 Around Dodge 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. Gun smoke, starring William Conrad, the story 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, the United States Marshal. The first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It's a chancey job, but it makes a man watchful. And a little lonely. Everything sure is closed up tight, Mr. Dillon. Don't look like nobody's here tall. There's somebody better be here. Only the horse is here at the side, huh? I just don't seem likely that Will Hunter would just be sitting out here when he's supposed to be in court. Well, he's got to be someplace, Chester. This is as good a place as any to start. Nobody's here. I'm not so sure. He ain't got no business with me. Oh, are you Miss Hunter? Will Hunter married me. Oh, where is he, man? He ain't here. Well, I better talk to you. Can we come in? I told you. You ain't got no business with me. Look, it's very important that we find your husband, Miss Hunter. It ain't important to me. Well, it should be. He was supposed to testify today against the man who stole your horses. I don't know nothing about it. Well, you know more to Sealy? I ain't got nothing to say much. Look here, Miss Hunter. I arrested Sealy on charges made by your husband. Now, I kept him in jail waiting for the circuit judge, and he came today, and I sent word out here to Hunter, but he didn't show up. Now, if he doesn't show up tomorrow, the judge will have to tell me to turn Sealy loose. Now, is that what you want? What I want ain't in it. You won't answer my questions, will you? I told you, Marshal. Will ain't here. That's all I know to tell you. All right, Miss Hunter. I just hope you won't be sorry. I'm used to being sorry. What'd she mean to that? She's not likely to tell us either. What about Will? Looks like he changed his mind, or somebody changed it for him. Well, Chester, did you find Will Hunter? No, sir, judge, I didn't. Well, I told you, there ain't no case against me. Now, just a minute, Sealy. Did you look the town over good? Yes, sir, Mr. Jones, I sure did. I was in and out of every eating place and saloon in town. He ain't been seen. That's all there are to it. The hotel? Yes, sir. The leverage table? Yes, sir. And mosque, gimmick, ain't time, neither. Huh? I'm sorry, Marshal. I can't delay things any longer. Now, wait a minute, Judge. You're going to let him go? There's nothing else for me to do? Or, of course, there ain't. I know it all the time. Turn me loose, Dylan. Hold on, Sealy. Look, Judge, this man is guilty. You can't prove that, Marshal. But, Judge, there was a witness. Well, maybe there was, but under the law, he's not guilty if the witness doesn't testify. I'm sorry, Marshal. Well, I ain't sorry. Come on, West, let's get out of here. Judge, please. I have to dismiss the case, Marshal, on the basis of lack of evidence. You'll have to let him go. You tell him all about it, Judge. No. Well, I sure do hate to see him just walk out of here, Mr. Dylan. Yeah, Chester. Otherwise, the law tries to protect everybody equally, Marshal. I know that, Judge. But sometimes people are scared to take advantage of it. All right, Chester, let's go. You know, Mr. Jones, I got me an idea that it's just as well as not if a body don't know too much. Well, now, if the judge hadn't known so much out of them law books, they wouldn't have been no trouble at all. How do you figure it? We all know that Sealy was guilty, didn't we? Yeah, he's guilty. All right then. I believe knowing all that legal business just got in the judge's way. You know something, Chester? For once, I'd like to agree with you. Uh, what you doing? Setting in the courtroom that way sure does make a man hungry, don't it? All right, Chester. You go on. Go on, get you dinner. Why, aren't you coming? No, not yet. I've got some work to do in here. I'll see you later. Go on. All right, Mr. Jones. You're still being right anxious to keep me here until now. What do you want? Tell him where. Your brother more comes to pick up his gun. You're riding out of town, Sealy. Wow, what's that got to do with it? You don't get your gun until you do. The Marshall Shore ain't real polite about it, is it? You've fixed it more. Well, ain't nothing to it where Marshall just heard that judge tell him to let loose of me and he knows he can't do nothing about it. Don't you, Dylan. I can keep your gun as long as you're in dodge. It sounds like that Marshall don't trust me, don't it, Wayne? He can't do nothing about it. Don't count on it. Well, you heard the judge. I mean, tell you something, Sealy. I know you're guilty, and you know I know it. There's somebody else who knows it. Who is that? Will Hunter. A word about him. I'm going to tell you something else. I think you fixed it so Hunter couldn't show up today. Plenty to worry about if he ever does. Dylan, you forgot something. I don't think so. You forgot a man can't be tried twice for the same crime. I'm not worried about that, Sealy. If I ever find Will Hunter, there'll be a brand new crime to try you for. Acting like a liar just lost a big case. I did lose one. No, you didn't, Matt. You did your job. If the law wouldn't back out, it's not you four. I'm beginning to agree with Chester. How's that? He thinks too much law just gets in the way. Well, Chester makes a point sometimes. Yeah, I guess he does. There's no use worrying about it, Matt. Hey, you know what? What? There's gonna be dancing tonight. Oh, is that so? Yeah, that's so. I thought you might like to come. A little good, honest, hard work like dancing with me might take your mind off the trouble. Oh, thanks, Kitty, but... I'm not much of a dancing man. Oh, I... Hold it! This is the marshal, isn't he? Yeah, there's Doc. Oh, we're here, Doc. I wonder what he's so excited about. I couldn't see in this dark place. I was coming out of the light, you know. Well, sit down, Doc. Oh, well, I shouldn't, Kitty, but... Uh, Matt. Yeah, Doc? Haven't you been looking for a will, Hunter? Yeah, I sure have. Why, have you heard something? I found it, Matt. Well, where is he? Well, Matt, you know that spot out west of town? Well, I'd like to go fishing when I get a chance. There's Hunter there. No, wait a minute. I'm trying to tell you. Well, go on. Well, I had a call to make out of the rain's place. And I just stopped off to see if that big channel catfish was still running things in that pool. God, you're spitting this story out like a woman. All right, but that's the way it happened. The way what happened, Doc? The way I found Will Hunter. I heard a moaning in the bushes, Matt. And there he was. And he was hurt bad, awfully bad. Was he shot? Might as well have been. He'd taken as bad a beating as a man ever took. And he was left there for dead. And he just about was. Well, what did you do with it? Well, I got him into the buggy. And I took him home. Oh, Mrs. Hunter took on something terrible when I brought him in. Well, she hadn't heard anything from him for three days. Yeah. Is he going to make it, Doc? I don't know, Matt. I did everything I could. I'll be looking in on him tomorrow. And I'll try to find out something for you. Thanks, Doc. Yeah, but I'll try to find out for myself. Right now. I guess this time when she was the last time we was out here. I don't expect she will be. Doc said she was mighty upset. Well, you know, Miss Billon, it just could be that she'd be glad to see us showing her interest in Will and all. Can we stop in here? Yeah. I'll go up to the house on foot. You've got a big old squirrel gun. Seems to kill us. Mrs. Hunter. It's the Marshal. I want to talk to you. I'm coming in. I've got nothing to say here. We've come to help you. To help Will now. Will you put the gun down? Will don't get no help. He just gets... Miss Hunter, Will wants to see me. Put the gun down. Why don't you leave? Make no difference no more. Yes, it does. Brother Wes was out here, wasn't he? Going after him won't bring Will back. No, Miss Hunter, it won't. But if I know Will Hunter, it'll make him rest easier. It ain't no use. It's over. I'm done. Now you listen to me. Will was no coward. If he'd had the chance, he'd have spoken up. Do the same thing. No, he... He didn't hold with cowards. All right, then tell me, Miss Hunter. Was Morty Lee's brother out here while I was holding Morton jail? He come three days ago. He told Will he'd take him where the horses was. The one Sealy had stole. And Will rode off with him. And he didn't ride back. Dr. Adams brought him back. To die. And leave you here? I want you to go to every place you can think of. To Delmonico's, the hotel, the livery stable. A long branch? A long branch. And I want you to do a lot of talking. I don't understand just what you're getting at. I want you to tell everybody you see that Will Hunter is doing fine. Just fine. But if you just do what I say, Chester, tell the story all over town. But now if them Sealy brothers hear about this, they'll head right out. That's what I'm counting on. Now, I ain't going off. I mean, you will only get a pat, a hand like that. Get going, Chester. Chester. Yes, Miss. Go on. It's good of you to do the burying, Marshal Delmon. That's all right, ma'am. Well, I have to thank you for that. You could have waited in the house, Miss Hunter. It's my place to be here. But this is hard, don't it? Well, the prairie gets baked hard. Hard ground. Hard living. Hard dying. Yes, I know. Nine years. Nine years Will spent scraping the place out of this hard ground. Denying himself, me too. Now it hasn't been easy. Nine years of flying in the sun. Fighting to keep from being washed away when it's stormed. Being bone-tired. Not seeing folks. And me dying up alongside them. Miss Hunter. We got to get the place going, Harry. See? Now he's going all the way down. Isn't that funny, Marshal? You got the place started. And now it's finished. Well, sure, that's funny, Marshal. That's a real joke. Miss Hunter, why don't you go away for a while? Well, just where do you figure I'd go, Marshal? Well, maybe it just seems to me that you're good to leave. Marshal, I hate this place with a mortal hate. I ain't never done nothing else but hate it. But Will, Hunter's great did out for me. With his bare hands, it seemed like. And he lies here. I ain't never going to leave. I might be more shootin'. Oh, there'll always be more shootin'. No, I mean here, Miss Hunter. When the silly brothers come. I'll be proud to wait for that, Marshal. Aren't you afraid you could get hurt? There ain't nothing for me to be afraid of, Marshal. Not ever again. I hope I won't be making this right many more times. I should have known you never could do nothing right the first time. I'd done just like you told me, Mort. Come and I got him. And I rode out with him. And I left him in his debt. One thing you did not do. How's that? You didn't kill him. Now, Mort, I don't understand that. I just rightly don't. He ain't got no call to be livin', not after what I done. Well, I just want to tell you one thing, brother West. Don't you make no mistake this time. Tells you won't have no call to be livin' me. There won't be nothin' to it. Just see to it that there ain't. Mark, what about the woman? She's a witness, ain't she? Sure, but I... I don't want no witness livin'. I'm ready. I ain't afraid. I don't want them to make the first move. You understand that? I understand all about it. All right. I'm waitin' till they come up on the porch. You just stay quiet. I'm goin' back to the window. If we come in now, I'll beat on you some more. Ain't that right, West? No! You only got one witness to worry about now. Me. You stand steady while I bind up that arm. I want you in good shape to stand trial. Donald starts William Conrad as Matt Villan, U.S. Marshal. The story was specially written for Gunsmoke by Marion Clark with editorial supervision by John Messon. Featured in the cast were Jeanette Nolan, Lawrence Dobkins, Vic Perrin, and Frank Cady. Harley Bear is Chester, Howard McNeer is Doc, and Georgia Ellis is Kitty. This is George Walsh inviting you to join us again next week when CBS Radio presents another story on Gunsmoke. This is the CBS Radio Network.