keep. How much do I have, Dan? Well, this is your home. Everything that's here is yours. I want my own horse. I see. Fair enough. Take your pick. The black coat with the star in his face. I want him. All right, boy. You've got yourself a horse. Yes, he'd got himself a horse. But it was more than that to him. It meant he had something that was his, a flutter thunder. Something in the world that belonged to him and nobody else. He gave him a reason for being alive. He pulled the roots out of that cactus inside of him. And he didn't ride out into the desert anymore. Bennett had the horse for almost a year when Kirby Hunsaker came. He rode in one afternoon while Bennett was in town with the buck board, picking up supplies. Boom! Howdy. Howdy. Your horse looks like he could use a rest, stranger. Needs chewing and he'll be all right. I'll trade him and cash for a fresh horse. Well, nobody's gonna ride a horse of mine like that. I said I'd trade him. That means I'm gonna trade him. The name's Kirby Hunsaker. Kirby Hunsaker. A name that was drifting all over the west with a trail of blood behind it. He had a face like a woman and eyes like a steel trap. And there was no glove in his right hand. A gunfighter. If you're thinking it over, you're wasting my time. Better do it, Dan. All right, Hunsaker. I'll take the black with a star on his face. Put a rope on him. Well, not that one. He ain't mine. I ain't asking who's he is. Well, any other horse, anyone you want, even trade. Get that black and keep your hand away from that gun. Dan, do what he says. You can give young Ben the Palomino. He came back and I told him. He hadn't cried when I found him in the desert. He didn't cry now. But there was something in his eyes. It was hate. Like a pure white flame. I don't want the Palomino. He's the best horse on the place. Not to me. He isn't mine. Sam, I tried to save him for you, Ben. I know. You can have your pick of anything in the corral. I don't ever want another horse. Well, when you see something you do want, you just holler. It's yours. That's a promise. Anything, Dan? Anything. All right, then. I'll take your gun. What gun? You promised, Dan. I promised. Here. It's yours. Good night, Dan. Good night, Ben. Why, in all my days, I never hear of such a lame-brained thing as giving a kid I can't... He'd have gotten one someplace sooner or later. And if I know him right, it best be sooner. Aren't you sick of it? Yeah. Ain't you? Good thing he's only 13. When he's grown, we can hope for him to get better since. You're wasting your hope, Sam. I'm hoping that Kirby Hunsaker gets killed before Ben's grown. In a moment, we continue with the second act of... Suspense. Another visit with Joe and Daphne Forsythe. Okay, Daphne, the slides are all set. Turn off the lights. There. Oh, Joe, isn't that pretty? Where was that? That was Veil Pass on the Grand Divide. Remember how hard the wind blew? I certainly do, and it was cold, too. Next time we go on a vacation, let's get an earliest start. Well, we save money by wait until fall. Remember this one? Oh, sure. That Zion National Park. Oh, it was lovely. We sure had a lot of fun on that trip. It was worth the money. It was a good investment, all right. Almost as good as savings bonds. There you go again. Well, I just can't get over how good a bargain they are. We women like bargains, you know. Oh, I know, I know that. And $4 back for every three investors is a pretty good bargain. Right. Oh, was that where I fed the bear? Yeah, that's your sanity. We were lucky that bears weren't already in hibernation. How do they live when they hibernate? On fat, they store up during the warm months. Just like savings bonds. Huh? Well, you buy a saving bond a month, right? Yeah. And it's a great way to save the way those bonds rack up interest, right? Right. So we're just like the bears. We're storing up fat for our future use at interest rates that give us $4 at maturity for every three invested. A very interesting idea. You can learn a lot from nature. Yeah, just imagine smoking a bear selling savings bonds. Oh, Joe, show the slides. And now. Starring Jackie Kelk, act two of sundown. A boy and a gun. They were together night and day. He slept with it next to his cheek, and you could see the red mark with a barrel on the side of his face when he'd get up in the morning. And when he wasn't working, we'd often come across him in summer oil in the foothills. Look, Sam, he's at it again. He ain't shooting at cans no more. What's that he's using for a target? It's a figure of a man marked off on the rock. Looks like a piece of paper where the head ought to be. Your eyes are going back, Sam. It's a picture. One of the Express Company reward posters for Kirby Hunsucker. It went on like that for six years until the bullets were hitting close and fast. Then I'd catch him in the barn, right in the draw. Start to wear his gun belt low on the hip and his right hand hung by side, sunscarred, like a claw. The rest of him had changed, too. Well, aren't a boy no more? He was a man. We heard more and more about Kirby Hunsucker. His name got to be one of the three mentioned most when the talk in the saloons turned to gunslingers. Jim Dunn, Boaz Watson, and Kirby Hunsucker, all bound to meet someday and find out who'd be a flick faster on the draw. Then had to be there the night a stray cowboy should have stopped to rest his horse. Well, Kirby, thank you. Thanks. I reckon I will. Well, your horse sure needed water. He must have come a long way. From Goldfield, riding lucky, though. I come through Flagstaff just in time to see the fight. What fight? You mean you ain't heard? I must have been riding fast. Never seen a gun fight like it. Who was in it? Two of the best. Big Jim Dunn. Kirby Hunsucker? Who won? Well, Hunsucker. Dunn never cleared his holster. Hunsucker beat Jim Dunn? Yeah. Wish I could have stayed in Flagstaff. Boaz Watson someplace around too. As soon as he gets wind of it, he'll be on Hunsucker's trail for a showdown. Dunn never cleared his holster than the man ain't born that can now draw Hunsucker. Boaz Watson thinks he can. He's been itching for the chance. It's a chance he ain't gonna get. Ben, where you going? Where I gotta go, Dan. Flagstaff? You know it. And don't try to stop me. Trying to stop him would have been like trying to stop an avalanche. But he couldn't stop me from following. I was an hour behind him when I reached Flagstaff on the third morning. Ben wasn't hard to find. He'd left a trail of questions behind him. And I caught up with him in the last saloon on the street. He's still asking. Well, bartender? Yeah, well, Rackety comes in sometimes. When? Usually about an hour from now. Noon. Good. I'll wait. You're gonna buy me a drink, Ben? Oh. If that's what you came for, Dan. It's been a rough trailin', you boy. Men and horses ain't meant to be pushed that hard. I was in a hurry. Well, maybe we can take it easier going back. Maybe if, if we left right now, we could camp out someplace tonight. Like we used to. Ask me later, Dan. This is something I gotta do first. Sam and I saw Big Jim Dunn in a gunfight once. He was like lightning, Ben. But Hunsaker killed him. Don't worry, Dan. I'm good with this gun. I hope you're good enough. That's something we'll know soon. At least I got here before Boaz Watson. In a moment, we continue with the third act of... Suspense. What do you know about the Navy's specially meritorious metal? Have you seen many of them lately? Probably not, as the metal is no longer issued. Congress authorized this metal early in 1901 for all of them. Especially in 1901, for officers and men of the Navy and Marine Corps, who rendered specially meritorious service, other than in battle during the Spanish-American War of 1898. Among the 93 recipients of the metal, were the crew of the Collier Merrimack for its efforts to bottle up the Spanish fleet in Santiago Harbor. And men of the American Flatboat crews, who saved the lives of many Spanish sailors that jumped from burning ships. Recognition of gallantry and action by a grateful nation inspires new generations of Americans to hold fast to those principles which have made our country great. For it is the extra effort and heroism which a Free Nation citizens exhibit that reveals their pride in our heritage and their unflinching determination to maintain our cherished way of life. And now, starring Jackie Kelk, act three of Sundown. Men wouldn't drink and he wouldn't leave. So we waited. Then I heard the door swing. We'd had a couple of times. Only this time it was different. Talk around the tables cut out. The bartender's hands tightened around the glass he'd been wiping. Every head in the place turned toward the door. It was Kirby Huntsecker. He and Ben had never seen each other before. But somehow they knew each other. Their eyes caught and held. They're too long to walk together. I hear somebody's looking for me in case anybody don't know me. The name's Kirby Huntsecker. I'm looking for you. Speak your peace. A long time ago, when I couldn't do anything about it, I was looking for you. I was looking for you. A long time ago, when I couldn't do anything about it, you stole a horse from me. You calling me a horse thief? That's what I'm calling you. You got nerve, kid. Name your price, I might pay it. You'll pay it. I set the price a long time ago. Your life. You got a gun. Dig for it. You move first, Huntsecker. I'm giving you an edge. Better take it, kid. No. No, I want to give you a little time, Huntsecker. If I draw first, then you gotta move without thinking. But I want you to think. I want you to think and worry and decide. While you're talking, I might get tired of waiting. You won't draw fast enough, Huntsecker. So I'm going to give you a chance. I'm going down to the livery's table to take a nap. At sundown, I'm coming back up the street. I don't want anybody on it. You better run, Huntsecker. But shoot me in the back while I'm going out that door. Because if you don't, I'm going to kill you. It's sundown now. And here I am in the window of the hotel. And there he is in the street. Him and Kirby Huntsecker walking toward each other. And the town is so quiet you can hear their steps in the dirt. A hundred yards. Seventy-five. Fifty. The fingers of their right hands clawed like hooks, almost touching their gun butts. Doesn't even seem like the sun is moving anymore. Like even the shadows are glued there to the ground. Waiting for one of those hands to move. Because when it comes, it'll come fast. Better dig, Huntsecker. Hunk. I'm going to collect for that horse. You'll collect. Kid. Ben, Ben, you all right, boy? I'm all right. Let's walk. Well, it's all over now, boy. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. It's all over now, boy. We'll saddle up and go home. Hey! Hey, wait! Ah, it's the blacksmith. Yes, our horses are ready. The stress rider came in just after you left the stable. He said Boaz Watson is riding in. He ran into him on the trail. You going to stay and meet him? Me? Well, I got no quarrel with Boaz Watson. Looks like you will have. He was mighty keen on meeting up with Huntsecker. Looks like you've taken over at Kirby's Place. Dan, what a lie. That's what I was afraid of, Ben. You killed Huntsecker. Now, every fool, every drunk, every gunslinger looking for a reputation, I'll try to get it by trying to kill you. I can't go back with you now, can I? I can't ever go back. From now on, I've got to fight or run. What are you going to do, Ben? Head for the border, I guess. Go as far as I can until I can't go any further. I'll come with you. I've been holed up in one place too long anyhow. No, Dan. I've got to go alone. This is where we split right now. Thanks for everything. I'll never forget you. Goodbye, Dan. Goodbye, Ben. Goodbye, boy. Goodbye, son. Suspense. In which Mr. Jackie Kelk starred in William M. Robeson's production of Sundown by Joel Murkott. Supporting Mr. Kelk in Sundown were Louis Van Rooton, Charles Seal, Vic Perron, William Quinn, and Jack Krushen. Listen. Listen again next week when we return with another tale well calculated to keep you in. Suspense. This is the United States Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.