 The round-gauge 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, 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 chance, they job, and it makes a man watchful and a little lonely. Nice morning, ain't it, Mr. Dillon? Uh-huh. For this time of year, you just couldn't ask for no better weather, if I got even the horses like it. I think they're more interested in that water trough than they are in the weather, Chester. A cold buck, little Mary, fillin' her wash bucket. I sure hope she's stirred up all the sludge off the bottom. Oh, sludge doesn't bother the horses. Well, it does me. It's warm enough this morning I figured I might wash up a little. You know, you've been saying that every morning for two weeks, until you find out how cold the water is. I know, but I got my courage just better today. Yeah, sure. Good morning, Mary. Good morning, Miss Mary. Good morning, sir. Mr. Proudfoot, I didn't hear you talk. I think my faculty just stopped me to go. No, you were just too busy, that's all. So I'm going to make that water ain't still pretty cold, I figured it would be. How's the world been treatin' you, Mary? I reckon I don't see much of the world, Marshal. That miss very close. Yeah, I get the same feeling sometimes. You, uh, keepin' busy, are ya? Oh, to tell you the truth, Marshal, the day was two hours longer. I'd still be short of time. Oh, that's not so. And it ain't washin' the man in his packin' water for the tubs. I cut him firewood to heat him. Oh, it's a tired four-night. Sometimes I could just drop right in the track. Yeah, I know what you mean. I've been aimin' to come by the day and get them shirts for yours. It's past two days. Now, I'll do it right now, Marsha. I'll leave my buckets here. Oh, no, no, no, no, Mary. Chester can drop them off as afternoons sometime. Yeah. Would be kind of a help if it ain't too much trouble. Oh, ain't no trouble at all, Miss Mary. That's mighty kind of you, Mr. Proudfoot. Oh, I'm glad to do it. Truth is, I'm a little put out today. Piece of bad luck, as you might say. But I'm much obliged to you. It's as good as done, man. What kind of bad luck, Mary? Oh, nothing at all, Marsha. I wouldn't even bother your mind with it. Is that the bruise on your jaw and that black eye got anything to do with it? I'd rather you just forget I said anything, Marsha. What happened, Mary? Hey, they'd come back and do for me, if I was to tell. Well, for the way I'm saying it. Who said they'd come back and do for you? That's absurd. Well, let no count bullies by any more mean as you can take a stick. Why did he do it, Mary? What reason did he have? It was my savings, Marsha. Oh, my goodness. I had him buried in my cabinet. I wouldn't tell him where. But he made me tell him for his through. It took me two years. Forty-eight dollars. Ever since I got. How did he say he ought to be hung? I didn't mean to say nothing, Marsha. Even if they hadn't threatened me, I wouldn't aim them to put you to no bother. It's not me who's going to be bothered, Mary. Well, if he enjoyed you with something big and important. It's big. It's important. And by the time I get through with him, Reb's sonner's going to realize it. I thought I'd sure have the dog done of this luck, Mr. Dillon. We'll find him. Well, I think he can take a little bit more of Mary's savings. It's hard to see where she is. My blood just starts to froth up. Oh, Miss Kitty. Hello, Matt. Hello, Kelly. I've been looking all over for you. There's a job for you in the long run. Oh, it's a trouble. We got one of those mean ones tonight. Drinking too much, pushing people around. Time to get a fight started. All right, I'll go have a look. Who is it? Reb's sonner. Reb's sonner? I don't know. We've found him. Just in the morning. I just stood up here and told you all I can whip any man in this room. One of you got the blood and gumption to save me. No one. Maybe they're just going easy on you, sonner. It ain't the Marshall. Some lily-liver come after you, I reckon. As a matter of fact, I came after you. Law against talking. There's a law against beating people up and stealing their life savings. She's a liar. I wasn't even near there last night. And if she says it... I mean, she... What do you mean, she? Who said sonner where? I didn't mention any details. I don't know nothing about it. Well, maybe it'll come to you. You're under arrest. I'll put out your arrest. I reckon I could put handcuffs on a man, too. I was wearing a gun and he wasn't. You've always played it safe that way. I'm just sort of never wearing a gun. If you had somebody that killed you a long time ago... Ain't nobody got much taste for going at it my way, though, unnoticed. Maybe it's time somebody didn't. I offered, Marshall. Nobody took. That's all. Just a... Can I take my gun with you? I already told you you're under arrest. I heard you. And I'm gonna put these handcuffs on you one way or the other. I ain't never been handcuffed yet, Marshall. I don't reckon I'm starting tonight. Uh-huh. Joseph? Yes, sir? Always handcuffs for a couple of minutes, huh? Yes, sir. You're a dang fool, Marshall, if you... Yes, sir. Why, you? I'm gonna kill you for that, maybe. Now, you can stop at any time, Sutter. Or just sticking out your wrists. I'll break every bone in your butt. At any time, Sutter, one way or the other. You're wearing those cuffs to jail tonight. Oh, no, I ain't. Give me the handcuffs. I guess that's it, Mary. 84 cents, Marshall. That's all they had left out. Yeah, I'm afraid so. I managed to get almost every saloon in town. Two years of hard work. He drunk it all up in one day. How he's going to jail for it, Mary? That's any satisfaction. Well... Judge Bentz says the case against him is solid. He hasn't got a chance of getting off. Seems like there ought to be a better way somehow. Something that's got more justice in it. I mean, he ain't going to jail. Ain't going to get me my money back. You may be right, Mary, but... Oh, I'm sorry, Mary, but I guess that's about all I can say. Oh, oh, I ain't blaming you none, Marshall. The mighty obliged and grateful to you for letting more important things stand by while you took time to help with nobody like me. I'm married now. Oh, I mean it, Marshall. It was mighty good out here. And you too, Mr. Proudfoot. Oh, well, I'm glad to do what I could, Miss Mary Allen. Oh, we're getting on now. I'll have your shirt for you too. There's no hurry. Well, good night, all. Good night. Good night. Don, Don, if she can get right, Mr. Don, just sending red besetter to prison ain't going to help her none. Some harder ought to be done about it. Just as something is going to be done the first thing in the morning. Is that a matter of you, Don? Oh, and if you can squeak that cow and find a chair one more time. So help me, I'm just... You mean like this? Blast? Oh, darn you, Jack. You never know. I'd better never get you all pecking. You know, noise like that's enough for me to cut your throat if you keep it up. You've got bad nerves, Don. Oh, Chief Thunderbull makes up a kind of a tonic they say's supposed to cure that. Oh, Chief Thunderbull doesn't know no more about medicine than you have bad nerves in a tonic. A lot of people get it from him and take it. A lot of people are fools, too. I know. They claim it doesn't good. Oh, look at that, Chief. My nerves are all writhing. That tonic of Thunderbulls is 60% hogwash and 60% rock gut whiskey. Look here, you can't have no 120% or nothing. I can have 100,000% of order. Well, I'm just shifting my weight. Then don't shift it. Leave it where it is. Folks who take that tonic regularly don't stir up no big rookies just because somebody happens to lean back in their chair once in a while. Folks who take that tonic of debt from the neck up before they take it and from the neck down after. Oh, how are you, Doc? Anything on the ordinary, Chester? No, sir. Not a thing, what you doing? I was beginning to figure you were going to spend the whole day over there, Judge Bant. Yeah, what are you up to there, man? Playing fast and loose with the law, are you? No, not according to the way the judge sees it. Chester, we'll get a rep to set her up in his cell, will you? Oh, Chester, please. Boy, Doc, the man can't get out of the chair without squeaking his term, can he? I never see that the gold under the lure picking his little old noise. Oh, that boy. Thunderbolt tonic. Bad news. You, uh, can't out on the prod today? I am not on the prod. You know, sometimes a person's blood gets thick during the wintertime and comes spring, he needs a, uh, a good tonic. That's a good advice, Matt. Yes. I'm getting up out of this chair, Matt. I'm going to walk slowly and carefully to the door. I'm not going to lose my temper. I'm going to keep my voice down. I'm going to open the door, step outside and say goodbye. Goodbye, Doc. Did the doctor leave? Yeah, he just left. Oh, come on in, son, I want to talk to you. Yes, sir. Whatever you say, Martin. Well, you've had two days in the jail cell to think it over. You probably realize how things stand against you, don't you? Yeah. Being good, I reckon. Now, if you're going to try it, you're going to be convicted. There's no doubt about it. You can't have figured that, Martin. The least sentence you'll get off with is two years, and it may run to, uh, five to seven. Unless we can work something out. What do you mean? As I said, the penitentiary will satisfy the law, but it won't help Buffalo Mary very much. You stole $48 from her, and you spent it. You know, can't pay it back to her, Marshall. I ain't got one red cent in my name. I know that. But you have got a good, strong back, though. What's that got to do with it? Judge Ben can postpone your trial and leave you in my custody for the time being. What are you saying, Marshall? Now, if you agree, we can work it out this way. First thing of the morning, you'll pack enough water over to Mary's place to run her for the day, and then you'll spend the rest of the day cutting firewood and stacking it behind her cabin. Now, you'll sweep in your solid, you'll be fed at the jail table. How's it sound to you? How long do I have to do it, Marshall? Well, let's say until everybody agrees that you've done enough. What happens then? If you stick to it and play the square, the case will be dismissed. Yeah, but now, if you turn him out to pack water and carry wood, he'll run off. I don't think he will, Chester. You're right, Marshall. I ain't gonna run away. You see, I've been doing a lot of thinking these last two days. It ain't nice to know the only reason people know your name is because you beat up the old woman. These are the things, too, Marshall. I don't have to tell you that. Oh, what do you say? Where's the woodpile? Come down and sneak there, Mr. John. Oh, is that so? It's down here, it looks fine. I haven't got anything for her. I thought she was supposed to pick up those shirts tomorrow. She might have forgot what they said. Ah, good morning, Mary. Come on in. I ain't upset. Nothing important, Emma. Nothing but a morning cup of coffee. Would you like to have one? Oh, well, much to be glad, Marshall, but I've done had mine. How's things going, Mary? Is Red keeping at it steady? Well, that's what I come to see you about. Oh. I'd never believed it, Marshall, but that boy's just been working through. Maybe he sees the devil over his shoulder. In these two months, I've been able to take extra work enough to save $56. Well, that's good. And not only that, he's got enough wood stacked up over at my place to last me for the next three years. That's what I wanted to see you about, Marshall. I told him that he'd build his boxes now that he could quit, but he keeps on working. Maybe you should tell him. Oh. Yeah, there's a funny thing about justice, Mary. Sometimes it's all bound up with a person's conscience. I guess I don't quite understand, Marshall. Well, I think in this case, Red has to feel that he's paid his debt not only to you, but to a lot of other people, too. So let's let things go on for a while, huh? Little Red comes to us and says he's ready to quit. I'm here, cattleman, for the kind of sympathy for a cow whose calf straightaway got lost and in trouble. The goldie's lost calf is dirty. But next week, God heals no today for a woman whose son gets in real trouble and dies. And that is the way. Dung Smoke, produced and directed by Norman McDonnell, stars William Conrad as Matt Billard, U.S. Marshall. This story was specially written for Dung Smoke by Loc Clark Steele, with other stories to be provisioned by John Meskin. The music was composed and conducted by Red Chorus. Sound patterns by Tom Hanley and Bill James. Seated in the cast were Virginia Dredge and Fitz Perrin. Farley Bayer is Chester. Howard McNeer is Doc. and Georgia Ellis is Kitty. Join us again next week for another story of the Western frontier. When Matt Billard sets his proud foot, Doc, and Kitty, together with all the other heart-living citizens of God, we'll be with you once more. It's America growing west in the 1870s. It's Dung Smoke. Over the CBS Radio.