 The choice is yours. Either try to outdraw me or turn around and ride out of here while you're still alive. Have gone. Will travel. Starring Mr. John Daner as Paladin. San Francisco. 1875. The Carlton Hotel. Headquarters of the man called Paladin. Good morning, Mr. Paladin. Hello, hey boy. I didn't expect you to be at the desk this morning. Oh, he saw a desk clerk asked me to stay here while he had breakfast. Why are you up so early? Oh, couldn't sleep. Thought I'd pick up the paper and have breakfast in the dining room. Telegram come for you a few minutes ago. No. Here. Thank you. I have newspapers all sorted. I get them. No, just one of the San Francisco papers for now, hey boy. Okay. Oh, here's the Altar California. Not much interesting news in paper today, Mr. Paladin. A telegram interesting? Oh, yes, very. Do you remember Lola Blackwood? Lola Blackwood? Yeah. Oh, he saw a very famous actress who stayed at Carlton when she comes to play at California Theater. That's right. Oh, very nice lady from Mr. Paladin. Hey boy, not see her for a long time. Is he coming back? No, she retired from the theater about a year ago. Oh, too bad. I don't know. A lovely lady as Miss Blackwood should always be seen by many people. Ah, why she sent telegram? So she needs help, wants me to come at once. You go? Yes. As soon as I pack. Oh, hey boy, send an answer to the telegram. No, just get me a seat on the next stage to Sacramento. Constipation is something people don't talk about much. But it can be a problem for anyone, even doctors. And when constipation occurs, it's interesting to see just what doctors consider important about a laxative they might use or recommend. Well, a majority of the doctors we heard from had this to say. A laxative should be effective, gentle, close to natural acting. A medicine that can be used with complete confidence. Now, X-Lax has been popular with many doctors and millions of people over the years, because pleasant tasting chocolate at X-Lax is effective. Overnight it helps you toward your normal regularity. X-Lax is so gentle, so close to natural acting, there's no upset. That's why many doctors and millions of people use X-Lax with complete confidence. X-Lax, the laxative that helps you toward your normal regularity, gently overnight. In Sacramento, I rented a horse and started on my journey to the town of Grass Valley. It had been over a year since I had last heard from Lola Blackwood. She had written a letter at that time telling me that she was tired of touring the country as an actress and had decided to buy a ranch and settle down in Grass Valley. My ride along the American River to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada was filled with the thoughts of the trail outside the Grass Valley Hotel. I noticed a carriage standing alongside the boardwalk, a few yards down the street and sitting in the carriage with a young girl with a lovely Lola Blackwood. Paladin! Lola! Paladin, how delighted to see you. Oh, this is wonderful. It's been such a long time. Well, it's been almost two years. You mean two centuries. I was in San Francisco and I was playing a few. Oh, I just can't believe it's really you. Oh, Lola. Oh, Paladin, I want you to meet Lori Gallagher. Hello, Lori. How do you do, Mr. Paladin? I'm sure Lori feels that she already knows you. Aunt Lola's told me many wonderful things about you. Oh, well, you're Aunt Lola. She's a very gracious lady, but I'm afraid she's forgotten to tell me that she had such a beautiful niece. Well, I'm not really her niece. Lori has been living with me for several months, Paladin, ever since her mother passed away. Oh. She and her mother traveled with our company. Before she died, they came to live with me. I promised her I'd take care of Lori. I see. And I suppose you're going to be an actress, too, Lori, huh? Oh, yes, sir. I'm working very hard. A natural-born actress. I'm very proud of her. She's almost 13 now. In another two years, you may have the good fortune to see a perfect Juliet to Joe California Theatre. Wonderful. She'll be just the right age for the party. Yes. Well, I just can't get over this delightful surprise. What brings you into Grass Valley? Your telegram. My what? Well, you sent me a wire asking me to come. Oh. Oh, there must be some mistake. I'm afraid I don't understand, Lola. Wait a minute. You're, uh... Here's the wire I received. Let me see that. Need your help desperately. Most urgent, you come to Grass Valley. Sign. Lola Blackwood. Why didn't send this? And who did? No idea. Well, there's one way to find out who sent it. How, Mr. Paladin? I go to the telegraph office and get a verification from their files. Aunt Lola, why don't you ask Mr. Paladin to stay with us while he's here? Now, Lori... Maybe Mr. Paladin would rather stay in town. I'm sure it would be much too dull for him at the ranch. Uh-oh, here comes Boone. Who is this man, Lola? Well, Boone, I... This is Mr. Paladin, an old friend of mine from San Francisco. Paladin, this is Boone Caldwell. How do you do? It's a long way from San Francisco. What brings you here? Business trip. Not much business in Grass Valley for a man who weighs his gun like you do. Hi, Boone. It's a peaceful town. And I'm a peaceful man. You ready to go back to the ranch, Lola? Yes, Boone. I'll ride out to see you tonight, Lola, after I check on this telegram. Well, maybe... What did you say, Mr.? I said I would be paying my respects to Miss Blackwood this evening. Well, you might as well know that Miss Blackwood and I are going to be married. Her old friends won't be welcome at the ranch anymore. But Mr. Paladin isn't just an old friend. He's someone very special to have over... Sit, youngster, and be quiet. Boone Caldwell. She makes me fidgety. Kids should be seen and not heard. What Laurie said was true. And Mr. Paladin will be welcomed at my ranch anytime he so desires. These are my decisions to make now, Lola. Not yours. Paladin, do you understand? I'm afraid I don't. Well, stay away from Lola. I can't make it any clearer than that. Yeah. Hello. Want to send a wire? You can write it out in one of those forms. No, thanks. I came in to ask you if you might remember who sent me this telegram. It came to me in San Francisco three days ago. It says right here. Lola Blackwood. Yeah, yeah. But did she come into this office to send it? She'd have to. The only telegraph office in town. Do you actually remember her coming in? Well, not you mention it. I don't think she did. It seems I recall that little girl that lives with Ms. Blackwood. What's this, her name? Laurie? Yeah, that's the one, Laurie. I remember now. She came in here with this message already printed on the piece of paper. She told me Ms. Blackwood to play the charges later on. No, don't bother Ms. Blackwood with the charges. But... Oh, yes, sir. It sure does. Hi, folks. This is Mitch Miller. I don't claim to be a traffic engineer, but then traffic engineers don't claim to be radio personalities and they don't usually have the highway accidents. Ordinary drivers like you and me have them. As one ordinary driver to more of the ordinary species, nowadays we're doing a lot of clamoring for more and better roads to take us more places faster. But you know what they say about charity beginning at home. Better roads begin behind the wheel. Subtract every hurry, hurry guy right now. Subtract every cut up and cut out. Subtract every guy who treats his car like a weapon and we'd have those better roads now. I'm sure some of you folks catch my Sunday night shows from CBS Radio in your cars. I know you can hear me from a hospital bed too, but what's the percentage in that? As a personal favor, try not to create or become a highway accident statistic. Take it from Mitch here. Dying on the highway. That's not living at all. At the Grass Valley Hotel I learned that Boone Caldwell was a professional gambler and controlled the gaming table at the Red Dog Saloon. I wanted to talk to Lola alone, so before I rode out to visitor I stopped by the saloon to see if Boone was there. He was busy at the tables. Twenty minutes later I pulled up at the ranch house. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Ha. Lori, go find Qinghao. He can help us take him in the house. Lori, please hurry! Paladin, can you hear me? Oh. Lola, somebody took a shot at me. Hmm. Well, it creased your forehead just above the eye. Yeah. Can you stand up? I think so. Let me help you. I'm all right. We'd better go in the house. Wait a minute. Listen. The man who shot me is probably on that horse. I'm going after him. Paladin, whoa! Paladin! I know who it is. Who? Come inside. We can talk there. Lola told me that a man named Judd had probably done the shooting. He had been hired by Boone and was working in town. Before I could learn more, we were interrupted by Lori and the Chinese cook, Qinghao. Lori was pleased to see that I no longer needed assistance and proceeded to apply a bandage to my foreign. Lola asked Qinghao to make some coffee and then she took Lori upstairs to get her ready for bed. A few minutes later, she returned, carrying a tray from the kitchen. Coffee's ready. Ooh, good. Is Lori asleep? How's your head feel? Much better. Thanks to her nursing care. Well, this coffee should help you too. You're both very considerate. Things were different. You could be much more hospitable. What's between you and Boone call, Lola? Are you really going to marry him? No. At one time I was, but not now. I didn't think so. He's a despicable man. He's a despicable man. A despicable man. I despise him. So strange. Strange? Yes. Boone came into town several months ago. I met him then. He was very attentive to Lori and me. We loved him at the beginning. I was having financial trouble at the time. What money I had left was dwindling away, so I decided to put the ranch up for sale. Nobody wanted to buy. Boone said that since we were going to be married anyway that he would make the mortgage payments and take over the bookkeeping. I was very thankful when he did. I never was very good at bookkeeping. Well, how did it work out under his management? Well, the ranch worked out fine. But Lori and I didn't do so well. I'm afraid he owns most of the ranch now. And this is what made you dislike him so much? Oh, it happened gradually. He changed. Started treating Lori like she didn't belong here. Wanted to send her away to a foundling home back east. I begged him out of that. Oh. It got so that he would tell me every move I should make. After a while I knew I could never be possessed by anyone like him. Well, then you should leave. Get away. You could always go back with the touring company. Lori would love that. I told Boone I was going to. But he threatened to kill me if I ever try it. We couldn't get ten miles out of this valley. Without him knowing about it. He's got his man Judd watching us whenever he can't be here. There's no use, Paladin. We're prisoners until Boone gets tired of us and leaves. That's my only hope. Wait a minute. There's someone riding up out front. There must be Judd and Boone. I could have guessed Judd would go tell him you were here. Well, I'll go outside and meet him. No, Paladin. He'll try to kill you. Leave peaceably. There's no use in you getting hurt because of my troubles. Oh. There are my troubles now, too, Lola. Have you forgotten the bandage on my forehead? Dave, about those trees you took down. I'd help cut them up for part of the woods. As soon as I feel better in. What's wrong? I had an egging back egg lately with sleepless nights. Feel tired out. Just the way I felt with back egg. Better try to get relief. Right. Dones pills are an analgesic and mild diuretic to the kidneys. Nagging back egg, also headache, dizziness, and muscular aches and pains, may come on with overexertion, emotional upsets, or everyday stress and strain. Dones pain relieving action is often the answer. And they also offer mild diuretic action through the kidneys. So if nagging back egg is making you feel worn out, tired, and miserable with restless sleepless nights, don't wait. Try Dones pills. Use successfully by millions for over 60 years. See if they don't bring you the same welcome relief. Get Dones pills today to save money by Dones big economy size. I told you this afternoon to stay away from Lola. I heard you say something like that before you rode away, but you didn't wait long enough for me to give you my answer. Get on your horse and clear out of here. I'm not going to waste any more words with you, Pelican. Your friend Judd doesn't like to waste words either. You ambush everybody who walks to this door after sundown, Judd. That one time to shoot you, Mr. Depp, was only to scare you off. You're just lucky you did hit me. Otherwise you wouldn't have lived long enough to ride in after Boone. Get off my ranch, Pelican. No Boone, I won't be leaving. You will. Get on your horses and move out both of you. Nobody talks to me like that. Shoot him, Judd. Don't try it, Judd. You killed Judd. Didn't even give him a chance to draw. He reached for his gun. You're a cold-blooded killer, Pelican. But I've taken care of men like you before. I believe you. Professional gamblers usually know how to take care of themselves. My gun is back in its holster if you want to try it. There's no other way, is there? Up to you. Make your choice. My advice is to turn around and ride out of here if one you're still alive. I don't need your advice. All right, Lola. Is he dead? Both of them. I'm so afraid for you. I'm sorry you had to get mixed up with my troubles. I wouldn't have come here if I hadn't wanted to. I'm grateful, Paladin. No. You can thank Lori. Lori? She sent the telegram. Forgotten about the telegram? How did poor Lori... Why do you say that? She must never know, Paladin. Boone was her father. Her father? Yes. Boone left her mother before Lori was born. Her mother gave me a picture of him before she died. Tell me to destroy her. Tell me to destroy it so that Lori would never see it. I kept the picture for a while. It wasn't until after I'd fallen in love with Boone that I remembered to get rid of it. I hardly recognized him from the photograph at first. The years had changed him so much. But I knew it was he. Did you ask him about it? Yes, but he denied everything. Said he was never married, never knew Lori's mother. After that, he started showing his hatred for the child. I realized then what kind of a man he really was. But it was too late to do anything about it. Aunt Lola? I'll be right there, Lori. I better go in and tell her what's happened. Don't let her know about Boone, Paladin. Oh, no. Don't worry, Lola. I won't. Good morning, Miss Wall. What night? The stage didn't get into almost midnight. Oh, you had a nice trip? Oh. Please excuse, Mr. Wong. I will be back to finish making up your bed in a few minutes. Where are you going? To get another girl to help, Miss Wong. When I bend over to make up bed, my head becomes very dizzy. Oh, something wrong. Don't you feel all right? Oh, I think so. But, Miss Wong's head all filled with champagne. Champagne? We have a big birthday party last night. Miss Wong drank too much champagne. Oh, that's bad. Oh, that's bad. Was Hey Boy at the party? And how does he feel this morning? I don't know. He's not come to work yet. He must have had a lot of champagne, too. He's much more as Miss Wong. Maybe he's dizzy this morning, too. More than likely. Knowing Hey Boy, I wouldn't expect him to come to work at all today. Oh, poor... 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Created by Herb Meadow and Sam Rolf is produced and directed in Hollywood by Frank Paris and stars John Daener as Paladin with Ben Wright as Hayboy and Virginia Gregg as Miss Wong. Tonight's story was specially written for HaveGun will travel by Mr. Paris. Featured in the cast for Ann Whitfield, Tim Graham, Lauren Stopkin and Jean Bates. This is Hugh Douglas inviting you to join us again next week when CBS Radio presents HaveGun will travel.